Brain drippings
Okay, I need someone somewhere to explain the whole on-line survey thingy. If it's about entertaining your friends, cool, I get that. I have some really witty funny friends and when they answer these surveys, it cracks my shit up. Do I learn anything about my friends who answer these surveys? - Aiiight, so, maybe the first time I read these surveys, like six years ago, I might have learned some shit I didn't know before - but it's not like it's shit I actually give a crap about, "Coke or Pepsi?" "You know what? They'll probably both rot your teeth with equal speed and efficiency, so you should be drinking water, but wait just one sec - I don't care if my friends like coke or Pepsi - or vanilla or chocolate."
Like the world didn't already have enough ways to waste a huge frikkin' amount of time! So, what do most people spend, like 10 minutes doing these? Then I spend like 10 minutes reading them? Then I'm like, "Why did I read that?" And no, I typically don't actually learn anything new, or anything about which I gave a crap, about my friend.
Covering old terrain. Sorry.
I want an online survey that deals with actual stuff that people should give a crap about. A survey that asks questions like:
1) Of course all politicians are liars and there is no real difference between the Democrats and the Republicans - but how do you choose? Do you vote for Barak "just" because he's black? Do you vote for Hillary "just" because she's a woman? What is the difference between their political ideologies? Do you know? Do you care? Do you think voting makes a difference?
2) What are your feelings about the (and I am generalizing) the typical media "shuck and jive" that makes Paris Hilton's and LiLo's life even remotely important when we have a war going on? Does it sicken you that our news agencies spend more covering rich drug addict alcoholics than they do reporting on the atrocities against humanity that are perpetrated daily by our government and others.
3) Of course Michael Vick got indicted for his alleged participation in an illegal dogfighting ring. Then he claimed that the proceedings against him were racist (which they weren't) and that he was being discriminated against (which he wasn't), by simply by being arrested. It wasn't racist because dogfighting is illegal - and a crime for which it is possible that someone would be arrested. What has garnered distinctly racist overtones is the media coverage and the various public responses to Vick's indictment. What does it mean when all of the demonstrators who screamed for "due process" were African-American and an overwhelming majority of those screaming for Vick to be "lynched" were white? Does anyone see an American pattern of stratification between black and white - or of white crowds screaming for the lynching of black men? How do we, as a country, stop this? Does anyone else even give a crap that what I am suggesting might actually be happening?
4) How does the acquittal of the police officers who beat a 66 year old black man in the streets of New Orleans, post Katrina, reconcile itself to you? He was charged with a crime (subsequently those charges were dropped), drunk and disorderly - but he was an ex-alcoholic who hadn't had a drink in more than 20 years - and he was beaten brutally by officers with night sticks. And the judge, who acquitted the cops) said that the beating was "his fault" because he didn't put his hands behind his back. I am not going so far as to say that any person has the right to strike the police in self defense, but essentially this judge has just said that if a cop is swinging a nightstick at your head you don't have the right to put your hand/arm/whatever between your head and the nightstick. If you try to protect your head, by shielding your head from the blow, then all subsequent blows that you receive - are your fault. This logic scares the crap out of me. Does this logic scare you? Are you even aware that these events have happened?
5) Why do you think so many Americans (more with the generalizing) are completely ignorant about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict?
6) Did our president really tell congress that he has the power to simply stop a congressional subpoena? Does he? What the fuck happened to our system of checks and balances?
7) So, do we, as a country, give up?
8) How are we expected to reconcile within ourselves and our society, the unilateral poning we are currently receiving by the current administration?
And, weirdly, I am not all that political. I guess where this comes from is, if I am going to take the time to think and give real answers to an online surveys then (first) I would like then to matter - to either myself or the person who sent it to me, (second) we - generally speaking - waste enough time in any typical work day -that if I am going to waste MORE time then I would like to waste it doing something THAT that engages my brain.
And finally, I am not at all taking issue with any of my friends who fill out these online surveys - sometimes they are funny as shit, most of the time, they're not - they are just time fillers. I guess it's like a good book - if I am going to take the time out of my life to spend hours reading - I get really really pissy if the book sucks. I love reading Michael Chabon, but there are other authors, who...are Coke or Pepsi - not terribly nutritional and maybe even a little bad for you...Give me something with substance.
Holy crap! I wrote myself into the same argument I make about relationships.
Like the world didn't already have enough ways to waste a huge frikkin' amount of time! So, what do most people spend, like 10 minutes doing these? Then I spend like 10 minutes reading them? Then I'm like, "Why did I read that?" And no, I typically don't actually learn anything new, or anything about which I gave a crap, about my friend.
Covering old terrain. Sorry.
I want an online survey that deals with actual stuff that people should give a crap about. A survey that asks questions like:
1) Of course all politicians are liars and there is no real difference between the Democrats and the Republicans - but how do you choose? Do you vote for Barak "just" because he's black? Do you vote for Hillary "just" because she's a woman? What is the difference between their political ideologies? Do you know? Do you care? Do you think voting makes a difference?
2) What are your feelings about the (and I am generalizing) the typical media "shuck and jive" that makes Paris Hilton's and LiLo's life even remotely important when we have a war going on? Does it sicken you that our news agencies spend more covering rich drug addict alcoholics than they do reporting on the atrocities against humanity that are perpetrated daily by our government and others.
3) Of course Michael Vick got indicted for his alleged participation in an illegal dogfighting ring. Then he claimed that the proceedings against him were racist (which they weren't) and that he was being discriminated against (which he wasn't), by simply by being arrested. It wasn't racist because dogfighting is illegal - and a crime for which it is possible that someone would be arrested. What has garnered distinctly racist overtones is the media coverage and the various public responses to Vick's indictment. What does it mean when all of the demonstrators who screamed for "due process" were African-American and an overwhelming majority of those screaming for Vick to be "lynched" were white? Does anyone see an American pattern of stratification between black and white - or of white crowds screaming for the lynching of black men? How do we, as a country, stop this? Does anyone else even give a crap that what I am suggesting might actually be happening?
4) How does the acquittal of the police officers who beat a 66 year old black man in the streets of New Orleans, post Katrina, reconcile itself to you? He was charged with a crime (subsequently those charges were dropped), drunk and disorderly - but he was an ex-alcoholic who hadn't had a drink in more than 20 years - and he was beaten brutally by officers with night sticks. And the judge, who acquitted the cops) said that the beating was "his fault" because he didn't put his hands behind his back. I am not going so far as to say that any person has the right to strike the police in self defense, but essentially this judge has just said that if a cop is swinging a nightstick at your head you don't have the right to put your hand/arm/whatever between your head and the nightstick. If you try to protect your head, by shielding your head from the blow, then all subsequent blows that you receive - are your fault. This logic scares the crap out of me. Does this logic scare you? Are you even aware that these events have happened?
5) Why do you think so many Americans (more with the generalizing) are completely ignorant about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict?
6) Did our president really tell congress that he has the power to simply stop a congressional subpoena? Does he? What the fuck happened to our system of checks and balances?
7) So, do we, as a country, give up?
8) How are we expected to reconcile within ourselves and our society, the unilateral poning we are currently receiving by the current administration?
And, weirdly, I am not all that political. I guess where this comes from is, if I am going to take the time to think and give real answers to an online surveys then (first) I would like then to matter - to either myself or the person who sent it to me, (second) we - generally speaking - waste enough time in any typical work day -that if I am going to waste MORE time then I would like to waste it doing something THAT that engages my brain.
And finally, I am not at all taking issue with any of my friends who fill out these online surveys - sometimes they are funny as shit, most of the time, they're not - they are just time fillers. I guess it's like a good book - if I am going to take the time out of my life to spend hours reading - I get really really pissy if the book sucks. I love reading Michael Chabon, but there are other authors, who...are Coke or Pepsi - not terribly nutritional and maybe even a little bad for you...Give me something with substance.
Holy crap! I wrote myself into the same argument I make about relationships.