Here's the problem. Every so often, things that happen here on Earth really piss me off. I then do what most folks do, which is go on to Facebook and vent, mildly.
Which then results in incredible quantities of blowback, and reminds me of Hartman's Fourth Law:
Everybody is a moron about something.
It really can't be helped. Everybody has a blind spot about some position or belief that they hold, and, because of their location inside their own head, they can't spot the logical fallacy inherent in their position. However, because this takes too long to articulate properly, we fall back on the convenient shorthand of language and just say, "Huh. Moron," and get on with our lives.
Do I have one of these? I'm sure that I do. In fact, I can guarantee that I have at least one if not several areas of moronism moronitude morononononon that thing I said. But remember, because I'm me, I can't see it.
(Oh, very well: I suspect that one of them is my belief in God. All of the cool kids are atheists, or, at best agnostics. I accept that there is no scientific evidence to support the existence of God, and that the history of Christianity is rife with stolen pagan holidays and horrible atrocities committed by men in God's name, and that the word "Christian" has such a bad rap these days that anyone who claims to be one gets ten percent lopped off the top of their IQ automatically. Yet, here I stand.)
I've had some major moron moments recently, with my Facebook audience.
The first was when I made a comment supporting the position of raising the minimum wage to something livable. You know, what the minimum wage was legislated into existence for, originally. I received so much flak on that from people who legitimately thought they understood the issue, who were ultimately unable to express a cogent argument contra raising the minimum wage, apart from:
A. If they want a better wage, they should go to school and get an education and get a better job. (This ignores the point that one must actually remain alive through one's education; dying halfway through the process is only optimal in that it upsets the student loan people.)
B. Flipping burgers isn't worth fifteen dollars per hour. (Very few people who say this have ever tried to survive on a fast-food wage or worked in a fast-food restaurant.)
C. Why should they make fifteen dollars per hour when I only make twelve? (Well, you probably should make more money. After the minimum wage goes up, if you don't get a raise in pay, you can threaten to go and work at Wendy's.)
D. A minimum wage increase will make all the prices go up. (Please go and take an economics course. Take several. It's provable that it doesn't. Honestly.)
I finally had to shut down that thread on FB; people just got either too stupid, or too angry, or too loud, and it was making me all three.
The other one was during Ferguson. Here's what I said, as best as I can remember.
"I think we should try not killing black people for a while. Just for a few days. Let's see how that works out."
Now, I defy anyone to find a flaw in that statement. (Anyone sane, that is.) How hard is it to read that sentence and not agree with every single point made in it? Especially as there's just one: NO KILL THE BLACK PERSON. Seriously? I'm getting pushback on this?
I sure did:
"What about black on black violence?" (I didn't specify which race should stop killing black people.)
"But he stole that box of cigars." (I was unaware this carried the death penalty in Missouri, or that local law enforcement were authorized to enforce it on-site.)
"He had marijuana in his system." (Again, against the law in that state, but probably doesn't merit being shot six times.)
Again, I nuked the thread. Ridiculous.
Sigh. I don't mean to be a jerk, honestly I don't. It does just so happen that I'm kind of good at it. But, by the same token, I know every single one of my 483 Facebook friends personally, and they are my friends because I genuinely like something about them. It just so happens that people are, well, people, and aren't all of a piece. The guy who only refers to the President as "Hussein Obama?" That guy was there for me when I went through a fairly bad personal crisis, and I was there for him when he went through one of the most horrifying things that could happen to a person. That old guy who posts up all the pro-veteran stuff to the point that you kind of wish he'd shut up about it and move on? Family, and good family, at that. The dingus who makes vaguely racist and sexist assertions, the guy who uses wildly inappropriate language on other people's FB pages, the woman who is constantly negative to the point where you start to worry a little bit...
...These are people.
They are human beings, and I know them, and there is something to love about each one of them, just as there is something to dislike.
It can't be helped. There's even a condition named after it.
No, not "The Moron Condition." Try again.
I've had some major moron moments recently, with my Facebook audience.
The first was when I made a comment supporting the position of raising the minimum wage to something livable. You know, what the minimum wage was legislated into existence for, originally. I received so much flak on that from people who legitimately thought they understood the issue, who were ultimately unable to express a cogent argument contra raising the minimum wage, apart from:
A. If they want a better wage, they should go to school and get an education and get a better job. (This ignores the point that one must actually remain alive through one's education; dying halfway through the process is only optimal in that it upsets the student loan people.)
B. Flipping burgers isn't worth fifteen dollars per hour. (Very few people who say this have ever tried to survive on a fast-food wage or worked in a fast-food restaurant.)
C. Why should they make fifteen dollars per hour when I only make twelve? (Well, you probably should make more money. After the minimum wage goes up, if you don't get a raise in pay, you can threaten to go and work at Wendy's.)
D. A minimum wage increase will make all the prices go up. (Please go and take an economics course. Take several. It's provable that it doesn't. Honestly.)
I finally had to shut down that thread on FB; people just got either too stupid, or too angry, or too loud, and it was making me all three.
The other one was during Ferguson. Here's what I said, as best as I can remember.
"I think we should try not killing black people for a while. Just for a few days. Let's see how that works out."
Now, I defy anyone to find a flaw in that statement. (Anyone sane, that is.) How hard is it to read that sentence and not agree with every single point made in it? Especially as there's just one: NO KILL THE BLACK PERSON. Seriously? I'm getting pushback on this?
I sure did:
"What about black on black violence?" (I didn't specify which race should stop killing black people.)
"But he stole that box of cigars." (I was unaware this carried the death penalty in Missouri, or that local law enforcement were authorized to enforce it on-site.)
"He had marijuana in his system." (Again, against the law in that state, but probably doesn't merit being shot six times.)
Again, I nuked the thread. Ridiculous.
Sigh. I don't mean to be a jerk, honestly I don't. It does just so happen that I'm kind of good at it. But, by the same token, I know every single one of my 483 Facebook friends personally, and they are my friends because I genuinely like something about them. It just so happens that people are, well, people, and aren't all of a piece. The guy who only refers to the President as "Hussein Obama?" That guy was there for me when I went through a fairly bad personal crisis, and I was there for him when he went through one of the most horrifying things that could happen to a person. That old guy who posts up all the pro-veteran stuff to the point that you kind of wish he'd shut up about it and move on? Family, and good family, at that. The dingus who makes vaguely racist and sexist assertions, the guy who uses wildly inappropriate language on other people's FB pages, the woman who is constantly negative to the point where you start to worry a little bit...
...These are people.
They are human beings, and I know them, and there is something to love about each one of them, just as there is something to dislike.
It can't be helped. There's even a condition named after it.
No, not "The Moron Condition." Try again.
