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2 general and 4 political Internet peeves
Sep. 25th, 2007 08:22 amHmmm, I guess it should make me happy that it's taken me this long to get to the point where I need to make an internet peeves post. I don't usually vent here, even if that's its primary use for many. Still. a little negativity always helps liven up a journal. If you think these are about you in particular, they're not. Or more accurately, they may be about you a little, but if it was just you I'd find it an adorable quirk and be amused by it.
Here goes:
1. Blogs without rss feeds. I haven't seen a layout yet that was so nice I didn't prefer to read on my friendslist or aggregate page.
2. Whining about LJ cuts. I cut pictures if I want to make them big, and linked articles. I would cut spoilers if I wrote about spoilery topics. Ditto with NSFW images and text. But for anything else I don't understand it. I'm on your FL because I wanna read you. If you think my posts are too long, unfriend me or put me on a long-winded filter.
Not cutting something that screws up my friendspage formatting is inexcusable though.
3. Equating air travel restrictions as a harbinger of the coming fascist state. I'm not talking no-fly lists, racial profiling, or specific Patriot act travesties which do merit that discussion. I mean like all the hoo-haw about the cops pulling their guns on that girl they thought was carrying a bomb. Some on the internet seem to think that since she was an MIT student (and MIT students "don't do mornings" well)* that this just shows how bad things have gotten
Whatever. I think the attention that long security lines and new restrictions get just shows the class nature of air travel (and the internet). Most of these people don't comment or post on their LJs when the cops pull guns on or kill inner city kids. In fact, pulling guns on urban youth just isn't news. But man, a kid going to one of the US's most elite schools bringing something that could certainly, at a fast glance, look like some kind of bomb. How dare they question her?
(Anyone who also writes about the post-Columbine loss of "free speech" in the schools or other issues mentioned above is exempt from this peeve.)
4. Speaking of free speech, anyone who reaffirms another persons "right to say what they want" during an internet argument. Next time I'm gonna say, "Thank you. An you have a right to bear arms in a well-regulated militia."
5. Using the never-actually-said-or-written Emma Goldman "quote", "If I can't dance, it's not my revolution" for justification of one's own political inaction. Since there's no real quote, there's only context. That context is of an theorist, lecturer, and anarchist who sacrificed most things in her life to build a revolution that never happened, finally dying in exile. The quote is about the need to enjoy oneself in the small percentage of her life when she wasn't actively involved in The Struggle. Not about, "If it's not fun, I won't do it."
6.Lack of attention to labor issues amongst people who blog about other political issues. On my FL only one person mentioned the UAW strike today. I don't think anyone mentioned the local garbage lockout even though it went on for a couple of weeks and impacted large parts of Oakland. And hey, the SEIU security guards in San Francisco just went out too. Yet, personality-driven "political" arguments affecting very few people will travel from journal to journal and be discussed for days. Well, those are more fun, it's true.
I'm sure there are more, but I've run out of steam. I'm sure you have your own. Geez, I didn't even mention Randists engaging in discussions as if that was a valid philosophy. I think that's a good sign.
Oh wait, I know how to end this
[Poll #1060960]
*It's "think pieces" like this that made Chumbawamba write the song "Ulrike" (Holy crap! I didn't realize that Shhh! And Slap are out on one CD called "Shhhlap!". I just bought it. Two of the '90s best records available again!)
Here goes:
1. Blogs without rss feeds. I haven't seen a layout yet that was so nice I didn't prefer to read on my friendslist or aggregate page.
2. Whining about LJ cuts. I cut pictures if I want to make them big, and linked articles. I would cut spoilers if I wrote about spoilery topics. Ditto with NSFW images and text. But for anything else I don't understand it. I'm on your FL because I wanna read you. If you think my posts are too long, unfriend me or put me on a long-winded filter.
Not cutting something that screws up my friendspage formatting is inexcusable though.
3. Equating air travel restrictions as a harbinger of the coming fascist state. I'm not talking no-fly lists, racial profiling, or specific Patriot act travesties which do merit that discussion. I mean like all the hoo-haw about the cops pulling their guns on that girl they thought was carrying a bomb. Some on the internet seem to think that since she was an MIT student (and MIT students "don't do mornings" well)* that this just shows how bad things have gotten
Whatever. I think the attention that long security lines and new restrictions get just shows the class nature of air travel (and the internet). Most of these people don't comment or post on their LJs when the cops pull guns on or kill inner city kids. In fact, pulling guns on urban youth just isn't news. But man, a kid going to one of the US's most elite schools bringing something that could certainly, at a fast glance, look like some kind of bomb. How dare they question her?
(Anyone who also writes about the post-Columbine loss of "free speech" in the schools or other issues mentioned above is exempt from this peeve.)
4. Speaking of free speech, anyone who reaffirms another persons "right to say what they want" during an internet argument. Next time I'm gonna say, "Thank you. An you have a right to bear arms in a well-regulated militia."
5. Using the never-actually-said-or-written Emma Goldman "quote", "If I can't dance, it's not my revolution" for justification of one's own political inaction. Since there's no real quote, there's only context. That context is of an theorist, lecturer, and anarchist who sacrificed most things in her life to build a revolution that never happened, finally dying in exile. The quote is about the need to enjoy oneself in the small percentage of her life when she wasn't actively involved in The Struggle. Not about, "If it's not fun, I won't do it."
6.Lack of attention to labor issues amongst people who blog about other political issues. On my FL only one person mentioned the UAW strike today. I don't think anyone mentioned the local garbage lockout even though it went on for a couple of weeks and impacted large parts of Oakland. And hey, the SEIU security guards in San Francisco just went out too. Yet, personality-driven "political" arguments affecting very few people will travel from journal to journal and be discussed for days. Well, those are more fun, it's true.
I'm sure there are more, but I've run out of steam. I'm sure you have your own. Geez, I didn't even mention Randists engaging in discussions as if that was a valid philosophy. I think that's a good sign.
Oh wait, I know how to end this
[Poll #1060960]
*It's "think pieces" like this that made Chumbawamba write the song "Ulrike" (Holy crap! I didn't realize that Shhh! And Slap are out on one CD called "Shhhlap!". I just bought it. Two of the '90s best records available again!)
