Shit that Pissed me off – 7/10
I was at CONvergence having a wonderful time last week so I apologize that I didn’t post my regular column. Today, I shall play catch up on a bunch of stupid shit stretching as far back as three weeks.
Football Fans Tell a Player He Shouldn’t Talk about Anything but Football
This happens a lot. People tell someone they aren’t allowed to have informed opinions about anything except that for which they are most well-known.
In this instance, a white fan from Lacey, Washington, complained that a black football player from Charleston, South Carolina should not have an opinion about racism in the south. I mean sure, that makes sense. A white guy in Washington knows a lot more about racism.
He only lives – like – ten states away from South Carolina! He obviously knows better!
He certainly shouldn’t be subjected the opinion of a black guy from the south. Unless it’s about football.
The football player in question, Byron Maxwell, was responding to the recent massacre in his home town. His home town!
How entitled do you have to be to look at comments like that and think “I don’t want to hear the opinions of that guy because I know what’s going on way better than he does?”
Shit that Pissed me off – 6/19
NRA Board Member Chooses the Occasion of a Tragic Shooting to Blame the Victims
I could mention a lot of things that piss me off about the latest mass shooting in Charleston.
I’m pissed that in spite of the fact the killer is a self admitted racist, there are lots of people who insist that this wasn’t about race.
I’m pissed because South Carolina still flies the Confederate flag at its state capitol and state leaders continually try to pretend there are no racist connotations that can be associated with that flag.
Flying these two flags together kind of misses the point.
And I’m pissed because every time there is a mass shooting, some pro-gun nuts find ways to blame it on the victims because they weren’t carrying a gun.
This dude blames one of the victims because he was a legislator who actively campaigned against allowing guns in churches. As if that is some sort of crazy far left-wing position that made him some sort of fringe politician.
What kind of whacked out liberal would oppose guns in churches?
The NRA solution to gun violence is always MOAR GUNZ! I guess I understand because that’s their solution to everything.
One wonders, though, if just once they could wait until the bodies are in the ground.
Shit that Pissed me off – 6/5
There’s a New Kids’ Book About Hell
If you believe in hell, you don’t want your kids to go there. I understand that on a basic level.
Yet, when someone makes a book that is meant to scare kids into believing in god, I feel as if they need to question their fundamental beliefs.
Actually, this kind of looks like something from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Maybe it’s cooler than I thought.
They make god out to be a weak and petty tyrant. A tyrant who will punish kids for all eternity because two people ate a fruit they weren’t supposed to eat. Maybe it was an apple. Maybe it was a pomegranate. Maybe it was a tomato. Because tomatoes are a fruit.
Hell is a horror story. Most kids don’t respond well to horror stories. This book is intended to create faith through fear. I guess I feel god shouldn’t need to scare kids into believing.
Shit that Pissed me Off – 5/22
Jeb Bush Criticizes Intellectual Arrogance in Climate Change Debate
Bush is looking to raise money so he can be the third member of his family to be President. To do so, he has to pander to the extreme right wing of his own party and that means his personal opinion on global Climate Change is irrelevant.
The evidence shows that our climate is changing so the right is now simply suggesting that it may or may not be caused by human beings. Who knows? Aside from almost all of the scientists studying the phenomena. Most of them seem pretty certain.
I’m going to be working in hostile environments and paying off student loans until I’m 50 just so people can call me “intellectually arrogant.”
Anyway, Bush goes so far as to say believing the scientific community amounts to intellectual arrogance.
It’s all so cynical because Bush is saying these things to raise money. Solving a potential global crisis doesn’t matter to him or the people giving him money. They genuinely don’t give a fuck if climate change is caused by humans or not.
Because no matter what is causing it, they don’t want to do anything about it.
The Bull in our Stars
Constellations are weird.
I can understand people looking in the sky and seeing pictures. I see pictures in the clouds all the time.
From our perspective, stars are just dots in the sky. It makes a lot of sense that people would just play connect the dots. Especially given our pre-disposition to finding patterns in everything.
What has always seemed strange to me, though, is the pictures that human beings have found in the stars. Not all of them. The big dipper makes sense.
I see a handle. I see a cup. It looks like a dipper. It also looks a little bit like the Tin Man’s oil can but I’m willing to call it a dipper.
It is also part of Ursa Major. Which is supposed to look like a bear.
Ignore the picture of the bear juxtaposed over that group of stars and ask yourself: if you looked at that particular grouping of stars, would you immediately come to the conclusion it is a bear?
The Myth of Equal Sides
The vaccine “debate” has been heating up lately due, I think, to the outbreak of Measles at Disneyland. As many people have pointed out the fallacious reasoning that makes up the anti-vaxx position, others have righteously defended their right to make health decisions for their own children. Even when those health decisions fly in the face of scientific evidence.
I’ve seen far too many friends getting upset over the debate and trying to play the peacemaker middle sibling. Can’t we respect “both sides” of the argument they ask? Can we all play nice?
The problem with this position is the simple fact that the sides are not equal. Just as the vast majority of scientists agree on global climate change and evolution, the vast majority of medical professionals and scientists agree on vaccines.
Shit That Pissed Me Off – 11/14
I didn’t know who this guy was until I clicked the wrong link. Now I know all about him.
I would hope you don’t need to be a feminist to think he’s a complete sleaze bag who deserves to be maced on a regular basis. He makes money holding seminars telling guys how to be awful to their partners. He doesn’t respect women and he also doesn’t respect men because he thinks guys are supposed to treat women like shit because they are women.
Just look at her sitting there being a woman! How dare she?
Thing is, he may not even be the asshole he pretends to be. He just says this stuff to get lonely suckers to come to his seminars.
Then you have the guys who pay money because they want to be like the person he pretends to be. You have to be a pretty awful human being for this kind of thing to be worth your time.
Holy shit guys, it isn’t that hard. You want women to like you? Be fucking nice to them. And don’t get angry if they don’t want to have sex with you because that isn’t what they are there for.
Shit That Pissed Me Off – 10/31
Rich Woman is Upset that Poor Children Might Be Trick-or-Treating in her Neighborhood
This letter to Dear Prudence has to be a joke, right? I mean there probably are people who are this awful but most of them wouldn’t say it out loud, right?
Sadly, I expect this lady is real and she resents “poor” people coming to her house for the good candy. And by “poor,” I expect she means middle class suburban folks and not a bunch of unwashed inner city kids who aren’t worthy to sell her kids a hamburger at McDonald’s.
Her good candy is for the rich little boys and girls! Why is that so hard for the other 99% to understand? If they get full-sized Kit-Kat bars on Halloween instead of the fun size that they deserve, they will start expecting rich people to provide them everything! Isn’t it enough that they are job providers?
Get the fun sized candy bars, Howard! The poor kids are coming!
Holy shit, lady. If you have to hand out an extra hundred candy bars, are you suddenly going to miss a Porsche payment? Will your underprivileged children be unable to join you in Rome for Christmas? If you have such a problem giving to people who make less than you, just turn off your light so the kids from the rich families that aren’t as rich as yours don’t come to your house either.
I wish this lady had included her home address so everyone could go to her house this Halloween. We should all give her a fucking candy bar. Only the fun size though. We can’t afford the good stuff.
Shit That Pissed Me Off – 10/24
Felicia Day Speaks Up About GamerGate and is Almost Immediately Doxxed
For those unfamiliar with the term, doxxing is when people take personal information (like home address and private e-mail accounts) and share them with everyone on the internet. The intent is to encourage others to harass the individual in question either online or in person.
Because people are assholes.
Chris Kluwe wrote a profanity ridden rant against GamerGaters earlier in the week. Was his contact information splashed all over the internet? Of course not.
What is interesting about the Gamergate phenomenon is that they claim this issue is not about women in gaming and yet when women speak up, they suffer harassment almost immediately. I’m not saying Kluwe didn’t get called names. He probably did.
The difference, though, is Kluwe (and Wil Wheton) were called names. Day had her personal information tweeted out within an hour.
This is not Felicia Day’s house. Or Chris Kluwe’s. Because where they live is none of your damn business.
Now I’m fairly certain a brief internet search could have yielded her home address. That information may be private but it is hard to protect. Her personal e-mail would take a little more digging but probably isn’t too hard to get. Privacy is an illusion the internet is rapidly dispelling.
None of that changes the fact doxxing is an asshole move. The only purpose is to harass the victim rather than engage in civil discourse.
GamerGate is not about ethics. It is about being pissy because female gamers (and their allies) would like a few games for themselves. It also has an unoriginal and stupid name.
Shit That Pissed Me Off – 10/17
Feminist Speaker Forced To Cancel Her Talk After She was Threatened
She didn’t cancel the talk because she was threatened, you understand. She was still going to speak.
But she asked for protection against someone who claimed he was going to open fire on her and Utah law prevented police from patting down attendees at the event.
So a guy (I’m assuming it was a guy) threatens to shoot her and the police can’t even stop anyone from carrying a gun to her talk. Because the right to carry a firearm wherever the fuck you want is more important than the right to keep people with firearms out of a place where someone has threatened to kill people with a firearm.
And spare me the good guy with the gun/bad guy with a gun thing. If the bad guy with a gun gets into the event, he (again I’m assuming it is a guy) will be able to kill his target before anyone kills him. And that’s all he cares about.
So best case scenario is this asshole (who was probably making empty threats but they still worked) would have died after accomplishing his stated goal. Which is what he expected would happen anyway. Great solution, Utah!
Utah! Where you can’t stop homosexuals from getting married and you also can’t stop people from bringing their guns to the wedding!
Please note that I’m not talking about Gamergate for a few reasons. First, it has been talked to death and the people doing most of the talking are assholes who don’t deserve my time.
And second, we need to stop naming every scandal after Watergate. It is just so completely unoriginal. Have you guys heard of the Teapot Dome Scandal? That’s a great name for a scandal! Now everything is NounGate.
Nixon is dead, folks. We need to move on.
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