A Truly Poor Showing...

For myself this week. Really awful. I managed TWO whole blog entries this week.

Normally this blog is enjoyable to write, and I have a good time with it. Sometimes, however, the pressure to actually produce something starts to get to me. I've also, by trying to keep up a five days a week schedule, put myself in a position where I have to generate a lot of material. I make no bones about the fact that a lot of what I put up here is just random crap that falls out of my head. Sometimes it coalesces into an actual point, and sometimes it doesn't.

But that's what a blog is for, isn't it? A public diary for folks who are just egotistical enough to believe that things they find interesting, other people will find interesting. There was a quote from Eddie Van Halen, years ago (probably around 1997 when the last full Van Halen album came out - before the turn to full-on loony-bird status), where he said, essentially, that. It always struck me that statement encompassed pretty much everything "art" is about.

Anyway....

Sitting here looking at my Facebook account, and I'm struck by all the political posts. I strive, in most cases, to be a pretty apolitical person. I just don't care to get so angry about things. I tend to the left, but at the same time, I can see the logic of some conservative viewpoints. I say this only to position myself in you, my reader's eyes.

What the hell is the point of political posts on Facebook? I mean, generally speaking, I see the same links and blogs re-posted ad nauseum. Most of my Facebook friends are friends with each other, the circle is not that big. So, basically you're just re-posting the same point over and over and over again. I was asked to write my congressmen about funding for public broadcasting (link to the exact same page, with the exact same phrasing) no less than, and yes, I kept track, 46 times.

I sent the e-mail after the 2nd.

I also LOVE the "if you don't agree with this, you can just unfriend me" line.

I mean, really?

I have conservative friends on Facebook, but I'm near-completely certain that they're not violent homophobes or out-and-out fascists. If you are so invested in this blog/video/article/youtube clip (whatever it might be) that you are instructing your assembled friends that, unless they agree with you, they need not be your friends, WHY THE HELL ARE YOU FRIENDS WITH THEM IN THE FIRST PLACE?!?!?

Are you just accepting every, single friend request you get?

...Because, folks, that's dangerous.

I also love the "shotgun blast" advocacy. I have a friend, and I do consider him a friend, who will start posting links to various blogs, and just not stop. It just turns into link, after link, after link. I'm talking about 10 blogs linked in 15 minutes.

Do you have ANY IDEA how annoying that is? Do you realize that, no matter if the blog sounds interesting, I'm just blocking it out now? I mean, did you confirm, or even read, all this shit?

Magic 8-Ball says....Response Hazy, Try Again Later.

Then the Magic 8-Ball exploded.

You killed Magic 8-Ball, you BASTARD!!

The point of all this, because I guess I should get to it, is that too many of you fine folks out there have boiled being "involved" and "socially active" down to sitting on your ass in front of a computer and regurgitating the crap you've read somebody else say on the internet.

Y'know the garbage about Obama not being born in the US? That started just like this.

When I found that picture above, I just jumped at it. It's the perfect metaphor for what the internet, and our human society has become. A little tube you crawl into that reflects and reinforces your own views as you ride through it. We're not learning anything on the internet, we're just finding fuel for what we already believe.

Then we turn around and spew it out as "evidence" and feel good about the "good" we've done. Being a socially conscious advocate for change is so easy when all we have to do is click a link, isn't it?