A little something to set the tone
I've always said that this website is my baby and that I'd never allow it to become something akin to an overweight neck beard's crusty, cum-stained bedside tissue box. ThatMakesItNotInsane isn't about politics or current events, there's no message, there are no ulterior motives. Whatever political leanings I have and whatever opinions I have are my own and I don't use the Internet as a toilet cubicle with which I can scribble my precious little thoughts for an audience of people who are just looking to have a shit in peace. Though I write, I do so only for the sake of writing, learning, becoming better and often times just taking the piss. TMINI is, as my friend Nora put it perfectly; my "little strip of the Internet". I write about the things that make me happy; the weird, the wonderful, the vulgar, the disturbing, all those fascinations I developed as a schoolboy and never quite grew out of. This is my scrapbook and I fucking love every moment I put into it, whether anyone else cares or not.
That being said, it has been a very long time since I've posted here and for the past few months I've been engaged in this inner dialogue that is starting to turn me into something I don't like, and this is the reason I'm writing this post. We'll return to our regularly scheduled programming as soon as possible, but for now I've got some bleach to vomit up and I'm having a hard time thinking of where to start. I suppose I'll try to summarize with a series of whens and whys.
Why are so many people picking sides and why are those same people digging shivs into each other to gain the higher ground? Why does everything have to be 'offensive' and 'harmful'? When did liberalism become a radical's playground (I may have only started noticing this since moving to Maynooth, I was quite innocent before that)? Why are radical feminists and conservative pricks alike all trying to bully women at the same time? Why was Robin Thicke's music video the catalyst for serious feminist discourse? Why are we referring to each other by sexual orientation/sexual identity/class/gender/race as if they're supposed to be tattooed to our wrists? What's wrong with sexual imagery? What's wrong with violent imagery? Why is everyone so easily set off? Why are people so fucking afraid of the possibility that maybe they're wrong and that the human condition can override any political system they have put their faith in? Why are people investing so much of their egos into their ideas? Why are people arguing with each other if the endgame isn't to change someone's mind, but rather to humiliate them and 'win' in front of an Internet forum audience.
I don't know who I can't stand more. At least hardcore conservatives carry themselves like pro-wrestling bad guys, they're obviously the unpopular crowd that we're all supposed to heckle, but hardcore (or 'radical') liberals are just as, if not more, infuriating than any one of them. It's as if they have the right idea, their hearts are in the right place (unless of course it's a moral high ground thing), but they express themselves in the exact same way a brainwashed Westboro Baptist Church acolyte might; loud, ignorant and attention-seeking.
In studying sociology quite closely this year, all of these issues have been on my mind and I haven't been able to escape them. This year alone I've seen once perfectly rational and level-headed people transform into 'social justice' Nazis. I've been called out for being a cishet (cisgendered heterosexual) and had it used against me as though it renders my argument invalid. I've even come under fire for holding classic liberal values, but not being 'extreme' enough. I'm no spring chicken, I know that there's no point in trying to explain your ideas to anyone on the Internet and that a good 90% of human beings are 100% fucking brain dead, but it seems as though this is the first year I've ever experienced it first hand. I've seen people rot, figuratively. Going from rational thinkers to radical thinkers ('Radical thinker' is an oxymoron) and detaching themselves from anyone who doesn't fit into their sphere.
This has all been nothing more than a spontaneous rant and nothing to be taken too seriously. I wasn't even going to finish it, I just felt like starting something, but here we are near the end. I guess that's my whole point, people take things too seriously today, and it's hurting everyone. Maybe it's always been like this and I'm really only noticing it now. I just don't see what's so wrong with being a middle-of-the-ground kind of person. I don't listen to black metal to support the underground Nazi skinhead scene, I don't eat hamburgers because I hate animals, I'm not calculated in any way, shape or form. I'm not even sure if I'm sitting on the fence, as I said before; I have my beliefs, which are largely based on individual freedom, liberty and democracy, I just don't scream and piss myself in public whenever asked about them. Maybe I am a fence-sitter, in that case, there's probably not enough room for everyone anyway.
Maybe I just need a long holiday away from people, but my chill has most definitely been harshed. Rant over.
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