I trawled facebook just to keep me quietly occupied, as everyone is asleep. The more I looked the more I had to resist the urge to jump down some poor thread's throat and tear it a new arsehole.
Thread after thread of complete drivel. Its like somebody is genuinely attempting the old 'give infinite monkeys a typewriter' experiment.
I'm not talking about the opinions of my friends (necessarily ;)), although it is always sad to see someone taken in by baseless, wishy washy bullshit written in big words to dazzle and confuse; by a sacked off buzzfeed journo for a 'the world is magical' organisation who can't face the reality that we're probably not telepathic until proven otherwise!! OK maybe I am talking about that a little bit.
Proven, by the way, does not mean that it is said in another book. Nor does it mean that you heard a person tell a story that someone else heard about their great Gran while she was exploring drugs. Proof is measurable and can be cited.
As I was saying I wasn't annoyed about that. But scrolling through the waves of drivel I found myself compelled to get involved several times and I suddenly realised that I was probably about to offend someone. So I stopped. I posted, edited and finally deleted several posts that were not meant to offend in the slightest. So I thought to myself; "If I don't want to offend them, and this is not going to achieve anything else... what am I trying to do here?"
So here I am ranting away at Blogger. At least Blogger won't care that there is zero proof that our earlobes give us a sixth sense by wobbling at the exact fucking resonant frequency of a unicorns fart! At least Blogger will not take offence at me making this face *makes face*.
I suppose all I'm saying is, if its written on a meme or a thread on facebook, it is almost 100% likely to be utter bollocks!
I feel your pain bud, I sometimes jump in and find myself battling someone starts saying things so incredibly stupid as to slow the rotation of the earth. No facts, no reasoning, just a blog post that is somehow more valid than the hard work of thousands of dedicated scientists or experts.
ReplyDeleteI think though that your wrong in assuming that you're being offensive, offence is not what you goal is, you are trying to show them that their belief is misplaced, the aim is not to offend if possible and in many cases with the hardcore believer that is completely impossible. On Facebook it's my opinion that you are never trying to convince the person who wrote or posted the article about your position, like any public debate you are trying to convince other readers of the article about alternative positions.
To put it in another context when Sam Harris or Richard Dawkins have a debate with a person believing the world is only 6000 years old they aren't trying to convince their opponent, that would be impossible, but instead they are trying to educate their audience. That's a pretty good analogy to public facebook posts and commentary.
Offence is best summed up by Stephen Fry: “It's now very common to hear people say, 'I'm rather offended by that.' As if that gives them certain rights. It's actually nothing more... than a whine. 'I find that offensive.' It has no meaning; it has no purpose; it has no reason to be respected as a phrase. 'I am offended by that.' Well, so fucking what."