We Talk Friday
(WTF)
This is a semi-regular series that I will run on Fridays to hold discussions on a current topic from the week gone. The aim is to keep them light and conversational, though some might be heavier - regardless of the content topic itself though, just have some fun engaging and discussing with whoever happens to put in the effort in the comments section below.
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It would be nice to go into the weekend with a pocket full of green
But again, it is red.
Not that it changes anything in a practical sense, but there is that psychological pang that feels better when numbers are going up, rather than down. Well, as long as those numbers aren't my weight or worse - my wife's weight.
That was a joke, for those who can't tell the difference.
Humour seems largely dead these days, because no matter what the topic, or what is said, there is always an outspoken minority that inhabits that space and will take it seriously, as if the words are a physical attack on whatever they identify with, and they are bleeding out from the wound. Thick skin doesn't exist it seems, nor does nuance, or the ability to tell joke from opinion. People seem to behave like children when it comes to humour these days, unable to understand irony or sarcasm, and instead taking everything literally on face value.
Except what people actually say - then they read between the lines to create a personal attack.
The internet discourse encourages the most uncharitable view of everything, and no matter if someone knows they are purposely misconstruing and misrepresenting a statement, they will do it to feel like they are on some kind of moral high ground. The irony is of course, is they ground they are upon is an illusion, because they have deliberately mischaracterised someone's words.
Maybe it isn't deliberate?
Of course, it is possible that they are indeed giving an honest and truthful account of what they believe, and the reason they didn't understand the joke, was because they are ignorant or stupid.
Feel better?
The media can take a lot of the blame, because due to ad revenue being driven by clicks, the model has shifted away from an information source that intelligent people used to stay informed, to one to keeps idiots entertained. It is targeted at the lowest common denominator, and the lowest forms of intelligence, because that is what is going to drive more clicks. It isn't about understanding and nuance, it is about base emotions - which is largely on the negative side with fear, outrage, jealousy and hate being the easiest to evoke.
It gets the clicks.
Back in the day news used to have exposé stories that would take months and potentially years of undercover work to report upon, and they would stay in the news for weeks, or months. Now, the news cycle can be counted in hours, and no matter how scandalous, the next day it is replaced by the next piece to get clicks. This is where Trump excels, because he just throws so much shit into the air, that everyone is dodging for cover to avoid getting smeared, while he is there lining the pockets of his agenda. More clicks for the media, so they encourage him. Right and Left.
What the fuck happened to the middle??
It died with the attack on humour. Comedians have to do entire sets of explaining what a joke is these days, before they can actually tell a joke, because they know that someone in the audience, or who chose to watch it streaming, will have a problem with everything they say. They can involuntarily sneeze, and someone will take to their keyboard and smash out how they should have been wearing a mask, or that the volume of the sound of the sneeze was thoughtlessly not thinking about people with overly sensitive ears.
Hyperacusis
a rare disorder of loudness perception, where sounds that are ordinarily considered innocuous become intolerable. Hyperacusis is rare. It affects 1 in 50,000 people.
There is one in every stadium.
Two in the Rungrado 1st of May Stadium
Rungrado 1st of May Stadium, located in Pyongyang, North Korea, is, by some margin, the world's largest soccer stadium, boasting a staggering capacity of 114,000.
But no one complains about conditions there.
And maybe it is the conditions that people have experienced in their lives that make them so sensitive to triviality and slight discomfort. They have had such comfortable lives that they need to keep lowering the bar of what qualifies as something to be outraged by. Of course, there is also the fact that being a victim is seen as a positive thing and encouraged, as is being an attention seeker who will do anything (except be good at something useful) to get a few more eyes, a few more clicks - a few more cents for their slave masters, their owners - the platforms.
Free to be controlled.
Yet, people think that speaking openly about their misguided opinions is freedom, but in actual fact, they are doing what they have been whipped to do, they are doing what the slave masters want from them - creating more polarisation, and collecting more clicks from the lowest common denominator.
Fucking hilarious.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
Past Episodes:
Episode 4: Your Country Sucks
Episode 3: Collapse is Inevitable
Episode 2: Show me the money
Episode 1: Strange bedfellows
