that whirling noise you hear

[the_siobhan]

For some reason I always find it really interesting when the media latches onto a story about the media itself. A little bit of meta-journalism, if you will. So when I saw the headline about a big stink going on right now over an article published in the Globe, I went right on over and read all about it.

Apparently a journalist who wrote an article about the recent shootings in Montréal made the statement that Quebecois culture has to take some of the responsability for actions of Gill at Dawson College, and also for the the Lépine shootings at l'École Polytechnique sixteen years earlier.

Because francaphones are "unwelcoming".

I shit you not.

Now the editor is saying the remarks should have deleted before the article went to print and lots of people are demanding apologies all over the place. And I think the whole thing is hilarious.

To be perfectly clear where I'm coming from, I don't think it's funny that Wong printed something inflammatory and stupid. I sure as hell don't think it's the slightest bit entertaining that a bunch of people died because some douchebag was Fucked In Head With Gun and decided to take his bad day out on a bunch of innocent people.

No, what makes me smirk is just how seriously everybody is taking Wong's comments.

I mean, come on people. She actually suggested that some guy shot up a school cafeteria because Quebecois are unfriendly. Roll your eyes, give the girl one of those pointed hats with the big "D" on it, and get on with your day.

This is all fed by my complete inability to understand why we give people microphones when we already know that something stupid is going to come out of their face. Why is Ann Coulter ever able to even get people to interview her? Why does anybody give a man airtime to talk about international politics when his day job is to play a fucking guitar? Why does anybody really care what the head of some religion thinks about our same-sex marriage laws, or in fact, anything to do with anything except maybe, you know, his religion?

And more importantly, having found somebody to give them a platform - what the hell inspires anybody else to actually listen?

On the other hand, if the world wasn't full of Really Stupid Ideas, we wouldn't have the opportunity to make fun of them. That would pretty much eliminate the Daily Show, and things like the The Racist Survivor Theme Song. And that makes a lot of this stuff totally worth it.

Comments

[montieth.livejournal.com]

When you keep trying the same thing with no change in results, what do they call that? When lots of people do that, what do you call it.

[redbird]

Internet business-as-usual and an impressive lack of reading comprehension.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

Let me be clear, I don't classify as stupid everybody who holds a different opinion than me. I may think they are mis-informed, or have based their opinions on faulty data, or that they aren't looking at all the data, or that their logic based on that data is flawed.

I can buy that some people think the murders would have been prevented if we kept tighter controls on guns, or had better mental health screening in place or if we took a good hard look at how our culture romanticizes violence. I may not agree with them, but I don't think they are stupid.

OTOH, people who think it's because he listened to Metallica and played GTA? Stupid. People who think it's because he posted his profile to a website full of fourteen year-olds pretending to be vampires. Whoo-wee Stupid!

Unfortunately the latter group who seem to have a public voice - sometimes to the point where it interferes with of the former to have any kind of intelligent discussion. And I really don't get that.

[montieth.livejournal.com]

I think you and I will probably largely agree that it's sometimes hard keeping nuts from doing things. They'll kill people regardless, using a car, a firearm or some other improvised device. The mechanisms for their malfunction is complex and that a single solution or "band aid" won't do squat.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

I completely agree that I don't believe in band-aid solutions. I think problems are more complex than that.

I also don't beleive in arbitrarily dismissing one aspect of a solution because it by itself will not solve the entire problem.

I beleive in examining options & combinations of options and balancing priorities. 'Cause life is complicated like that.

And that's as far as I'm willing to go in taking a stance pro or con gun control.

[montieth.livejournal.com]

The UK had even more strict gun control, they still had a mass shooting. They have even more strict gun control, they had a broad daylight robbery of a money holding center and another broad daylight breakout of some criminals from court. Gun control doesn't work. It takes money away from enforcement and response to real crimes and criminalizes otherwise harmless behavior. Even the British home secretary has admitted that the Gun Control policies weren't expected to have an impact on crime.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

Sorry dude. This is not alt.gothic.guns.guns.guns.

[montieth.livejournal.com]

No, this is I want to see alt.gothic.siobhan.shooting.guns.guns.guns with out having to do a mother may I first. ;-)

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

Heh. The house has a loooooong way to go before I can be putting money into toys.

[mr-sharkey.livejournal.com]

It's key to remember that newspapers are in the business of selling newsprint - not news. Any discussion that leads to the resolution of issues lessens future sales - any discussion that is circular, hysterical and emotionally over-wrought drives sales. When you're emotionally invested, you don't think critically - Won't Someone Please Think Of The Children?

M.

[caspervonb.livejournal.com]

Oddly, that's pretty much exactly how
I think of politics.