It's kinda hard to be positive..
Jun. 22nd, 2025 08:21 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
glassy_witch...when our current crop of "world leaders" vary between spineless wastes of space and pompous pustules of self important arseholery.
See also - pathetic snivelling scumbags vs mass murdering fuckheads.
The most part of people in the countries in question are perfectly decent, normal people. It's like we distill all the crazy, the hate, the general fuckwittery into a single person and then for absolutely inexplicable reasons, allow THEM to be in charge.
And it doesn't help that of course, that they then represent that entire country to the rest of the world. Because when your leader(s) are cruel, corrupt, and murderous? That's how you all get lumped together.
We dont help ourselves, of course. Social media in particular has driven the knee-jerk responsiveness of our species to dizzying new heights of absurdity. Where once, you might have used a word entirely unaware of its connotations in some areas that to YOU, the individual, may be utterly obscure. It's a big planet. It IS possible to miss the nuance a word has in a three-mile square area in a country you've never been to.
Let me give an example.
"Cakey!"
WTF is that meant to mean? Caked on? Turned to a cake-like consistency? No.
It meant (very loosely) that someone was considered a bit of a goody two shoes, and bit too "perfect little student", a bit "naive little girl" and a bit "annoyingly pathetic and weak". And to whom did it mean that? Well, I can think of about half a dozen girls at my school who started throwing it around as an "insult". But i never once heard it outside of my school and even then, only ever within my own year group. Which had 80 people in it, split into two forms. And it was girls in the other form who started it and used it. Quite often about a particular girl in my form.
Now, if I saw/heard someone use the word cakey, would I immediately jump to the conclusion it was an insult aimed at me? Well, contextually, if it was Louise, Nicola, Caroline, or Rachael, yes, I'd probably assume it was. Anyone else? No. I wouldn't. If it WAS definitely aimed at me,and it wasn't one of the aforementioned? I'd have to ask what it was meant to mean.
Contrast this with social media responses.
Person A
Person B "How very dare you use THAT disgusting term for ** which you definitely would have known about because *I* know it and you are evil!!!111eleventyone11!"
Person A "I was talking about potting out my begonias, what are you on about?"
Person B "How dare you disrespect my people like that. Educate yourself! Do better!!"
Person B then instigates a massive pile on to Person A who has absolutely no clue that the word they have always known to be related to potting out plants after the last frost, has been picked up by a group of individuals 5000 miles away in their book club as an acronym for some pretty appalling abuses suffered in the mid 17th century by fishermen in the Azores. Or something equally baffling to Person A.
We are so quick to assume ill intent by others because Internet trolling has trained us to be that way, and it feeds this destructive, feral streak inside us that makes us go to war with each other.
Even now, I find myself being VERY careful not to say what I am actually thinking, since my mental shorthand is not immediately available to anyone not inside my own head. If I were to say "ugh, men!" for example, I would of course in my own head, know exactly who I meant. I'd know the character types I was referencing, and I would be ringfencing the people like my dad, uncle Bob, Grampa Johnny, and the many thoroughly decent men of my acquaintance. But you wouldn't know that unless you asked. You might assume I meant every single last one on the planet, and his little dog, too. And this is where it falls apart. Those assumptions are what pits countries against each other. That pushes ideologies and religions into conflict. The refusal to admit we ALL use mental shorthand is going to kill us. And I am not sure that the planet will miss us.
See also - pathetic snivelling scumbags vs mass murdering fuckheads.
The most part of people in the countries in question are perfectly decent, normal people. It's like we distill all the crazy, the hate, the general fuckwittery into a single person and then for absolutely inexplicable reasons, allow THEM to be in charge.
And it doesn't help that of course, that they then represent that entire country to the rest of the world. Because when your leader(s) are cruel, corrupt, and murderous? That's how you all get lumped together.
We dont help ourselves, of course. Social media in particular has driven the knee-jerk responsiveness of our species to dizzying new heights of absurdity. Where once, you might have used a word entirely unaware of its connotations in some areas that to YOU, the individual, may be utterly obscure. It's a big planet. It IS possible to miss the nuance a word has in a three-mile square area in a country you've never been to.
Let me give an example.
"Cakey!"
WTF is that meant to mean? Caked on? Turned to a cake-like consistency? No.
It meant (very loosely) that someone was considered a bit of a goody two shoes, and bit too "perfect little student", a bit "naive little girl" and a bit "annoyingly pathetic and weak". And to whom did it mean that? Well, I can think of about half a dozen girls at my school who started throwing it around as an "insult". But i never once heard it outside of my school and even then, only ever within my own year group. Which had 80 people in it, split into two forms. And it was girls in the other form who started it and used it. Quite often about a particular girl in my form.
Now, if I saw/heard someone use the word cakey, would I immediately jump to the conclusion it was an insult aimed at me? Well, contextually, if it was Louise, Nicola, Caroline, or Rachael, yes, I'd probably assume it was. Anyone else? No. I wouldn't. If it WAS definitely aimed at me,and it wasn't one of the aforementioned? I'd have to ask what it was meant to mean.
Contrast this with social media responses.
Person A
Person B "How very dare you use THAT disgusting term for *
Person A "I was talking about potting out my begonias, what are you on about?"
Person B "How dare you disrespect my people like that. Educate yourself! Do better!!"
Person B then instigates a massive pile on to Person A who has absolutely no clue that the word they have always known to be related to potting out plants after the last frost, has been picked up by a group of individuals 5000 miles away in their book club as an acronym for some pretty appalling abuses suffered in the mid 17th century by fishermen in the Azores. Or something equally baffling to Person A.
We are so quick to assume ill intent by others because Internet trolling has trained us to be that way, and it feeds this destructive, feral streak inside us that makes us go to war with each other.
Even now, I find myself being VERY careful not to say what I am actually thinking, since my mental shorthand is not immediately available to anyone not inside my own head. If I were to say "ugh, men!" for example, I would of course in my own head, know exactly who I meant. I'd know the character types I was referencing, and I would be ringfencing the people like my dad, uncle Bob, Grampa Johnny, and the many thoroughly decent men of my acquaintance. But you wouldn't know that unless you asked. You might assume I meant every single last one on the planet, and his little dog, too. And this is where it falls apart. Those assumptions are what pits countries against each other. That pushes ideologies and religions into conflict. The refusal to admit we ALL use mental shorthand is going to kill us. And I am not sure that the planet will miss us.