Saturday, October 24, 2015

there's a valid point in here somewhere, but as is generally the case with south park, it's not articulated well - because the writers for the program are just not very smart.

the basic premise in the episode is that social media comments represent reality, and ignoring them represents escaping reality. now, i do a lot of commenting - i think it's an underappreciated medium - but this premise is comically absurd. the vast majority of comments, negative or positive, are written at a level that is below grade school - they are often incoherent, at best, and are largely written in languages that linguistics has yet to actually define.

blocking, deleting or disabling comments is consequently not in any way equivalent to tuning reality out, unless you're willing to entirely conflate reality with unbearable idiocy. it's really more equivalent to standing on your balcony and screaming to the masses, over loudspeakers: i don't fucking care what you think. and, that's relatively healthy in terms of asserting individualism.


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but, it's an absurd premise as to why people block others. i use my killfile very liberally. it has nothing to do with my feelings; i just don't have any patience for fucking idiots, and don't think i have any obligation to give them a platform. it is absolutely not my responsibility to hear them out, ponder what they have to say and thoughtfully respond - i have every right to just smite them from my internet altogether, and be on with it.

free speech does not imply an obligation to listen.

so, telling somebody to shut the fuck up doesn't always mean you're hiding from something, or can't deal with something. quite often, what it means is that the person talking is a hopeless, irredeemable dipshit that isn't worth the thirty seconds required to block them.

but, as mentioned, there is a point in there, somewhere, buried underneath piles of absolute nonsense.