Tuesday, September 17, 2013

There I Go Again

Sometimes for no good reason except to vent, I find a rant tumbling from the ends of my fingers onto the keyboard. These ravings are often unfiltered, and probably unthought.  But, oh! how good it feels to get it out of my system. So far, so good. But then I find myself sometimes without a blog post for the morrow, and I stick one of these rants in the blog. Forgive me, please. This is one of those. You may choose to save your time and move along to the next post in your reader. That’s okay. (Or “okeh,” as a pedant I once knew insisted.) 

The day of interactive everything. Except of course for face to face interaction with another human being. Even the comic strips have to be interactive. Read the funny, write a comment. Who cares? The cartoonist came up with something, drew a picture, added some dialog, expressed an opinion or an idea, perhaps. I am intelligent enough to get what he is saying, or not, but I don’t need help in interpretation; and besides if I don’t get it I can ask my wife! Further, while the first commenter may address the cartoonist’s notion, the whole thing quickly degenerates into a garbage-flinging, name-calling slime fest completely unrelated to the original idea. Who needs that? 

Interactive television? You must be 1) joking, or 2) totally out of your mind. What exactly do you suppose I care about Miranda Moron’s opinion. If the opinion of the “audience” determines anything to come, forget it.

 How about commenting on the articles on the op-ed pages? Now that is opinion, and your opinion is still your opinion, and though you may be angry with the writer, leave him alone. He’s an idiot, too. If you agree with him, well, you know. What to do? Ignore the stuff, move along. Nothing to be seen here, or if there is, it isn’t edifying.

7 comments:

Vee said...

The comments sections are annoying. It seems that, no matter the topic, many people can twist things until their pet topics get in there.

I would guess that the authors, cartoonists, editors, etc. don't even read the comments - that is unless they want a good laugh for the day.

Shelly said...

I usually do not even read comments on anything other than blogs anymore. Too much is too much.

Sharkbytes said...

slime-fest! You made me smile. Rant away. I love it.

Secondary Roads said...

And pay not attention to the man behind the curtain.

Even the NASCAR Live Leader Board superimposes comments from the public in the lower right corner. Fortunately, I can turn them off with a single click.

vanilla said...

Vee, I think your guess is right, and I would be well-served not to look at them, either. (Mostly I don't.)

Shelly, I do like the comment threads on blogs I read. I think the exchange of ideas there is usually related to the article the blogger displayed.

Sharkey, thanks. Ranting may do nothing beyond letting off steam, but I seem to "need" to do it on occasion.

Chuck, isn't it great that we have the option to ignore the stuff?

Grace said...

I love rants myself...yesterday we were trying to find some news that wasn't the incident at the Navy Yard and we scrolled past the Dr. Phil Show and he was showing "live" tweets directed towards the people on the show with video of the Tweeters! What the heck? I didn't know you could comment on comic strips, I read mine in the paper and comments on news sites re: stories/reports - I do skip them - any and every fool has internet access these days...

vanilla said...

Grace, too right you are about internet access. Our little local paper carries only five comics, two of which I care little about; so I get my comic fix on-line. There are hundreds available, it seems. But I am a bit selective. I read only sixteen of them, takes me maybe four minutes, since I don't read the comments.