The general decline in standards today

[LizzieMaine]

If it takes a thousand monkeys with a thousand typewriters a thousand years to write the works of Shakespeare, the other 999 years worth of stuff is what you find on the typical news blog comment section. Truly, if anyone wants evidence that civilization is careening off a cliff with the brakes cut, spend an hour or so reading the comments on any news site of your choice.

 

[Flicka]

If it takes a thousand monkeys with a thousand typewriters a thousand years to write the works of Shakespeare, the other 999 years worth of stuff is what you find on the typical news blog comment section. Truly, if anyone wants evidence that civilization is careening off a cliff with the brakes cut, spend an hour or so reading the comments on any news site of your choice.

Or on YouTube. The Onion had a wonderful article that really nails the typical internet comment a few years back:

http://www.theonion.com/articles/local-idiot-to-post-comment-on-internet,2500/

 

[AmateisGal]

Or on YouTube. The Onion had a wonderful article that really nails the typical internet comment a few years back:

http://www.theonion.com/articles/local-idiot-to-post-comment-on-internet,2500/

lol Oh, that article was hilarious. And unfortunately, so true, even if it IS satire...

 

[Undertow]

Haha, doesn't this just sum it up nicely?

"We are blessed to be living in an age when we have a global communications network in which idiots, a**holes, and total and complete wastes of f*ing human life alike can come together to give instant feedback in an unfettered and unmonitored online environment."

 

[Edward]

If it takes a thousand monkeys with a thousand typewriters a thousand years to write the works of Shakespeare, the other 999 years worth of stuff is what you find on the typical news blog comment section. Truly, if anyone wants evidence that civilization is careening off a cliff with the brakes cut, spend an hour or so reading the comments on any news site of your choice.

I'm not sure that's any proof we're getting worse.... just that we can nowadays hear people's idiocy.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Or on YouTube.

Sometimes the comments on YouTube are more entertaining than the video. lol

 

[AmateisGal]

I'm not sure that's any proof we're getting worse.... just that we can nowadays hear people's idiocy.

Good point.

 

[LizzieMaine]

In the past, idiots knew their place -- at the end of the neighborhood bar. Now we give them their own radio talk shows.

 

[Atticus Finch]

Haha, doesn't this just sum it up nicely?

"We are blessed to be living in an age when we have a global communications network in which idiots, a**holes, and total and complete wastes of f*ing human life alike can come together to give instant feedback in an unfettered and unmonitored online environment."

There has never been a more rabid advocate of our rights conferred by the 1st Amendment than me. But, yes, the current state of the internet has managed to test even my life-long detication to unfettered freedom of speech.

AF

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

To me one of the more disturbing things about the nature of global communication are that events that would have remained local news had they occurred 30-40 years ago can now become national and even international news which means more busybodies, often of the official variety, sticking their nose where it doesn't belong.

 

[Atticus Finch]

To me one of the more disturbing things about the nature of global communication are that events that would have remained local news had they occurred 30-40 years ago can now become national and even international news which means more busybodies, often of the official variety, sticking their nose where it doesn't belong.

I agree. Last month, a local biologist with a Tarzan complex tried to singlehandedly wrestle a ten-foot alligator out of a drainage ditch...whereupon the alligator (predictably) bit the snot out of the biologist. Well, a spectator recorded the event on a cell phone and the video made the national news. Perhaps y’all saw it. People around here were puzzled as to how an alligator defending himself from attack could be even locally newsworthy. Most folks here are born with a genetic understanding that alligators are a bit grumpy and they tend to bite first and ask questions later.

AF

 

[jamespowers]

I'm not sure that's any proof we're getting worse.... just that we can nowadays hear people's idiocy.

I like it. It makes it easier to see WHO the idiots are when they used to stand around in obscurity before propagating themselves secretly. Now I can make more informed decisions as to which idiots I want to avoid. They have solved problems for me.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

I agree. Last month, a local biologist with a Tarzan complex tried to singlehandedly wrestle a ten-foot alligator out of a drainage ditch...whereupon the alligator (predictably) bit the snot out of the biologist. Well, a spectator recorded the event on a cell phone and the video made the national news. Perhaps y’all saw it. People around here were puzzled as to how an alligator defending himself from attack could be even locally newsworthy. Most folks here are born with a genetic understanding that alligators are a bit grumpy and they tend to bite first and ask questions later.

AF

The most egregious example I can think of was the Rodney King beating and the subsequent trial and acquittal of the officers involved which precipitated the LA Riots in 1992 -- the right or wrong of which is for another debate. When the video was flashed by the media around the country and around the world, I immediately sensed at the time that this would be a recipe for disaster with more (influential) busybodies weighing in and adding fuel to the fire. And indeed, when the riots broke out in LA there was also related rioting in other parts of the country and even as far away as Australia.

 

[C-dot]

The most egregious example I can think of was the Rodney King beating and the subsequent trial and acquittal of the officers involved which precipitated the LA Riots in 1992 -- the right or wrong of which is for another debate. When the video was flashed by the media around the country and around the world, I immediately sensed at the time that this would be a recipe for disaster with more (influential) busybodies weighing in and adding fuel to the fire. And indeed, when the riots broke out in LA there was also related rioting in other parts of the country and even as far away as Australia.

These days people film film everything, and practically none of it is of historical/political significance. And when these videos do stay relatively local, they immortalize what should have been small problems quickly solved. A local (to me) example was when a TTC subway car did not shut its doors for some mechanical reason while the train was moving. A safety hazard, yes, though no-one was hurt, but instead of either pulling the emergency stop cord or alerting an official at the next stop, a witness elected to film the car moving with the open door on their phone, e-mail the video to the CBC and post it on YouTube (as you do). This wasn't the first time someone had done this, as the same thing happened when an attendant was caught sleeping on the job (couldn't someone have just woken him up?) As a result, the TTC's already shaky reputation gets much worse, simply because people like to believe they are Geraldo Rivera.

 

[DNO]

These days people film film everything, and practically none of it is of historical/political significance. And when these videos do stay relatively local, they immortalize what should have been small problems quickly solved. A local (to me) example was when a TTC subway car did not shut its doors for some mechanical reason while the train was moving. A safety hazard, yes, though no-one was hurt, but instead of either pulling the emergency stop cord or alerting an official at the next stop, a witness elected to film the car moving with the open door on their phone, e-mail the video to the CBC and post it on YouTube (as you do). This wasn't the first time someone had done this, as the same thing happened when an attendant was caught sleeping on the job (couldn't someone have just woken him up?) As a result, the TTC's already shaky reputation gets much worse, simply because people like to believe they are Geraldo Rivera.

The tendency to record everything is a by-product, so to speak, of the cell phone. Anyone with a cell phone can record video and are encouraged to do so by local television stations. I tend to decry this modern trend as well. No one intervenes anymore, they just record. The Vancouver Stanley Cup riot was certainly a case in point.

Having said that, however, there are times when it is fortunate indeed that someone saw fit to record a situation. Without the video, the four Mounties who fatally tazered the unfortunate Polish visitor at Vancouver’s airport would have walked away from their exceptionally egregious behaviour scott free. There have been numerous similar instances in which a bystander’s video exposed the untruths being propagated by some participants in events (G20 summit in Toronto for example).

Like everything in life, it’s not black and white.

 

[DNO]

(sorry...accidental double post...d'oh!)

 

[Undertow]

...simply because people like to believe they are Geraldo Rivera.

And 9 times out of 10, people are standing around like him with their mouths open pointing at an empty "vault", wondering. They should have just woke up the poor guy that fell asleep, or pulled the emergency cord. Instead, they cry wolf and get a chair to the face.

A very mediocre chair at that.

 

[Atticus Finch]

These days people film film everything, and practically none of it is of historical/political significance. And when these videos do stay relatively local, they immortalize what should have been small problems quickly solved. A local (to me) example was when a TTC subway car did not shut its doors for some mechanical reason while the train was moving. A safety hazard, yes, though no-one was hurt, but instead of either pulling the emergency stop cord or alerting an official at the next stop, a witness elected to film the car moving with the open door on their phone, e-mail the video to the CBC and post it on YouTube (as you do). This wasn't the first time someone had done this, as the same thing happened when an attendant was caught sleeping on the job (couldn't someone have just woken him up?) As a result, the TTC's already shaky reputation gets much worse, simply because people like to believe they are Geraldo Rivera.

Cell phones have sure changed the way I act in court. There was a time that I could be a tad short with defendants...especially on days that I was up to my a** in alligators. Now, I have to assume that someone with a cell phone is trying to goad me into saying something that would be embarrassing as heck when shown on our local TV news. So when I'm in court now, I act like just like Mr. Rogers. Johnny...can you spell "active sentence"? I'll bet you can...

AF

 

[Edward]

I like it. It makes it easier to see WHO the idiots are when they used to stand around in obscurity before propagating themselves secretly. Now I can make more informed decisions as to which idiots I want to avoid. They have solved problems for me.

Oh, absolutely. There are one too many folks around the vintage set who are into it because they wish it was still 1948 "before women and ethnics got uppity". The easier it is to filter them out the better.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Hey now. Some of my favorite role models were Uppity Women in 1948. It's the people who insist there *were no* uppity women until the sixties who need to be filtered out.