RE: Foamy's Rant - Social Network of Idiots II

This post is in response to this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78JNVMujZVE

Because stupidity seems to perpetuate itself, every so often I need to follow up and remind the masses why they're being fucking stupid. So, once again, we return to the wonderful world of social networking. The friend's list in particular.

Oh goodie. People being stupid. What else is new?

Hiya. I just figured I'd go on a rant of my own, because this rant of Foamy's hit home for me. I've been telling people about this crap for years. YEARS. Yet pretty much nobody listens to me, thinking that I have no wisdom and that they know all...bullshit. Not saying I know all, either, but the least they could do is hear my side of the story.

I do want to add to this, however, the side that people show in reality that just makes all the crap on social networking sites all the worse. So while I post what Foamy had to say, I'll be putting my two-cents in...not cuz I'm better, but just cuz I need to rant. Why? I too am sick of people, especially the people doing a lot of this crap to me in my life right now.

What makes me want to encourage mass hangings is when people on your friend's list start bickering amongst each other, causing all sorts of problems among the rest of your friends. It's a bunch of "he said, she said" pseudo-intellectual arguments with an all around egocentric mentality causing everyone involved to think their view is the right view.

I'm not one to say "go kill yourself" but if you just can't get it and on top of that you're one of those people who turns to the internet because "nobody in reality understands my deep thought process" then I must agree with Foamy. Mass hangings encouraged there.

I hate the people who just can't seem to see it from the other side. You're in an argument with two people, two sides, two different views. The least you can do - even if you disagree with it that heavily - is put yourself in the other person's shoes and see their side of this whole fiasco. That will either (A) help you understand and cause you to realize where you are wrong or (B) help you win this argument without simply saying "I'm right cuz I say so!" Just to let you know, "buddy," you aren't always right. If you took a second to listen to what the other person is wasting hours of their life typing away on a computer screen just so that they can tell you and try to get it through your thick skull could very well be important knowledge. And if it isn't then your time isn't wasted...you've just gained a very good advantage on this other person because you can now dig into where they see as logical and turn it around on them, saying "this is where you see it but it's untrue because..." and then give your side.

I'm not just referring to these internet scenarios though either. I'm referring to the situations where people are just yelling at each other back and forth, where the two people are constantly repeating what they just said with nothing changed but the wording. They say things like, "you just don't understand," and "it's like this" to get the other side to listen to their repeated nonsense. When someone butts in with a question, trying to hear the facts that they supposedly have to back up their views, you get nothing but "uhhh..." "I don't know, actually." and/or "I don't need a reason!" in response. If not, then all they do is repeat their previous bullshit yet again and tell you not to interrupt them when you say anything about the repetition.

It's an endless cycle that can easily be changed if people will just think about what the opposite party has to say rather than wasting hours of their life raising their voice and letting every word spoken, even their own, go in one ear and out the other. Yes, I am saying you should listen to what you say as well.

No one rationalizes, no one thinks things through, and so now all this in-fighting has you caught in the middle where both sides want you to choose sides...and of course, being the rational one, you don't wanna do that because all you can think of is that these people are all fucking stupid and they need to drink Drano!...and stop bitching.

Oh god yes, please stop bitching people... if you're not listening to what the other party has to say, then they are most likely not listening to you either.

Let's start with the cyber crap. Do you really think that just because there is a computer between you now that it'll keep you safe later when it's all face-to-face? No, it won't. In fact doing this crap online is stupider than saying it to someone's face even if they were gonna pound your face in for saying it. Saying this crap online does the following:
A) You may also have this advantage, but you are giving the other party the advantage of the internet as well. So if you are googling all your facts and using at least a little logic, they probably also are, putting the two of you at a stale-mate [in which recruiting friends in a mini-army will not solve by the way].
B) You are giving this person to re-look at everything you said and think every little thing through before they say something. In reality, they might have just said "Alright, you win. I'm wrong." but when waiting for responses, you and the opposing party have near unlimited amounts of time to process the reply given to them, therefore make a harder-to-beat response. Again, you may have this advantage as well but giving it to your enemy only makes this neutral ground [in which recruiting friends in a mini-army will not solve by the way].
C) Proof and evidence. If you dare to utter anything that could be considered cruel, threatening, racist/sexist/etc., or anything along those lines, you've just put it out on the internet where anyone can come by and read it. Not only that, but if the opposite party finds the statement cruel enough, they could end up bringing your petty argument to court with outlined details of the entire conversation, which ends up in lose money, wasted time, and possibly even jail or fines depending on the seriousness of the comment and how things went in court [in which recruiting friends in a mini-army will not solve by the way].

If you know what you're saying and say it with confidence as well as facts on your side, you shouldn't worry about what the person will do or say when you're face-to-face. Besides, even if they do beat you, you have bruises as proof and can take them to court for it even if you did threaten their life [because do they have proof like yours? Not at all! (that's not the way it really works lolz)].

But no one ever stops bitching. They just start deleting friends from their list, like it even matters; like deleting someone is empowering or something; like it gives you the last word.

Let me say something on this alone: What does clicking the delete button really mean? It means nothing but less access to one another's profile information. It doesn't mean anything deep or hurtful - it just means you don't like the person enough to let them see your full photo album, or to view a few old status updates. I'm not saying it's not a smart move to block someone who is being truly harassing, rude, or annoying. I'm just saying that it's not as big a deal as you are making it out to be. If you want to end the friendship, you should probably tell them in person and before doing that you should maybe take a step away from the computer and discuss things like civil people.

The same thing with the kids who are so on-off with their friendships that you can't even tell when they love or hate each other anymore. I can't stand it when my sister comes home and starts complaining about drama between two of her friends who are apparently no longer friends all because of the previously mentioned by Foamy "he said, she said" bullshit. I can hardly hear her anymore because all that's on my mind is "when did this start happening in the 4th grade? When I was in the forth grade the worst that happened to me was I fell off my scooter, my gameboy batteries died in the middle of a Pokemon gym battle, or I didn't get a sticker when I got my spelling test back."

These kids need to stop and smell the roses! They can save that for junior high and high school, and for now just enjoy their childhood while it lasts. And if they pull the "I'm mature for my age" line, then that's damn skippy for you. Still, argumentation can't be done in an intelligent fashion at your age unless you're one of those star-children-geniuses and are about to graduate Harvard at 8. That's not even mentioning your maturity, which has nothing more to do with arguing than that fact that you seem less mature when you argue about stupid things as well as let it effect you to the point of ending a potentially great relationship.

What if the person you deleted fucking hates you and all you've done is pushed the button to end a friendship the other person didn't want in the first place making you seem like a petty bastard giving the other person everything they wanted to begin with!? Makes you look like a sucker...sucker. Do you really think you've won some insignificant discussion? Do you really think your view is now more valid because you eliminated the other party? Cuz it doesn't really work that way. You win a debate by winning a debate. You win it with facts, real facts, and knowledge. And if you can't discuss things rationally, KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT. Keep the peace, and let it go.

I have nothing more to say about this than I completely and totally agree with you, Foamy.

But...no one ever does. So now you're still caught in the middle of all this bullshit wondering [even at the age of 12] if you're a little too old to be dealing with this juvenile behavior.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that arguing with people with such strong view points is the equivilant of arguing with a brick wall. If you're luckily on the outside and being dragged in, be the bigger person and think like Foamy is hoping you will. The arguments are mostly ridiculous, and the fact that the people arguing cant's seem to present any more information than they already have brought to the table is doing nothing at this point but ruining your day and filling up your Facebook wall with curses and repeated sides of the same two stories.

So your friend's list along with everyone else's friend's list dwindles down from 200 to 6 all because you didn't choose sides, so both parties think you're siding with the other side. Stupid. You know, it might be healthy for everyone to weed out the trouble-makers on their friend's list - both parties - like they're 5 years old. "You both go in the corner until you can admit you're all FUCKIN' STUPID. Then, maybe, I'll re-add you."

Think of this as a good thing, because if someone isn't even level headed enough to realize that they aren't always right they aren't worth your time, and will only cause future headaches and emotional pain if you get too attached to them. Also, take that as a heavy hint that needs to be reassured. Keep the same views you have online as you do offline and in reality. If you're so stupid as to let yourself stoop to their level and delete them as an online friend, then try and play nice with them in reality after admitting you hate their guts in a private message, otherwise you're on the same level as them. Don't take things so far, like letting their words emotionally cut you to pieces, but don't be so naive as to think that the internet and reality are two different worlds to be lived two different ways. Regardless of what you want to think, you are you on and offline. Don't pretend otherwise - it causes you too much unnecessary trouble.

I close with only one thing: feel free to discuss this matter with me, or rant your own input in a comment, etc. I hate people too just in a fairly logical way beyond hating for the joy of hating. The rest of my conclusion I will leave up to Foamy, who ended on the most perfect note:

The thing to remember, folks: Everyone sucks. Everyone blows. And everyone lies. The world is a sphere of bickering jackasses whose own opinions seem to be more important than basic human civility. Getting tired of this people! Keep that crap on your own page, and leave. me. OUT OF IT...ass! Now where's my chocolate?

Random End Note: I HATE MY SLOW COMPUTER!!! Internet.....stop......freezing...... o.e
Extra Note: I wrote this somewhere between 4 and 6 in the morning so if there are typos, I'll probably fix them later...if they're still there then DEAL.

RE: Random Musings

This is in response to a friend's blog post, which you can read here.

I too have been thinking of things like God and whether or not he/she/it/whatever the fuck is existent. I have stumbled on a different conclusion, however, than that of a Christian one.

I have stated my viewpoint about "God" and their involvement in our lives in a previous blog post, but I'll still review just in case you don't want to go read yet another long semi-pointless thing: I believe that the Creator or God or whatever you wanna call it [I'll go with Creator just to make things simple] is nothing more than a Creator. I believe that there was a beginning somewhere, probably within the asexual realm, and that it made different versions of itself until it just got sick of that, maybe made a bunch of itself combine and within that created a different being. Through this beginning of life, I believe we are all connected in one way, shape, or form. I'm not saying that's exactly what I believe was the beginning and that's exactly how I believe it happened, just offering one explanation that may or may not make sense. Feel free to prove or disprove that theory all you want, I couldn't care less. Point is, I believe that life started somewhere and just as a small add-on, I believe the universe has been here forever - not beginning, nor ending.

Moving on: I believe that somewhere everything began from one creature and somehow over time [however long it may have been] more creatures were created from this one simple beginner. This doesn't talk about our formation, however. This only talks about the creation of another species, the second species, the species many humans look to as a God. I don't know if all these creatures got together and decided to run planets, together or apart, but I can say that I think they're powerful. You gotta be powerful to create and run a whole planet, or at the very least significantly more powerful than us. Also, going back to my word-choice: "planets." Yes, yes I do believe that there is life on other planets. It just wouldn't make any sense whatsoever if the life on Earth was the only life out there in the universe and all it's expanse. Back to my previous statements...powerful? Yes, the Creator[s] is/are powerful. It could be one Creator, or two, or a vast many - I don't know and neither does anybody else. However many there are, though, I highly doubt they're sitting there watching over us 24/7 and not only one of us, but ALL of us. Even if you do say "fuck you" to all the plants and animals and whatnot on this planet, and only focus on the humans, that's still a lot more than I think one Creator would like to handle. I dunno if you've played any Sims games, but if you have [or any game similar to it], running one, two, or even three lives is hard enough. You have to make sure they're doing this, be sure they do something else later, remember whether or not they've done that... it's hard. Now imagine if your Sim talked to you, requested specific things beyond the four wishes you can promise you'll grant in the Sims3. Listening to and granting the wishes of 1 or 2 Sims would get overwhelming...now imagine running the lives of, listening to, and granting the wishes of over 3 billion Sims. You wouldn't have the time. Trying to organize a method where you grant at least one wish to each would be beyond maddness. Running all their lives? Ha, screw that! Unless this creature goes beyond time and space, has dedicated it's life to our simple little planet and all it's on-goings, has more eyes than fits it's body, hears everything telepathically, and has a mind that can organize thoughts more efficiently and effectively than everything on our planet combined...then I just don't see how the Creator could do everything that many religions claim - "God is always watching over you." It doesn't quite makes sense to me. Not only that, but I didn't even mention it's distractions... So that sort of a make-up is provided that it has nothing to prevent it from moving and it's train of thought and works-in-progress are never interrupted as long as it lives, however long that may be...even eternally [random note: all that makes me wonder how many people will be scared to see their Creator in its true form haha].

I'm not trying to compare our Creator to a human or animal, I think it does go beyond our standard thinking and ideas, but I do think it has a biology...that it's not just a machine that cannot think or do things of it's own accord. I believe that the Creator has a life full of feelings, and has a mind beyond that of a humans with more complications than we could ever hope to face. Our Creator probably has more problems to deal with than something so simple as moral values, life and death, and gaining more knowledge and organizing it all. So many different things to think about and focus on probably mean more to do than focus on all the humans on Earth and their lives. Wouldn't you think so too?

I believe the Creator has a personality of sorts, probably makes mistakes as well, and that the only "perfect" being was not a man named Jesus who set foot on Earth, wasn't a talking thing in the sky that people call "He" and refer to as "Father". No, no. I believe that the only "perfect being" if there even is such a thing would have to be that absolute beginner, that first ever creature gifted with what one simple language of one simple species on one speck of a planet calls life. A thing filled with more, much MUCH more, than the four-letter word it doesn't deserve to be titled entails. That is the one and only perfect being, if anything the entire universe and more, is, was, and ever will be is to be considered perfect: the first form of life.

Back to my beginning statement, the Creator and it's personality... I do believe that it has one. One that other creatures within the Creator's species may think has flaws or faults and at the same time has positives and good parts within. Who knows? Our Creator may be a sick bastard with no more interest in our lives than facing us with pain and torment, and the only reason there is such a thing as good in our lives is so we can have bad, and suffer within the bad every day of our lives and longer. Or our Creator could be a kind soul who loves each and every one of us with the compassion and love beyond that of a parent. What I would rather think of the Creator as, however, is something that in the human world would be considered a "good guy." All I mean by this is that I think the personality of the Creator is that of a creature with good intentions, but a few dark secrets. A creature who has good relationships with some, but bad relationships with others. A creature who wants nothing more out of life than to find the joy in it and feel that joy and happiness as long as it can. I can't see the Creator as something so...so stereotypical as an angel or a devil, as the definition of good or evil, as anything so flipped on the scale that it has no balance - it's just the heavier or lighter side. I don't get how it could be.

My point with this "the Creator has a personality" statement is this: The Creator has a personality therefore... The Creator has interests and places and things it lacks interest in. The Creator may have been our Creator, but I do think that it's creations are not the one and only thing it has in it's life. I believe there are many more things out there the Creator has to focus on or not focus on - however you want to put it. I also believe that the Creator is nothing more than a creator of our kind, however it went about creating us.

To specifically refer to my friend's blog post, I do not know if the creator even knows about something as minuscule as one of the things man made [a bible]. I don't believe the Creator has any standards it wants us to live by, and if it does then it must have embedded them into our lives as it is by giving us something such moral values. I don't believe that the Creator would have man write such a book at all. I think the Creator would leave such things as molding our society in our own hands. The Creator also would probably have merely spoken to us all if he wanted us to live by certain morals, or at least the great many that would listen like a teacher would conduct a class. I also don't think the Creator would consider one human its "one and only son," nor would it do such specific, symbolical things as leave it's son to die or write a symbolic text, then expect this to be its way of telling us what to do and how to live the lives it granted us with. It's too much like if a parent wanted to force their son or daughter to live a certain way - almost a waste of it's time. I'm not saying I deny this possibility, just don't believe too heavily in it. I think that if the Creator wanted us to do one thing or another, it would have molded us to do such things - not tested us to see if we would or wouldn't. We are its creations, not it's slaves. It did have the control in our making, and I don't think that it would just later decide something such as "I want them to live by these statements." If it cared enough, it'd put life on another planet and just see how it fairs with the differences in making. Maybe I'm just putting myself in the eyes of the Creator by saying a lot of this, but nonetheless I just can't see a man-made creation like a book suddenly becoming such a relevant thing to the Creator. Not to mention that we may not even communicate the same way as the creator. What if we can't communicate with our Creator at all?

One way or another, we all ended up on this planet as a result of something... be it evolution, reincarnation, a Creator, or whatever other ideas there are out there. I also know another thing: No matter what interest the Creator has in it's creations, I do not think that we are it's main focus and even if we are we are most certainly not it's only focus, so why should it be ours? You're living your life here and now. You're not dead - you're alive. And even if one day you meet your maker, why don't we just let it be that day? Why must people dedicate their lives to giving thanks to their Creator? You don't dedicate your lives to giving thanks to your parents do you? How do you know the Creator will even appreciate this? What if the Creator scoffs at you and/or treats you the same way a powerful and strong person being stalked treats their weak and pathetic stalker? Nobody knows until they get there who or what the Creator is or how they'll be treated by the Creator...hell, we don't even know if the Creator is alive, dead, or even so much as exists. No matter what the case, live your life for you - the only person you know you are forever stuck with.

My Take on Suicide

I was listening to that Apocalyptica song [featuring Adam from Three Days Grace] called "I Don't Care" and thinking about the meaning behind it all. I presume the song is about a guy trying to get someone close to him to stop feeling suicidal, then he just gave up and basically said in the song: "You know what? I don't care if you live or die anymore. It's up to you now, cuz at this point I can't say anything more than I already have." I don't know if that's exactly what it's about or whatever, but by listening to the lyrics and applying my own personal life experiences to the lyrics, that's what I'd assume the song's about. I dunno.

Anyway, so while thinking about what the song was about, I thought about my own personal experiences. I thought about the anger that comes after someone commits suicide or even just seriously talks about doing it. It doesn't quite make any sense to me... I've been at the point where I've wanted to just end my life and step out of everyone else's. It doesn't mean that I don't love these people... At the time, I took it as I love them enough to stop holding them back, to move on and let them to the same. I didn't think of it as leaving them behind.

I don't know how many people think one way or the other, but for me personally it's pretty half and half... bringing up the idea of killing myself gets half of my friends saying, "Don't you fucking do it. I'll never forgive you if you do." and the other half of my friends saying, "I'll love you no matter what, but please don't do it. I love you too much." Either way, it's not a happy subject and nobody wants to lose me [good thing too, heh], but they both seem to only have one of these two completely different views on the after-effects of suicide. There's never an in between.

Personally, my thoughts are if you [in reference to someone close to me, not just general] commit suicide then yes, that's absolutely depressing to me, maybe even devastating depending on how close to me you are, but you couldn't take it anymore. You felt that nothing would ever go right again, or that the pressure was just too much. The fact that you went the way you went doesn't mean you didn't love me, though. And I have no reason to believe otherwise unless you leave me a note or use your last few breaths or something just to tell me how much you hated my guts. Just sayin'.

I can't be angry at someone for taking their own life because (A) it's their life. They were brought into this world against their will; they have the right to leave by choice if they'd prefer not to play the fate game again, (B) according to my belief system, it's not the end for them. They'll simply move on, whether it be a better or worse situation, until they finally find the happiness they so desire, and (C) I loved them, I knew they loved me, and because everything happens for a reason we just weren't meant to keep on living together. All three of those things only means a bittersweet parting for us, which is very, very sad...yes...but they took that road. And there's nothing I can do about it, so I might as well think as positively as I can and move on, right?

I don't understand why someone would be angry at a suicidal person, and even more than that I don't understand why someone would be angry with someone who has successfully commit suicide. I get it in certain situations, like getting frustrated with someone who is so on-off "suicidal" that every other day they call you and say "I'm gonna do it!" until one day you just snap. I get it if the person is only claiming they're suicidal because they're having suicidal thoughts and are merely depressed and wine about it a lot. I get it if the person is just saying they're suicidal for the attention, and you know that. What I don't get is when someone is legit suicidal, they've come to you as a last hope in the life they're living, and your response is anger - which probably doesn't make them want to stay. When you tell someone something like I was once told: "I'll never forgive you if you go through with it," it doesn't make the suicidal person want to stay. It makes them feel even more worthless than they already feel, it cuts them down as a person, and it makes them question you when you claim you care. Why? Because by saying you'll be so angry that you'll even hold a grudge with them beyond the grave, you're also saying "I hate you," or at the very least, "I don't care about you as much as I claim to." I just don't understand. It's like saying you'd rather waste your valuable emotional energy over trying to give them more of a reason to live. And if they really do move on, why the hell would someone actually waste that energy on someone who has long moved on and isn't even with us any longer? Just...why? It makes no sense.

I guess I can't argue with those who are very conflicted feeling as part of their mourning process. I also can't argue with the anger and frustration that may come if you're left a note saying something harsh like "I hate you" or strong like "I always loved you but never could tell you" and wondering why they couldn't just come out and say that before offing themselves. I can't argue with someone being angry because they're blaming themselves either. Those angry emotions sorta make sense...are natural responses...but someone being unable to forgive someone, dead or wanting to die; someone being angry with someone because they came to them and trusted them with the information; someone being angry because they have the mentality that the person didn't care about or love them, or that they "left them behind"...those things I just don't understand.

If someone wants to die and they trust you enough to tell you, there's no point being angry at them unless you don't really care about them and don't honestly want them to stick around. If you're angry at someone, you either care enough to be stern with them and get them to hear you, or -more likely [for me] than not in this suicide situation, you're going to hold a grudge against them, which is just a lack of care, correct? So if you want them to stay, why would your natural response to them saying "I don't know what to do; help me," be to not care? That's what I think anyway. And even if they didn't go to you, maybe they didn't want you to worry about it. Maybe they thought it would be less painful on you to just go rather than spend time with long goodbyes, shedding tears, and losing sleep over it. Maybe they thought a fast break would be healthier for you. That's caring, if they're thinking that hard on it. It doesn't mean they were right, but it also doesn't mean they didn't love you.

Where people get the idea that just because someone commits suicide they didn't love you, I will never understand. That logic makes no sense. You don't know that. You can't read their mind. Unless they say so [one way or another] before they go, then it doesn't make sense how one would think that. A suicidal person tends to avoid EVERYONE, so the "they just started avoiding me all of a sudden...they must have hated me," mentality doesn't make sense...unless that person hated, well, everyone. Also, a suicidal person can get angry or depressed over the smallest things as well, so thinking "they were so angry at me/sad because of me before they died," also doesn't make sense...unless they spat something like "I hate life because of you and everything you put me through" before they left, there's no point in thinking they had a reason to dislike you to the point of suicide. There are other specific scenarios that in which the natural response is to be angry, and I get those, but I don't get how someone can be so angry at the very idea of suicide.

A response I get to this mentality is, "Actions tend to speak louder than words, and having such a lack of care about yourself as to die for it doesn't call for a loving response - it calls for a lack of care from everyone else." I also understand this. I don't agree with it because I do like to be more positive with these sort of things [I can't move on otherwise], but it does make sense. An angry response still doesn't, however. If you don't care at all, why show that you do? Anger can be a sign of "listen to me - I know what's best for you" just as easily as it can be a sign of "I don't give a rat's ass about you." I suppose that slightly goes back on what I have to say in this whole thing, because I'm saying I understand someone being angry because they care enough to tell them "don't you dare go" [meaning they wouldn't hold a grudge against you if you died, however]. But that's about it. Anyway, back to what I was saying: If you believe that if they don't care about themselves, why should you, then exactly that: Why should you care? So you shouldn't be angry at all...and if you are, it only means you cared. In that case, your anger should just be that part of the grieving process I previously mentioned, and once your mind is cleared and you can accept that you cared [and still do] then you have no reason to be angry anymore. You should be able to move on better.

I dunno. There's a lot on my mind and I just figured I'd share that in hopes of clearing someone's mind or something. *shrugs* touchy subject but I felt I had to say what I had to say. If you're reading, feel free to share your opinions as well. I wouldn't mind hearing it.