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| Baaaa. |
Libel – a) defamation by written or printed words, pictures, or in any form other than by spoken
words or gestures. b) the act or crime
of publishing it. (via dictionary.reference.com)
I know it’s corny as shit to start anything, written or
spoken, with a dictionary definition, but I have a point to prove.
The internet has allowed me a great deal. It’s allowed me
the ability to keep in contact with my friends and family despite living 2,000
miles away from most of them. It’s allowed me the ability to have most any
piece of information just a couple keyclicks…then waiting…then refreshing the
page…
Christ, I need a new router. Like, something awful.
Anyway, the point of all that was with the good, you have to
take the bad. Personally, I think the definition of “bad” on the internet is
the YouTube comment section. If you’ve never taken the time to actually read
the comments and reviews that accompany your bootlegged listen of “The Stroke”
by Billy Squier, you are in for an absolute treasure trove of hate speech,
including what I think is every simpleminded permutation of Barack Obama’s name
one might possibly find funny, poor spelling and grammar (including my personal
pet peeve, extending words by putting 8 or 9 vowels in them. It shouldn’t take you 9 “o”s to say “you”),
spamming (if this blogging thing poops out, did you know I can make THOUSANDS
OF DOLLARS by working from the comfort of my own home???) and any and every
hateful thing one might think to say about the musical artist in question.
Except Nickelback. The internet seems to universally and
unconditionally love them.
If you have a Facebook or Twitter account, you’ve probably
engaged in similar behavior. I’ve found that posting with people’s real names
attached tends to cut down on the N-bombs that are thrown out, though, and
that’s always nice. But some of the anonymous “YouTube” behavior tends to still
migrate, and two of the worst culprits are converging at once: politics and
sports. The election season has a way of bringing out the worst in too many
people. I believe we all have that one person in our day to day interactions
that not only has a different political opinion than you, but can’t let one
post on your Facebook wall pass without a “Barack HUSSEIN Obummer” reference (there’s
those stupid permutations again). Too
often, these are the same people who want to degrade you personally because of
who you choose to vote for or support.
Sports has become no different, especially in the post-ESPN
“He who is loudest wins” world. I will be the first person to gleefully admit
that I’ve most likely said some horrible stuff about your favorite sports team.
However, there’s a line between trashing someone’s sports team and trashing
them personally. I can vouch for being
in a conversation about the vociferousness of a particular team’s fan base that
turned into someone actually saying I defended a specific group of fans that
beat a pregnant female fan of a rival team. If you actually read the story that I linked to, you'll see the woman herself indicated the beating had absolutely nothing to do with football and was completely random. When I asked the person in question
to either prove the statement or retract it, they did neither. In fact, it was
actually suggested that I was the one with the problem because I was the one
bothered by it, and I was a “butthurt crybaby” who “couldn’t take it”. I even
won an award for it, apparently, which I expect in the mail within the next 6
to 8 weeks.
This ignorant shit was actually communicated to me, as you can see for yourself if you choose to click on the links.
So there it sits. Anyone in the world who might stumble upon
his Twitter account can read it. According to the definition listed at the
beginning of the post, that’s libel.
In a world where social networking searches are becoming an
increasingly common part of any job search or promotion, I really don’t want to
have to come home to Bug and say “Hey, you know that job I just interviewed
for? Yeah, I didn’t get it because they did a Google search of my name and
think I support beating pregnant women for wearing the wrong team’s colors”. Then she takes a literal chunk out of whoever
wrote it, which leads to me having to start spending my weekends visiting her
in jail, and I really don’t like jail. Those Cinemax “women in prison” movies
are BULLSHIT.
When you write something on the internet, no matter how big
of a jerkoff or a joke you think it might be, ANYONE can see it. The internet
isn’t your back porch, or your basement, or your mommy’s house. It’s a place
where things said can have very real consequences. Examples of idiot douchebags
losing their jobs over some nonsensical shit on their social networking
accounts are too large to list here. The fact that I feel like this should even
have to come up is ridiculous and kind of embarrassing. Then again, so’s not
getting a job or promotion because someone ties up way too much of their own
self-worth into their college sports teams.
And if I’m a “crybaby” for objecting to my name being tied
to something like defending domestic violence, then boo fucking hoo.*
*The alternative to writing all this was just
writing on the internet that they sleep with sheep. Then it’s alleged that they sleep with sheep.
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| "Blue Chips" is a great movie. |
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I might have another post later today, but at the least, I
invite your abuse as I’ll be live-tweeting the West Virginia/Kansas State game
tonight. By the end of the night, people might have me defending war crimes. @johnathanrush
Enjoy the day.
Rush
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