Return of the Prodigal Hater: The Media, Still Blowing it on the Iraq War. Me, Trying Not To Blow it.

After a blissful couple of weeks of being low on hate and high on love and liking, I'm back to hating man.

I consider myself a part of the periphery of the media. I'm a staff writer for these guys; I'm a skateboard writer, hence, I'm a part of the fringe of the periphery of the media, but still, I try to take media matters seriously, and if in some meager way, apply it to my "journalism."

One of the ways that I attempt to bolster my media mind is by listening to On The Media; I've posted about these guys before. I rarely catch them on the radio, so I've taken to downloading them weekly. Recently I got behind on listening to my downloads, which meant that I started out today with their show from March 21, '08. I'd gotten rather behind.

The 03.21.08 show happened to be a re-cap show of all their coverage of the coverage of the War in Iraq; what a way to ring in a "Fifth Anniversary"! While I was well aware that the media, for that matter, most of the media, had blown their reportage of the war, what I found in the above episode of On The Media was nothing short of puke in your mouth sickening at times. Download it, pod it, and then find an activity where you can listen to the entire episode in entirety. (Note: I'm well aware that On The Media is a criticism show, and that they damn well intended to make me throw up in my mouth. Still, the fact that they can compile 50 minutes of audio that has the ability to do that to me is telling.)

Here's what bums me out, beyond the tragedy that is everything regarding the current war. The whole thing was a good slap in the face for me to get way more proper about my own work. I'd been making a push to slip in a little bit more "real talk" into my pieces, but really, it's a dicey activity. Piss off the wrong people and advertisers walk. Call out a skater and all of a sudden there's someone who will actually try to kick my ass for some dumb comment. Ridicule a video worth ridiculing (or supposedly ridicule a video), and I end up with someone saying "Fuck Gerbik". I don't want to sound like some gigantic pussy for stating all this, but I also want to have fun doing something I love and not worry about bullshit. All the while I find myself cringing while I dance around the fact that so and so skate video should never, under any circumstances, be purchased, and I worry about the feelings of some 16 year old kid while he blatantly lies to me in the middle of an interview.

Fuck it. Time for some "smart real talk," keeping my job, and having fun. And calling out teenagers; we hate them more than ever.

Maybe We Don't Know Shit. So What?

I recently posted about a seemingly local website whose sole purpose is to spread dissent regarding global warming, and climate change, and so on. Even in a hating setting I tried to be, and maybe quoting, fair and balanced, but in this age of Real Talk, one must ask, who actually thinks human induced climate change is fiction? Seriously.

This Slate article highlights the American style of paranoia concerning science. It's a good read, in that, by the second installment, it does reach for an air of fair and balanced by calling, in my words, the good guys, guilty of the same thing that the "bad guys" are attempting and succeeding at.

I've taken to watching C-Span lately, and I watched a program with a speaker who talked about America's general lack of knowledge of how science actually works, and this plays into the idea of "scientific paranoia" quite well, because this lack of know-how just spreads the skepticism that basically flies in the face of what science actually does.

I'm stringing many things together here, and may not know how to untie everything, so I'll just end with a couple of questions that are completely not hypothetical.

-How does God (or god) continue to exist?

-Do people really think, whether they have vested interests or not, that humans are not contributing to climate change?

-Bordering on a rant, how can evolution be held as a theory in the popular concept of the definition of that word, in that, it's a non-conclusive idea? If one were to ask me, which you just did, I would say that the simple fact that life exists without a god is far more astounding than if it does. But that's just me.

-With respect to Bowie, is there life on Mars?

I'm of the opinion that, while not infallible, science should be taken as it is, unless you're a scientist and smart enough to come up with something reasonable that says otherwise. It seems that, as it has been throughout it's history, science will always be under attack by people whose interests lie in science being disproven.

Edit: An aside for creationists with a dogged reasoning.

Lazy Line Player Shame

I’ve recently noticed a disturbing trend in our society: the quality of the lies we are told. Maybe it’s just me, but I have noticed a sharp decline in the caliber of bullshit I’m being fed. I won’t hazard a guess as to why this is, although I’m sure it’s a trend at least five years in the making (WMD’s anyone?).
I remember a time, not too long ago, when I would really have to work my noodle to determine whether someone was lying to me. And even when I had my hunches, I was left with little hard evidence to back myself up. Of late, I’ve been lied to in such flagrant ways, I find myself being less upset about the lying itself, and more upset about how obvious the lie was.
I’ll give you an example. I work for a promotions company, and I’ve got several people that work under me. The job requires that my employees work by them selves, at night, unsupervised (for the most part). So my people are given a lot of freedom and trust, and it’s my job to ensure that they aren’t abusing that independence. I’ve got this one guy who was supposed to work last Saturday. He came into the office the following Monday, and all his paperwork was inaccurate. It suggested that something was rotten in Denmark. After doing only a scant bit of investigatory work, I realized that he hadn’t worked at all on Saturday. I was upset that this guy felt he could pull a fast one and get some money for nothing (to quote perennial favorites, Dire Straits). What upset me even more was that he couldn’t be bothered to come up with a really airtight lie. His lie was so flimsy that I saw through it right away. It was insulting.
I’ve had employees lie to me in the past, and at times, it was like putting together a federal court case. I had to get eyewitnesses, build a tower of evidence, and argue a hard case. I had this fool dead to rights after two phone calls. How stupid does this guy think I am? I mean, I’ve fished my way out of Bullshit Lake on more than one occasion, but I always made it a point to fabricate a decent lie. Maybe I didn’t respect the person enough to tell them the truth, but at least I respected them enough to tell them something palatable.
I’ve come to realize, this whole situation has opened a much larger wound for me. We have been lied to time and time again by our current Bastard in Chief. And just like my employee, he can’t even be bothered to come up with a half-way believable lie. The modern world is a trying place. We are constantly bombarded with so much information about people and things that have nothing to do with us. It’s hard to filter all this content; to feel fear or sorrow or sympathy for situations that have no bearing on our personal lives. “My heart goes out to that baby stuck in a well, but what can I do?” “I sure wish they would stop systematically raping women in Darfur.” “Wouldn’t it be nice if we stopped spending more money on “Defense” than on Education, Welfare and Healthcare COMBINED.”
So we are already left feeling helpless, possibly hopeless, and this cocksucker John Wayne’s his way into the White House, only to spit shit in our ears. It’s bad enough that we have to digest all the world’s ills with no recourse, but now we have to swallow our president’s lies. And they’re not even good lies. They’re not even well-substantiated lies. They’re the kind of flimsy, 2-cent lies you tell yourself because you’re scared and desperate. “Sure I’m spending three grand a week on coke, but I can quit anytime I want.” “I know this guy’s dick is in my mouth, but I really love my wife.” “Iraq is in possession of weapons of mass destruction.”
I’m not saying we need to act like adults and be honest with one another. Adults aren’t honest. No, we need to use our adult brains and tell really good lies. It’s just the decent thing to do.