Life is riddled with a procession of minor impediments

[ZenArcade]

Didn't know Macclesfield was 20 miles below Belfast. X

[Banners]

Slow moving trucks on single-carriage A roads. In Wales.

[TordelBack]

I use Twitter as a sort of personalised magazine digest thing, rather than a social whatever, following mainly folk whose work or wit I find interesting - but  I make a point of including a spread of people whose views I generally don't share, because engaging with opposing ideas shapes or changes  your own far better than nodding along.  I try to pick the smarter, politer types from the latter category, because life is short, and there's a better chance of learning something if I'm not puce-faced with indignation.

But then sometimes, as this morning,  I follow links back from one of my anti-tweeps well-argued contra-pieces, and disappear down a boiling rabbit hole of hate that runs for miles beneath the polite surface.  What the hell is wrong with people? How did they end up thinking like this? How many of them are there?  Do they actually mean this stuff they write?  Do they practice it? How can public figures, who present themselves as calm and rational, act as the face for this constituency of the vile?

Feck. I mean feck. What a world.

[IAMTHESYSTEM]

I use Twitter as a sort of personalised magazine digest thing, rather than a social whatever, following mainly folk whose work or wit I find interesting - but  I make a point of including a spread of people whose views I generally don't share, because engaging with opposing ideas shapes or changes  your own far better than nodding along.  I try to pick the smarter, politer types from the latter category, because life is short, and there's a better chance of learning something if I'm not puce-faced with indignation.

But then sometimes, as this morning,  I follow links back from one of my anti-tweeps well-argued contra-pieces, and disappear down a boiling rabbit hole of hate that runs for miles beneath the polite surface.  What the hell is wrong with people? How did they end up thinking like this? How many of them are there?  Do they actually mean this stuff they write?  Do they practice it? How can public figures, who present themselves as calm and rational, act as the face for this constituency of the vile?

Feck. I mean feck. What a world.

Humans are territorial apes in disguise and have baggage from upbringing,environment and malfunctioning brain. Prejudice is endemic in all societies and is used as a weapon against individuals or groups seen  as being outside society's norms. Derogatory words are often associated with them and since the abuser usually perceives their target as a threat or simply weak they believe they can be bullied with very little come back. The ease that social media can be used from phones laptops etc has allowed the malicious 24/7 access to it spit bile at the world and anyone they just don't like at that moment. We've all heard of trolling and it's sometimes grin consequences.
Also by insulting someone you identify yourself as his opponent or opposite and this used on social media sites  is often congratulated by other like minded souls who share the same prejudices. Social reinforcement is a powerful tool so the abuser always comes back for more and there's been a whole dearth of people from celebrities to sports personalities who have left social media such is the dire threats they receive. Anyway you sound disturbed and I believe you're from Ireland so I hope it wasn't anything sectarian or indeed racist. There are plenty of good people in the world though sometimes they're not the most vocal of sorts.   

[TordelBack]

Ach it was just the usual ultra-sexist drivel, but what disturbs is how it lies just one level below the Twitter accounts of people who present themselves as rigorous intellectual critics of various contemporary trends and assumptions - folk who I disagree with, but whose arguments often have a nugget of truth or insight that tempers my own views, or at least allow me to develop a thoughtful response.

And then to find these supposedly  mild-mannered opponents of 'emotion-led special pleading' to be citing and linking to blogs filled with the vilest kind of reactionary hate, built around the shallowest misappropriated 'evolutionary' and 'natural order' tenets, and decked out with comment threads nested a thousand deep full of braying self-satisfied pricks...

Of course giving in to the view that humanity is fecked because it's dickheads all the way down is exactly what these creatures would have you do. So I won't, but sheesh, does this go on in the heads of people I actually know? I mean I've been around a while now, and I can usually spot a shithead quite promptly, but the sheer quantity of these jerks and the duplicity of their figureheads... I don't know.

[IAMTHESYSTEM]

Yes sadly there are many such sites dedicated to misogyny. You have to wonder where they get such strange ideas but of course I suspect the Internet is actually contributing to human stupidity rather than helping to eradicate it. Before extreme views on conspiracy theories to Racial ones were mostly localized in certain area usually around a shop or physical premises. But the Internet has shed any such localizing constraints and extreme and bilious views can be spouted by the faithful from anywhere on the Planet pumping out propaganda 24/7. Ghastly ISIS have become masters at this dark craft convincing others to come join the Caliphate while revelling the slaughter of unbelievers with bloody videos,Web page rants etc.
Some people once they have establish what they believe to be the truth are more than willing to impose it on others and any attempt at dissuading them seems to only reinforce the belief that they must be right all along.
There is a a group in America called Christians against Dinosaurs which believe that Paleontologists spend their time building model fossils,hiding them in the ground then 'discovering' them. Against such pre existing bias and since they clearly believe in the truth of the Bible above any other explanation you can do almost  nothing to change their minds. Their minds are closed to any outside rational discourse. Perhaps you can't educate away prejudice and irrational belief systems as easily as some enlightened thinkers once believed a miserable indictment of the human condition.

[von Boom]

Remember, you can't spell twitter without a twit at one end.

[The Legendary Shark]

Ah, the joys of living in a tent. The campsite was practically empty and I was looking forward to a night of uninterrupted sleep before rising at 3am to go to work. But no. With a whole empty field to choose from I now have two immediate neighbours.
.
On my left, Bob Ross clone Captain Kumbayah and his Happy Clappy Kiddies and, on my right, several mountainous ladies of the Shameless Weightwatchers' Club and their assorted flubberous broods. Ffs.

[Fungus]

On my left, Bob Ross clone Captain Kumbayah and his Happy Clappy Kiddies and, on my right, several mountainous ladies of the Shameless Weightwatchers' Club and their assorted flubberous broods. Ffs.

And I thought you were a writer, Falcon. Talk about material 

[Hawkmumbler]

Sounds like the set up for a Monty Python sketch. One of the naff one's.

[Woolly]

On my left, Bob Ross clone Captain Kumbayah and his Happy Clappy Kiddies...

[The Legendary Shark]

I am a writer, Fungus but, as Hawks suggests, one of the naff ones. Good pic, Woolly, but not enough thatch. I may be out of the tent soon - there might be an old mobile library up for grabs in a month or two. (And I do like the idea of living in one of those - but if I do I might be expected to start solving crimes...)

[Professor Bear]

This sounds like writing gold to me.

[Grugz]

we are still be bugged by cryptosporidium in t'bit of lancashire  we reside in ,but I forgot this morning and brushed my teeth with tap water!!! 


but the morphine I'm on has bunged me up so either I wont explode or it'll just wait to see if my back/hip/displaced disk? gets better and then find out.

[Tjm86]

Slow moving trucks on single-carriage A roads. In Wales.

Is there any other type of driving experience in Wales?  If it's not slow moving trucks it's tractors, caravans, motorhomes or geriatrics that can barely see over the wheel!  What do you expect in a country that only has about 50 miles of motorway to its name?