20250316-differences_distance.txt

I've noticed that a lot of newer shows and movies tend to highlight
differences a lot more than before, at least in the U.S.A. I'm not
sure if it's more profitable or not. I've seen conflicting reports and
I know controversy can drum up an audience just as well as it can
decimate one.

I was going to watch Jeopardy the other night and I ran across...well,
I'll call him an IRL cosplayer. He was a man pretending to be a woman.
I instantly left the room. I absolutely loathe lunatics being given a
platform to spread misinformation and harmful rhetoric, no matter where
one lies on the political spectrum. I used to love Mattea as a
contestant, before she decided that she was a they. This is just
lunacy and the least problematic aspect of this is destroying the
foundation of languages, of communication.

he/she/it
on/ona/ono
er/sie/est
el/ella/el

It works. It's been around for hundreds if not thousands of years. You
know what I've never seen in ancient writings or research? Singulars
other than formal you being treated as plurals.

While I agree that life isn't black and white, it should be when it
makes sense. This is like saying 1+1 doesn't have to equal 2; it can
equal 5. No, it really can't. Fuck off with that nonsense. Yes, there
is a right way and a wrong way to spell a word. That's what Spelling
Bees are all about. Fuck off with your "As long as you can understand
it, it's fine."

I hate the "other" extreme, too. All Mexicans are rapists. All
immigrants were kicked out of other countries. No and no. Fuck off
with that nonsense.

I miss the 1990s not purely due to nostalgia, but also because things
made fucking sense. Politicians catered to the middle instead of the
fucking extremists. While I know that BET has been around for decades,
I don't understand why Nertflerx needs to have a fucking lineup
dedicated to "black" or "Black" people. All phrasing and marketing
like that does is highlight differences and, consciously or not,
segregates and separates people in people's minds. It leads to the
very thing these do-gooders are supposedly trying to prevent: treating
people differently based on skin color.

I'm just sick of it. People are people. You can say that certain
biological characteristics point to certain heritages, but you cannot
tell me that having a different color of skin makes you fundamentally
different than me and every other person with the same melatonin
levels. Fuck off with that nonsense.

I may have mentioned it before, but I remember watching a reunion for
The Secret World of Alex Mack. The actor who played Vince brought up
something that really resonated with me, although I do dislike that it
somewhat changed my interpretation of the show: the show handled
racism how it should have been handled: by treating all the characters
as people instead of putting them into labeled boxes. Kids are kids.
Now that I look back on it, Alex had 2 "black" friends throughout the
majority of the show. And you know what bearing that had on the show?
Absolutely nothing. This is what I mean when I said it changed my
interpretation: for decades I never looked at the kids as anything but
kids. That's not only sane, it's right.

It's disturbing seeing common sense become uncommon. It's disturbing
seeing wrong things, like running red lights, become normal, or "no
big deal." I've more or less been apolitical my entire life. I just
voted for the party I belonged to because I assumed they'd serve my
interests better. Now more than ever before I'm questioning whether
any of the "finalists" are even acceptable choices. It's really bad
when you really do have to choose the lesser of two evils.

I think a lot of this precipitated from web tracking. Crazy as that
may sound, the rise of tracking habits and opinions has led to these
"search engines" that are basically digital billboards of
misinformation nowadays recommending things based on your traffic.
While that can lead to what you "want," it also cuts out a lot of
viewpoints that may differ. I believe for any healthy society there
needs to be communication and tolerance from other sides, barring
extremism. If you think hunting for sport is fine, then talk to
someone who doesn't without making it a shouting match. Especially on
social media and discussion threads, the ease of which to ban anyone
who doesn't fall in line with the majority belief really destroys any
dissenting opinions. It's horrible. You end up with echo chambers of
like-minded individuals fueling hate and tribalism and "canceling"
anyone who disagrees with maybe less than 1% of the prevailing
rhetoric. It works just like a microphone feedback loop and the
deafening roar is intolerable to anyone who listens.

As a Democrat, I'm supposed to believe that heterosexual "white" men
are monsters, apparently. That's me. I'm supposed to feel evil because
I'm not a "minority" in the U.S. Census meaning of the word. I'm
definitely a minority when it comes to tech. I'm the only me out
there. And I suspect I'm not alone when it comes to the opinions
described above, not that anyone can visibly or audibly support me.
I'm supposed to act like every non-"normal" person, like people with
identity disorders, should be encouraged to be something they're not
instead of being treated for mental illness like they should be. I got
over white man's guilt and not knowing how to treat people in
wheelchairs long ago. Treat people like people. Don't assume just
because someone has a disability that they're automatically better or
sweeter or something than "normal" people or they should be treated
like a baby bird. Outside of very few circumstances like not giving them
dirty looks for parking in handicap spots, there's no reason to treat
them any differently at all. That should go for everyone.

I don't know. It's just so frustrating being moderate and having to
deal with the absolute lunatics that are reinforced in their
nonsensical beliefs. I've said it before and I'll said it again:
anyone who actually cares about equality calls himself or herself an
egalitarian, not a feminist, activist, anarchist, woke, based, or
whatever. Pointing out differences just distances people from each
other.

"Stop talking about it."
-Morgan Freeman when asked about how to stop racism