Sonoma County Fair and Republican Debate

Posted on 07 Aug 2015 by Frank Moraes

I had a problem yesterday. I got over to the Sonoma County Fair. But I realized that the last bus gets to my house at around 7:00 pm. Stupid me for living in the suburbs. But that meant that no matter how lost I was in the arts and crafts of the fair, I was going to get home with much of the Republican presidential debate still going on. For those of you who want to know what I thought, scroll down to “The Evil No Good Debate” below. For the rest of you, let me wax a bit about the fair.

That photo up there shows something shocking: people standing in line to pay five bucks for four photographs from one of those photo booths. I love those things. But literally everyone has a phone with a camera in it. And there were about a dozen of these booths right there. So clearly, it is a thing. It makes me long for the days when people would go to the fair and the only photographs they would come home with were from these booths. But if people are reliving their childhoods, or just forcing their own kids to, that’s fine with me.

My favorite part of the fair is looking at the arts and crafts done by local people. It really does make me optimistic about the world. People actually compete to see who is the best at canning food. How do you not love that? Every year there are all kinds of beautiful quilts and knitted and embroidered stuff — really gorgeous work. And then there is the art. I was particularly taken with the watercolors this year. It’s amazing, but subjects that I would find boring in oil, are compelling in watercolor. Or maybe that was just how I was feeling today. The photography was also great.

But there is a whole building with stuff done by children — much of it through school programs. There on the right is a picture of some of the poster papers that the kids put together. In the top right is far more than you would ever want to know about chicken anatomy. Below it is one on photography tips that explains just about everything you would get from taking a class. There were other things. Some of the kids made some amazing furniture. There were toys. There was also electrical wiring and joint welding. I really think the post-apocalypse is going to be okay.

But more than being impressed with the kids — which I am — I’m impressed that they have these opportunities. They have schools and parents that support them. They are able to afford the costs of the projects. They have enough self-esteem to be willing to do it. It is clear that society is working for these kids. It bothers me very much that we don’t do the same for all kids — even in this location. But I know it’s possible. And very clearly, the children thrive when treated as they should be.

The Evil No Good Debate

And then I got home. I actually saw very little of the debate. It was on in the background, but I didn’t seek it out. I saw two parts — and they were not representative in the sense that they only involved two of the candidates. But they were very representative in being totally worthless. In the first one, Rand Paul and Chris Christie got into a very personal fight about NSA bulk collection of data. They’ve been on this for months. And bravo to Fox News for getting them to do it face to face. The thing is that Rand Paul is totally right. But he doesn’t make a good argument for it. And Chris Christie is able to demagogue the issue brilliantly.

The second bit also featured Rand Paul. He was explaining why he didn’t want to give aid to Israel. But he demagogued the issue. He said he didn’t want to continue to give foreign aid to “countries that hate us.” The crowd went wild. Of course, these the same people who think half the federal budget is foreign aid. (It’s actually about 1% — at that includes a lot of quid pro quo.) So that didn’t thrill me. But it is rare that I meet a conservative who doesn’t think we could balance the budget if we just stopped being so generous to other countries.

The Sonoma Country Fair is the sort of thing that the Republicans would claim to stand for. But they actually want to destroy everything that it is. Because ultimately, it is about community and caring for each other. And I understand that they would respond that it is all about the voluntary nature of it. Mike Huckabee is for feeding the poor, as long as the church does it and not the government. But he’s tipped his hand. He doesn’t think he should ever have to pay more than 10% of his millions — which just doesn’t work in a modern society.

What’s more, a lot of the stuff that I saw today was the result of our public education system. During Rick Perry’s “Oops!” moment in 2012, along with the departments of commerce and energy (which he couldn’t remember), he wanted to get rid of education. All the Republicans want to get rid of public education. As much as they may talk about “equality of opportunity,” it is the last thing they want. They want the rich to send their kids to the best schools in existence. Yet they don’t want the rich to be compelled to spare one Confederate nickel to provide poor children any kind of opportunity at all.

So there you go: during the day, I saw the best of what we are. And during the evening, I saw the worst of what we are. I understand why people have a hard time supporting the Democratic Party. It really is highly tainted. But I have no idea why anyone would ever vote Republican.

Meghan Trainor, Fat Shaming, and the Health Myth

Posted on 25 Jul 2015 by Frank Moraes

I often think of something Fabienne says in Pulp Fiction, “It’s unfortunate what we find pleasing to the touch and pleasing to the eye is seldom the same.” It doesn’t especially mean anything other than that our ideas about beauty are arbitrary. And I’m fine with that. But what most bothers me about the modern world is that we have convinced ourselves that what is pleasing to the eye is healthy.

And it turns out that it really isn’t. What’s more, there was never any reason to think that it was. It seems too obvious that what’s really gone on is that society decided to shame the ugly people because the biggest prejudice in society is against the ugly — and especially the fat.

One of the problems with the constant concern trolling about obesity is that it actually is bad to be very overweight. But regardless of how we ought to try to help people with body mass indexes (BMI) over 40, our societal focus seems to be on “helping” people that are far less overweight.

Meghan Trainor Is Fat?!

Consider, for example, Meghan Trainor — she’s that young woman who does that “All About the Bass” song. I had lunch with Will the other day and he mentioned that people were talking about how fat she is, even though her dress size is 12. I replied, “You mean less than the average dress size of American women.” Yep. That’s what passes for fat in modern America!

I found some statistics on Ms Trainor. She is supposedly 150 pounds and five foot two. That makes her BMI around 27. This is considered “overweight.” It’s weird, right? She is thinner than the average American woman.

But that’s not all. French women have the lowest BMI in all of Europe: 23. And that is distinctly on the high side of “normal.” English women are on average about where Trainor is. Maybe it is time to reconsider what is normal.

Unhealthy Weight?

I can hear the outraged responses to this, “But that weight is unhealthy!” Well, let’s just start by noting that this belief is not based upon data. This is Madison Avenue defining what is healthy.

Recent research has found that being modestly overweight is not bad for people. In fact, a two-decade-long study involving a million people found that people in the “overweight” category (BMI 25-30), were actually 6% less likely to die during the study period. So this isn’t about being healthy. And in my experience, people don’t get a lot of positive feedback for making positive changes in their lifestyles if it doesn’t lead to weight loss.

New Data

Well, we have another study. Aaron Carroll provided the overview, What Are the Healthcare Costs of Obesity? And what it found is that, as expected, obese people consume a lot more of our healthcare dollars. But it isn’t about the “overweight” (BMI: 25-30) or even the class 1 “obese” (30-35). The study found no significant increase in healthcare costs for them. But the costs go up exponentially from there.

Now I don’t especially care about healthcare costs. We already pay far too much for healthcare in this country — for purely political reasons. Trying to blame it on the fat or the old or whatever seems a pretty vile approach.

But I am interested in the way that people will use a study like this to go on shaming fat people — Like Meghan Trainor! — because they’ve decided that fat starts at a 25 BMI. It’s ridiculous.

If people want to hate fat people, have at it! I’ll just write them off as I do with all the other bigots of the world. But let’s not pretend that this bigotry is about concern for the health of our heavier friends.

Meghan Trainor by Ashley Graham under CC BY 3.0.

My Many Last Names: Moraes, Morris, and Morias

Posted on 24 Jul 2015 by Frank Moraes

I have a Portuguese last name, so it isn’t surprising that I get a lot of junk mail from Brazil and generally from Portuguese and Spanish language sources. What is perhaps not as understandable is that I get a lot of junk mail from India. I don’t know why, but Moraes is apparently an Indian name. I first learned this in graduate school when I was introduced to the poet Dom Moraes. And then later I learned of his father who is aggravatingly named Frank Moraes. A Google search on that name brings me up as the second result. But even I must admit that the other Frank Moraes is far more deserving.

There is another aspect of this: my last name really shouldn’t be Moraes. That is one of those wonderful errors immigration and family history. It all started when my grandfather moved to the United States from the Azores. As immigration officials seemed to love doing, they changed his last name to Morris. This means that my given name was Frank Morris. You may know that name, because he was the mastermind behind the daring Alcatraz escape. But I don’t feel that bad about it, because Frank Morris doesn’t seem to have been a bad guy. He hadn’t done anything particularly bad to find himself on Alcatraz, and he was clearly a smart guy.

For some reason, when I was very young, my father got it into his head to change his (our) last name back to the original name. But he was apparently kind of confused on the name and had it changed to “Moraes.” It should have been “Morais.” How I wish it had been! For one thing, it looks cooler. But for another, the vast majority of people can’t see my last name without slipping an “l” into it and making it the hugely popular Spanish last name, “Morales.” But there is no “l.” Really, I would know.

But I don’t mind having my name linked to India. I have a fondness for the country. I have an addiction for the food. And I love the culture. I most especially like Hinduism. It isn’t the theology of it, because I must admit to not understanding that very well. But I love all it’s gods. Vishnu has four arms. I have to say, I would take Christianity a lot more seriously if it would show a little creativity like that. But no: the whole Judeo-Christian tradition is so wedded to humanity! It’s narcissistic.

So I got this junk mail for an Amar Chitra Katha subscription. This is apparently India’s biggest selling comic book series. And one of them was for “Tales of Arjuna.” It looked really cool! He is the protagonist of the Mahabharata. He’s always pictured with a bow and arrow. That’s him in the picture above. No extra arms. No blue skin. Of course, Arjuna is not a god. I’ll have to read about him some day when I have the time.

Another thing I’d like to do when I have the time is to change my last name to Morais. It isn’t just that I like the name. I like the idea of doing it just because it messes up the whole process of record keeping. But if governmental officials are going to change cool names like Morais into insipid ones like Morris, then the whole process deserves to be messed with.

Anniversary Post: Sliced Bread

Posted on 07 Jul 2015 by Frank Moraes

On this day in 1928, the best thing since sliced bread was sliced bread. That’s because it was on this day that sliced bread was first brought to market by the Chillicothe Baking Company. Apparently, the bread slicing machine had been around for 16 years before that. But no one thought to start selling sliced bread. And do you wanna know why that is? Because it is really kind of silly. Who needs pre-sliced breads?!

Look, I grew up with sliced bread. At one time, it boggled my mind that pre-sliced bread had to be invented. After all, doesn’t everyone want their bread sliced eventually? Why not have it done before you buy it? Well, I have to admit that when I was a kid, I thought it was a great idea that the televisions that they made in the Soviet Union didn’t have a volume control — it just had a single volume. (I have no idea whether that was just Cold War propaganda or not.) I thought, “Great! Perfect volume!” But of course, it wasn’t the perfect volume. It was just the volume. Well, it’s the same thing about bread, and I think most bread is sliced too thin.

Regardless, it just isn’t hard to slice your own bread. There are many great time saving conveniences to come out of the 20th century. The washing machine comes to mind. But pre-sliced bread does not. I’m not against it. But it just doesn’t much matter. The only reason that anyone thinks it matters is because they are used to it. Sliced bread is typical of American consumerism: it fills a manufactured need. The true creativity is convincing people that they need it.

Given this, I think we should change the phrase, “The best thing since sliced bread!” We should say it ironically. Supposed that The History Channel put out another Swamp People reality show. We could say, “That’s the best thing since sliced bread!” It would be perfect. For one thing, it would be a new show that no one is asking for. No one would actually want it. Yet after it was available, people would wonder how they ever got along without it. We could even combine the phrase with another of my favorites phrases, “That’s the best thing since sliced bread, because people are dumb as a bag of rocks.”

But happy birthday sliced bread!

The Eccentric Bernhard Goetz’s Squirrel

Posted on 01 Jul 2015 by Frank Moraes

If you are my age, you know Bernhard Goetz as the “Subway Vigilante.” And that’s about the end of it. At first, he was presented as this guy who acted in self-defense against some thugs on the train. Later he seemed more like and angry guy who used the crime that is everywhere in the big city as a way to legally shoot some people. It is hard to know what to think. The incident itself is one I have actual experience with where some young man will technically be panhandling, but with a clear threat of violence if you don’t hand over some money. And most of the young men involved in the case did not go on to do themselves proud.

But to add to the complexity of the man, the Daily News reported Monday, Subway Vigilante Bernie Goetz Fighting the Possible Eviction of His Pet Squirrel. It seems that for years, Goetz has been involved in squirrel rescue in New York. According to Wikipedia, “He installs squirrel houses, feeds squirrels, and performs first aid.” And he currently has a pet squirrel in his apartment that has been the source of much controversy. It is illegal to keep a squirrel in New York. And the landlord wants it out. Fair enough, but can we at least say that the landlord is a jerk? Yes we can!

The squirrel is named Glinda’s Sister and she is a rescue. She had her back left leg surgically amputated, and her right leg is paralyzed. There was apparently an infestation of moths caused by Glinda’s Sister’s rotting food. But this has now been taken care of. The landlord claims that one of the tenants has complained about “screeching in the walls.” I don’t think this is Glinda’s Sister’s fault. It seems to me she is just going to get blamed for anything any rodent does in a three block radius. I don’t see why they can’t leave this poor squirrel alone.

Regardless, this isn’t the only oddity of our man Bernhard Goetz. He is also a vegetarian and is a big advocate for the practice — trying to get vegetarian meals offered at public schools in the New York area. He’s also a supporter of cannabis legalization and instant runoff elections. Other than his great interest in guns, and paranoia about security, he seems rather like my kind of guy. But really: no one who administers first-aid to squirrels is all bad.

I think that Bernhard Goetz is a classic American crank. And I mean that in a good way. He has those things he’s interested in — squirrels, cannabis, instant runoffs, and shooting thugs on the subway — and he is proudly committed to them. All of this makes him what is most important: interesting. He isn’t just another boring guy. You know who is just another boring guy: George Zimmerman. But then, Zimmerman is no Bernhard Goetz. But it should be clear that no one is. I hope he gets to keep his squirrel.

Car Shows and Father’s Days

Posted on 21 Jun 2015 by Frank Moraes

It was Father’s Day today, and so I spend part of it with my father. And we spent it as we usually do, over at the Father’s Day car show that they have here in Santa Rosa. My father — like many men of his generation — is very interested in cars. He has restored a 1950 Buick. It’s the car with a grill that looks like it is going to eat you. Personally, I’m not that fond of it. I’m not that fond of any cars. They are just noisy, smelling things that create no sense of romance in me.

My disinterest is not a generational thing. I know a lot of people my age who have much the same feelings about more modern technologies like computers and phones. I also don’t care about these things. It’s not that I feel above people who are into these things. I have my own fascinations, as regular readers of this website will know. For example, if there were a puppet exhibit every year, I’d definitely go. Or a conference on Don Quixote, I’d look forward to it every year. But let’s face it: these car folks are not “my people.” I mean, good God, they spend tens of thousands of dollars restoring old cars!

What I noticed about myself as we walked along is that I’m attracted to colors. “Oh, there’s a pretty car!” And all that means is that it’s red or orange or some shades of green. And I kind of like little boxy cars from the 1950s and 1960s. But mostly, I look at the convertibles and think, “What a death trap! Why isn’t there a roll bar on that?!” My father’s 1950 Buick had to have seat belts added because they didn’t come with the car. Of course, even if you don’t die in a collision, you might die from the CO emitted by the inefficient combustion.

But at one point, I came upon this late 1950s Chevrolet Impala that sums up car shows to me. In the back seat was a sign instructing people, “No Touching.” I understand. People spend a lot of money on these things. Then again, it isn’t like they are Modigliani paintings. They are old devices that have been cleaned up good. What’s the point of having them if you can’t, you know, use them. But the other aspect is the coarse — and implicitly sexist — joke: only nude people in that car!

The kicker is that it has a grammar error, “No touching Impalas unless your [sic] in the nude!!” Again, I’m not placing myself above these people. They are just different. They care about cars and I care about at least getting the grammar right on a professionally printed sign. It’s a clash of cultures. Clearly, I think mine is superior or I wouldn’t have it. But I know that isn’t an objective truth. And regardless, what’s most important is to spend a little time with dad, even though he would surely see me as some kind of space alien if he weren’t so used to me by now.

There Are Smaller Things to Fear Than Sharks

Posted on 20 Jun 2015 by Frank Moraes

After the two shark attacks inside of two hours on the same North Carolina beach, it’s not surprising that people get shook up. It could be that normal prey were in the area that attracted the sharks. Or it could just be a statistical fluke. Regardless, it is good that both victims were given immediate help and survived — albeit with life changing wounds. I haven’t been able to find any information on what kind of sharks they were, but one eye-witness said one of the sharks was about seven feet long. My guess would be that it was either a blacktip or bull shark. The blacktips are more common, but the bulls are more likely to attack.

Although I love and respect sharks, I really won’t go in the water. Blame it on Jaws. But I find it amazing that people actually dive with big and dangerous sharks — including great whites. But that’s their business. In general, being around sharks is a lot safer than you would think. For one thing, most sharks aren’t that aggressive. But even the supposed “man eaters” don’t really see us as prey. We are too boney. Not that this is much comfort to someone who just had her arm bitten off.

Christopher Ingraham wrote a good article following these recent shark attacks, The Animals That Are Most Likely to Kill You This Summer. He noted that people tend to dismiss concerns about shark attacks by pointing out things like heart attacks or traffic accidents. These really aren’t very helpful because the fear is not just about dying but the manner of death. Being bitten in half is not how most of us want to go — although it is probably better than getting mauled to death by a bear.

He put together an infographic that lays out our risks. It’s interesting. Looking at the United States from 2001 to 2013, we find that on average, only one person is killed per year by sharks, alligators, and bears. Venomous snakes and reptiles kill six. Spiders kill seven. And shockingly, nine people are killed by non-venomous arthropods — I assume ants. What’s up with that? Let me just say right now that I would rather be killed by a shark.

Similarly, bees and such kill almost 60 people per year. They are the biggest animal killers. But I’m more interested in the animals that we choose to be around — the ones we think of as our friends. Cows kill a lot of people — not because they are mean, but because they are big and people work with them. But dogs are responsible for 28 deaths per year. I’ve written about this, Dog Violence Is Completely Unacceptable. Too often it is one of those aggressive dogs that men with small penises refuse to castrate — usually resulting in the deaths of children and pregnant woman. Horses also kill a lot of people.

But the truth is that we shouldn’t worry about animals killing us. Mistakes made in US hospitals result in roughly 100,000 deaths each year. It’s important to keep things in perspective. Just the same, I don’t see myself making a categorical statement like, “Don’t go into the hospital!”

Whiny Comedians Are Just Growing Old

Posted on 18 Jun 2015 by Frank Moraes

You may have heard the recent brouhaha regarding Jerry Seinfeld who claims that he no longer performs at colleges because all those mean kids are so politically correct. He specifically complained about the fact that one of his jokes doesn’t play because of the sensitivities of the youngins. On Late Night With Seth Meyers, he said, “I do this joke about the way people justify their cell phone — ‘I need to have it with me’ — because people are so important. Well they don’t seem very important the way you scroll through them like a gay French king…” My first reaction was that maybe the reason that joke doesn’t work that well is because it isn’t that good a joke.

There is the common response to that, which I’ve heard for years from professional comedians, “If people don’t laugh, it isn’t funny; if they do laugh, it is.” I agree with that. That’s why I try very hard to say “I didn’t think that was funny” rather than “that wasn’t funny.” The truth is that something I don’t find funny at one moment I might find hilarious at a different moment. What’s more, different kinds of people like different kinds of humor. But here is Jerry Seinfeld explaining that his joke just is funny and there is something wrong with the kids who don’t find it funny. Could it be that Seinfeld is now 40 years older than the college kids and the problem is with him? Could it be that he’s like the old Borscht Belt comedians who didn’t get Lenny Bruce?

I was listening to Sam Seder the other day and he was talking about Seinfeld’s recent whining. He wasn’t sympathetic — but for a very interesting reason. He said that he was a huge Sam Kinison fan in the 1980s. Now Kinison was known for pushing the envelope of what was considered acceptable. And so there were always television talking heads discussing what Kinison had recently said that was totally over the line. And, Seder said, it seemed that there would always be Jerry Seinfeld there as the example of the “good” comedian. And Seinfeld, while not criticizing Kinison, would talk about how he worked clean — or something along the lines of what those Borscht Belt comedians used to say when they facilitated the attacks on Lenny Bruce. So to Seder, there’s a kind of hypocrisy in what Seinfeld is doing now. Of course, the great irony is that Kinison was in trouble because he was pushing comedy forward; Seinfeld is upset because he’s being left behind.

Nathan Rabin wrote an excellent editorial about this over at The Los Angeles Times, Seinfeld and Maher: More Cranky Than Comic These Days. This sums up his point:

Both comedians seem to think they are taking stands against oppressive touchiness, but when I watch them rant, I think of old men yelling at kids to get off their front lawns. They see that their jokes don’t get the responses they once did, but instead of blaming themselves, they blame the world.

Maher is an even bigger issue for me. I’ve never liked Jerry Seinfeld. I’ve always thought he was a middle of the road comedian doing tired observational humor. And I thought the show was so hateful that I had a hard time getting into it. But Maher is a different matter. He does wear his politics on his sleeve. And even though I disagree with him a fair amount, I admire the attempt. At least he has an edge. But he falls into brainless libertarianism and I tune him out. Humor depends upon the listener’s connection to the truth of the material. When a joke is premised on something that goes entirely against my worldview, it is jarring and so not funny. I’m the wrong audience for the joke. But if Bill Maher is performing for an audience of people like me, it’s his fault a joke dies, not ours. He is not paid to stand up there on the stage and say things that he wants to say; he’s paid to entertain us.

No comedian is perfect. It’s a hard job. But the fact that Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Maher may not get quite as big a laugh on some of their jokes is hard to be sympathetic to. There are new comedians who are up on stage alone dying night after night. Seinfeld ($800 million dollars) and Maher ($30 million) are rich men. They don’t need to perform at all. In fact, if they stopped performing, they would provide some room for up and coming comedians. But the least they can do is to stop whining. None of us care.

Thoughts on So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed

Posted on 05 Jun 2015 by Frank Moraes

I just read Jon Ronson’s newest book, So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed. It is probably his best book yet. Then again, maybe it’s just that I am really interested in the subject of public shaming — and shame more generally. But it was my intention to just read a couple of chapters and move on. Instead, I ended up reading almost the whole thing in one sitting. It really draws the reader in — especially anyone who is active in public life, even if that just means sending out a lot of tweets.

It is my fear of public shaming that stops me from being more involved in Twitter. For example, after the Vanity Fair cover with Caitlyn Jenner, I wanted to tweet out, “Great, now Jenner is providing unrealistic body images for women.” Similarly, after George Zimmerman killed Trayvon Martin, I wanted to announce a new line of hoodies that sported the words, “Don’t shoot! I’m white!” This second one relates directly to Ronson’s primary object: Justine Sacco. She is the woman who tweeted right before boarding a very long flight to South Africa, “Going to Africa. Hope I don’t get AIDS. Just kidding. I’m white!” The tweet went viral while she was in the air, with at least one blogger camping out at the airport to get a picture of this supposed devil woman.

At the time, I really did not understand it. Maybe that’s not surprising coming from the man who thinks that “Don’t shoot! I’m white” on a hoodie is the height of social satire. But Sacco’s tweet was not insensitive, much less racist. It was rather the other way around: it was mocking western stereotypes and highlighting the fact that by and large Americans do not have to worry about AIDS. What I saw happen to Sacco was very typical and one of the reasons I’m not too keen on humanity. People decided to read the tweet as insensitive and racist so that they then could enjoy the pleasure of feeling outraged about it.

We see this same thing throughout media. Certainly, Jerry Springer and Judge Judy would have had no careers if it weren’t for the manufacture of outrage. And far from ideology, Fox News is primary an outrage machine. But that’s true to a lesser extent with CNN and MSNBC. People not only enjoy feeling outraged, they become addicted to it. It is one of the few ways that modern Americans have of feeling good about themselves. It’s sad.

The other major shaming example in So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed is Lindsey Stone. This story is an even better example of this. Stone is a caregiver to disabled people. She and a friend were in the habit of creating what they thought were funny pictures. For example, there is a photo of Stone smoking in front of a “no smoking” sign. The photo that got her in trouble was of her shouting and flipping off next to a sign that reads “Silence and Respect” at Arlington National Cemetery. Despite explaining what was going on in the picture, people decided to take it as disrespecting the people buried there and (Of course!) the military in general.

I’ve had to deal with this on Frankly Curious. I used to talk about the military as bluntly as I do the police. But I’ve been beaten down. It isn’t that my opinions have changed, but it just isn’t worth the bother. So I’m more careful when I talk about this subject, because there is an army of people out there just looking for something they can pounce on. To me it goes right along with those yellow ribbons. We don’t provide real respect in terms of using the military as little as possible and paying soldiers well. So it isn’t surprising that they would be always on the lookout for disrespect. But their wrath is ill directed at me and Lindsey Stone.

Two years ago, I got in a bit of a tussle on Twitter. A woman had tweeted out, “Is it me, lots of Bay Area tweeters going on about their day, tweeting stupid stuff. A plane crashed, lots of people impacted.” This enraged me. She was shaming the wider world because it wasn’t focused on what she was focused on. Ultimately, three people died in that crash — one because she was run over by a rescue vehicle. But I wasn’t nice about my anger. I tweeted, “About 2000 people died of malaria today. Why are you so focused on these people at SFO?” It wasn’t taken well. The whole thing still strikes me as bizarre. Apparently, a lot of people think that we must all obsess about whatever the television news is currently reporting.

Ultimately, I don’t think that Jon Ronson gets to the bottom of why we all are so inclined to shame each other. He posits that all of our personal shames make us shame others. I think it is more about control. But it hardly matters. Most of the stuff that people are publicly shamed for is forced. The shaming is a given, and the reason is reverse engineered. The only solution is for us all to show more mercy. But that is the solution to most problems in the world. I’m not hopeful. It doesn’t seem like Jon Ronson is either.