07 September 2005
What happened?
The CR blog has sadly devolved into a debate over a term whose application has many implications (effectiveness, offensiveness, etc...), none of which are very interesting to me, nor would I imagine them to be very interesting to any other sensible human beings that might come across our corner of the web.
Originally, I didn't want to post anything about this “debate” because in some ways refusing to take part is to take the high ground, but the levels of absurdity that this catty back-and-forth discussion has reached is appalling enough to warrant some sort of comment. After all, someone smart once said all it takes for bad things to happen is for good people to do nothing.
I thought we all worked for the same paper, with the same self-defined goals (see mission statement for more detail), and with cooperation as an underlying, guiding principle? Obviously it's OK to disagree, even encouraged, because it's at those borders of disagreement where true knowledge is attained, but at the same time, the sheer number of posts on "feminazi" (7!!) is utterly ridiculous. Focusing so intently on a single word in the English lexicon seems so blatantly counterintuitive to those aforementioned "common goals."
Take a good look around. People are killing, raping, and stealing (although not necessarily in that order) in the flooded streets of New Orleans. The chief justice of our nation's highest judicial body is dead. Cobb still isn't finished. Full scholarship students from out of state will now pay in-state tuition. Gas is approaching $4.00 a gallon. The NFL kicks off next week. And thousands of America's sons and daughters are on the other side of the world fighting a war to ensure our lazy college selves the right to rant and rave under Amendment 1 on our beloved blog.
With all of this going on, and so much more that I wasn't able to explicate, are we really going to sit here and argue over the justification/impiety of using a derogatory slang term in--of all places--an internet medium? As John Stossel would say, "Give me a break."
Originally, I didn't want to post anything about this “debate” because in some ways refusing to take part is to take the high ground, but the levels of absurdity that this catty back-and-forth discussion has reached is appalling enough to warrant some sort of comment. After all, someone smart once said all it takes for bad things to happen is for good people to do nothing.
I thought we all worked for the same paper, with the same self-defined goals (see mission statement for more detail), and with cooperation as an underlying, guiding principle? Obviously it's OK to disagree, even encouraged, because it's at those borders of disagreement where true knowledge is attained, but at the same time, the sheer number of posts on "feminazi" (7!!) is utterly ridiculous. Focusing so intently on a single word in the English lexicon seems so blatantly counterintuitive to those aforementioned "common goals."
Take a good look around. People are killing, raping, and stealing (although not necessarily in that order) in the flooded streets of New Orleans. The chief justice of our nation's highest judicial body is dead. Cobb still isn't finished. Full scholarship students from out of state will now pay in-state tuition. Gas is approaching $4.00 a gallon. The NFL kicks off next week. And thousands of America's sons and daughters are on the other side of the world fighting a war to ensure our lazy college selves the right to rant and rave under Amendment 1 on our beloved blog.
With all of this going on, and so much more that I wasn't able to explicate, are we really going to sit here and argue over the justification/impiety of using a derogatory slang term in--of all places--an internet medium? As John Stossel would say, "Give me a break."
