Not mellowing as much as I thought in my old age

[inulro]

I really thought I'd become much mellower and less of an intellectual and moral snob in my old age.

I watch TV. I read thrillers. I listen to all kinds of music I didn't in my youth, try to live and let live, and find it really hard to do the Righteous Indignation thing these days.

So it's kind of a relief to find that some things still move me to apoplectic rage. Namely that new group, goth_macros. I'm not even linking to it, given that I know some people have already found some triggering images on there. Making fun of domestic violence? Not OK. ugly people? Not OK. skinny chicks[1]? not OK. Homophobic content? sooooo not OK.

"It's all a joke, get a sense of humour". Some of you, notably miss_soap and hirez (and others; apologies for not remembering who) have written recently, far more eloquently than I could, about how this just doesn't wash.

And there's the other end of the spectrum: "Look, we can laugh at ourselves, that makes us OK". What-the-fuck-EVER. Personally I've never given a shit whether people think I, or goths as a group, take ourselves too seriously. Because seriously, if I cared what the rest of the world thinks, would I ever have had pink hair? I'm OK with who I am, I think my friends are great, so take the self-loathing out of my face. Actually, self-loathing is one thing. Public self-loathing that assumes all goths feel the same way about themselves is shit we don't need.

I know that offensive can be funny - hell, I *heart* South Park. However, it appears that some people can't tell the difference between funny and just plain small-minded and mean.

Just when I thought I was losing my standards of intellectual rigour, the whole macros phenomenon with its txtspeak and appalling grammar came along, and I realised I still do care, lots, about proper use of language.

[1] there's a whole new post brewing on this one, and has been for a while.

Comments

[ankaret.livejournal.com]

Oh, do write the skinny-people-hate-speech rant. Every time someone indulges in it I cover my eyes and think 'Please stop thinking you're on our side, you're making our side look like body fascist idiots'.

[50-ft-queenie.livejournal.com]

Hear hear! I took a peek at goth macros, and while there were a few genuinely funny ones, most struck me as mean-spirited and nasty.

I will admit to loving cat macros with an unhealthy fervour. It makes perfect sense to me that cats would pervert spelling and grammar for their own use. What drives me batty is when people use text speak when writing or speaking to each other. I'm one of those freaks who spells out everything when I send a text message.

[sheepthief.livejournal.com]

Ditto. It does keep my text messages short and to the point though, but then I don't think that's a bad thing.

[mimmimmim.livejournal.com]

I presume you've already heard of http://icanhascheezburger.com/ ?

I love the 'lolrus' pics on there.

[badnewswade.livejournal.com]

I personally love the macro-speek - which makes it doubly offensive when it is used for evil!

[badnewswade.livejournal.com]

It's a ripoff of ungoth, who in turn are such cowards they actually whine about being told off by decent citizens.

Troll 'em and watch 'em start acting like victims :-D

Here's how to do it:

http://community.livejournal.com/ungoth/257188.html#comments

Totally owned. Discussion over.

(Reply to this)

[diffrentcolours]

Yes, yes you were :p

[badnewswade.livejournal.com]

I think not...

[girfan.livejournal.com]

I linked to it because the few I saw in the morning were funny (especially the American Gothic one), but I must have missed the ones that got hackles up (I have to click on images to see them).

I agree about the whole textspeak thing. It sometimes takes me a bit to figure out what it's saying-I'm just so not down with the kids I guess.

[mimmimmim.livejournal.com]

I just find it odd that there are so many sites taking the mickey out of ordinary people for looking, well, ordinary. Some days we all look like crap. Sometimes we're all pulling the wrong face when someone's been taking a photo. Most of us just look like real people, with imperfect noses or roots when we haven't tinted our hair for a month or eyeliner slightly awry. Sites like that just make it harder to accept.

[inulro.livejournal.com]

I hadn't thought of it that way, but you're absolutely right.

[badnewswade.livejournal.com]

Well, they want everyone to be perfect clones I suppose, don't they? Sad, pathetic little geeks that they are.