I’m depressed.
Lately it seems like there are a plethora of apparent idiots opposed to everything I stand for, and that they’re out to dominate the environments I occupy.
I cannot find work. Experienced office worker with secretarial skills second to few, abilities in market research and grantsmanship, in one of the few areas in the country that’s still fairly sound economically, and still no job after ten months.
My “kids” are unavailable. The one who lives locally is working extended hours learning a new job he got promoted to (and the cat’s in the cradle…). His children, the ones I feel grandfatherly towards, are 700 miles away finishing the school year.
Over on the Pizza Parlor* I’m treated to a couple of people who make December look like a card-carrying Liberal who are convinced that all the P.C. liberal majority wants is to destroy every vestige of morality left in America – and never mind that any stand the handful of liberals over there take is based explicitly on the Bill of Rights and the judicial decisions based on it. And, of course, the idea that gay Catholics were refused communion in Australia is only right and proper, because they were “protesting against church teachings” by admitting that they were gay – and when I drew the distinction between gay conduct and orientation, I was told that the moderator in question fully understood my point but “didn’t agree with me.” Elsewhere over there, the Calvinist doctrine of election is being forcefed to people, with no argument against it acceptable. And the proper refutation to a reasonable interpretation of Scripture is “that’s liberalist garbage, and I don’t agree with it.” Oh, and the humanists are out to destroy the Christian faith.
Over here, I spend inordinate amounts of time in religious threads in Great Debates – and every time I open one, I find that the logical disproof of Christianity is based on the premise that a loving God damns everybody to Hell (but allows a few to be bought off because they’ve sucked up to his Son, Whom He graciously allowed to be tortured instead of them). I find that being Jewish is evil, or maybe it’s something one ought to aspire to, but with no sense of what Jews believe. I find a poster ready to convince anybody that there’s no god – although to make any headway towards this, he might learn to write clear English paragraphs first. And Libertarian, whom I’ve counted my brother on this board for over two years, is out to produce a logical proof of God’s existence that will make St. Anselm’s jaw drop – and, my friend, we’re under orders from our Lord, and that’s not what we were told to do.
I find that one must either worship or hate George W. Bush or William J. Clinton (your option is to attach verb to president according to your preference – but there’s no middle ground). I find that the United Way or the Boy Scouts must be evil – pick one, but once again one must not see good in the other. This is most clearly set forth in the letters columns of the local newspapers. And logical argument with a point takes second fiddle to innuendo, Pit flames, and nitpickery, here and IRL.
In short, I’m dismayed and disgusted by the behavior I see around me. I feel like I’m fighting a losing battle for no good purpose. I may be respected by some people around here – I almost posted this rant yesterday but had my spirits lifted by Guinastasia’s compliment over in the Pizza Parlor’s Kitchen – but it seems like what I’ve been trying to do is all vanity and a chasing after wind.
- Note to moderators: I am aware of the policy against condemnations of other message boards, and this rant is in no way condemning the Pizza Parlor, where I do have an official capacity. Rather, it’s against the inaneness and contrariness of people, including some posters both here and there. No offense against that board as a board is intended.
