Recent SDMB peeves, major and minor

The BBQ Pit
1

Here are some SDMB things that have pissed me off recently, but I was too lazy to respond in the actual context. Note that these three items are quite different from each other in their level of seriousness, so don’t try to compare them to each other.
(1) In this thread about Christmas letters, the level of spite and hate that some dopers were displaying really staggered me. First of all, there were all the comments like “oh, sure little Billy is playing on the football team, but you don’t mention the part where he was arrested for selling pot”. Wha? Why must you assume that every family is actually hoarding miserable secrets? Why isn’t it possible that a family that appears to be happy and successful might actually be, on the whole, happy and successful? And where on earth did that level of spite and cruelty come from? And then there’s the other really stupid thing that a LOT of people said in this thread, which was something like “well, when I want to keep in touch with someone, I actually call them up and talk to them from time to time, because I actually know how to communicate”. Wow, so you divide the world into either people who you talk to so frequently that you are abreast of every development in their life, and people you don’t care about at all. So I guess the cousins I have who I see every couple of years are really just people I’m pretending to care about, if I don’t make sure to call them up every three months and exchange all the relevant details of both of our lives? And finally, why on earth would you attack people for doing something that basically INCREASES the level of communication going on in our fragile little world? If someone is such an ass that they never do anything other than sending you a photocopied brag sheet, then that person is an ass, and if they didn’t have Christmas letters, they would still be an ass, but CONTACT BETWEEN PEOPLE IS A GOOD THING! WE NEED MORE OF IT! DON’T BE HATING!

That thread was one of the few times when I’ve really been uncomfortable being a part of this community (although a lot of people in that thread disagreed with the anti-card-contingent).
(2) On a much more minor note, I have to say I’m getting a bit sick of movie-theater-bashing. Maybe I’m just very very lucky, but I go to movies fairly often (well, once a month or so), and I very very rarely have bad experiences with cell phones, loud talkers, etc. So (a) I can’t help but think you’re exaggerating, and (b) it’s been said already. If you had a new and different unpleasant movie experience (which, in fairness, the one in that thread basically was), call it a new and different unpleasant movie experience, don’t present it as the umpteenth piece of evidence for that glorious and agreed-upon truth, which all right minded people are in complete accord with, that moviegoing is a horribly unpleasant experience. If it is for you, then STOP GOING. That’s a perfectly valid choice. (OK, I admit that this was a fairly weak rant, because it’s not like moviegoing DOESN’T sometimes suck…)
(3) Finally, in this thread about King Kong, someone complained about a scene seeming unrealistic and implausible, and someone else said “the movie’s about a 25-foot monkey, and you’re complaining about it being implausible?” Which is a STUPID STUPID STUPID thing to say. Many, many movies (along with books and stories of other sorts) present worlds which are not our own, and in which there are different rules about what can and can not exist. Should we be forbidden from pointing out logical inconsistencies, stupid coincidences, violations of common sense, or dumb plotholes in any such work, just because there is a fantastical element to it?

2

I haven’t read the other two threads, but I think the argument in the Christmas Letter thread was more about those people who don’t take the time to send a personal note, but who do put in a form letter that read a lot like someone’s brag book. It’s one thing to get a handwritten (or typed) Christmas letter that shows that the person sending the letter put some thought into what would interest the recipient of the letter, than to receive a generic, unpersonalized, letter.

I like the former, and have a couple of friends who send them to me every year. I don’t at all care for the latter, and fortunately don’t apparently know anyone who sends them out.

3

Good post dude.

BTW: Are you a right wing, capital punishment advocating, deer hunting, Bible thumping, Bush supporting, right to lifer who wants The Darwin theory outlawed and prayer brought back to public schools? If so I just want to comment that even opposites can agree on certain topics. Have a good day.

4

As long as we’re listing SDMB pet peeves:

(1) People using the word “Og” in place of “God.” If, for religious reasons, you can’t write the name “God” (if you’re Jewish, for instance), then use the widely-accepted “G-D.” The joke was funny the first few thousand times, and like the “1920’s Style Death Ray,” it’s getting very tired, very fast. I know there are many people on the board I admire who use the “Og” joke, so please don’t take it personally – I’m making a blanket statement here.

(2) Can we curtail some of the Bush-bashing? Look, I’m one of the most anti-Bush people out there. He’s a liar, a thief, a terrorist, and a spineless nitwit not worthy to lick the sweat from my ballsack. We know this, people. It shouldn’t come as a surprise anymore when we read a fresh news report about King Bush wiping his ass with yet another of our constitutional protections. Let’s cut the six pages of “I agree” posts per thread and pick a more interesting and challenging target, shall we?

(3) The OP is correct about the Christmas card pittings. If you don’t like receiving Christmas cards, throw 'em away unopened. If you don’t want to know that your Aunt Betty’s friend’s son made the semifinals in the Regional Special Olympics Spelling Bee, or that your daughter managed to make it through her entire Junior year abortion-free, kindly tell them and I guarantee you’ll never hear from them again. I don’t like Christmas, either, but I find no reason to destroy everyone else’s joy.

That’s all. Flame away.

Adam

5

Er, make that her daughter. :rolleyes:

Adam

6

What, exactly, is it that prevented the OP from airing his grievances in the specific threads? They are all Pit threads anyway, so it’s not like you couldn’t have spoken your mind.

Are you opinions on these issues so important that they warrant a thread of their own, rather than being included in the threads that were already under way? I’ve never quite understood some people’s need to start Pit threads about other Pit threads. Just jump into the thread and have your say, ferchrissakes.

7

So are you saying that no one should ever send out an impersonal here’s-what-my-year-has-consisted-of letter without also writing a few sentences by hand? Because that seems like a pretty broad statement. Or are you instead saying that there are specific people who have hurt your feelings because you thought that in those specific cases, the person was particularly close to you, and that specific case of form-lettering hurt your feelings? Because in that case, the fault is with that particular person, not with the form letter.
And for that matter, it’s not like printing and folding and stamping and mailing a physical letter requires zero effort. And it’s not like writing it requires zero effort. If someone has N hours to spend on the entire Christmas letter experience, and decides to spend N-1 of it writing a fairly comprehensive (but generic) letter, and the remaining hour mailing copies to lots of people, vs. N-2 hours writing a worse letter, 1 hour writing personal notes to people, and 1 hour mailing, who’s to say that that’s an overall worse decision?
My sister and I aren’t particularly close, and rarely call each other up and chat or anything. I’d like to see her in person at Christmas (and usually do). Failing that, I’d (of course) like to get a hugely long personal piece of snail mail in which she talks at great length about everything she’s done that year, and writes paragraphs of personal reflections about her relationship with me, etc. Failing that, I’d like to get a generic letter from her updating what’s been going on in her life, with a handwritten note attached. Failing that, the letter with no note. Failing that, at least an email wishing me merry Christmas. My point being, the problem here is not the existence of generic Christmas letters, it’s that my sister and I aren’t as close as I might wish us to be. Generic Christmas letters are something that lots of people like, and it’s hard to see how they ever make a situation WORSE.

8

The moron who complained about the plausibilty of where the director found his star was so off base as to not be funny. The version of King Kong currently in theaters is a remake of the original where the director found his starlet at, IIRC, a newsstand. It is part of the story - the starlet was in the right place at the right time, or wrong place at the right time depending on your view.

9

Partly it was laziness. Partly it was that by the time I started reading the threads, the opportunity to comment in the original context had long since passed. Partly it is that at least some of these comments are meta-comments about the SDMB in general, not just specific remarks about the specific issue.

Partly it’s that I like starting threads, as it makes me feel like a big man :slight_smile:

10

I don’t think it’s a “joke”, per se… it’s not like someone types it and then chuckles to themself and thinks “wow, this is SURE to cause many people to owe me new keyboards”. It’s just become part of the SDMB vernacular.

11

My current peeve: people repeating memes with no more factual support than that other posters have said the same thing, with no one bothering to hunt up an actual supporting cite. Very lazy and destructive herd mentality. More of that going on here than usual I think. If you ask me, that’s the worst bleed-over from the snark boards: people get a chance to round-robin their unsupportables outside the light of fair scrutiny, and gin up their courage offboard before logrolling over their chosen target.

12

I hate the word “meme,” so maybe that’s my problem here: maybe I need to leverage my paradigm to actualize my positive thinking about the word. Assuming it’s not the problem, though, I think that if folks are repeating (shudder) “memes,” the best thing to do is to spend awhile thinking about what exactly is wrong with the me–the, goddammit, idea, the concept, the motherfucking theory they’re putting forth. Once you’ve figured out what your precise objection is to it, ask them a pithy, incisive question that clarifies whether they’re being illogical, or whether they’ve just not explained a good idea in a poor fashion.

Blanket criticisms without specifics give me the screaming memees.

Daniel

13

Can we please retire the use of “cow-orkers”?

14

Even if one is a dairy farmer?

d & r

15

In my state, you get ten to twelve if you’re caught orking a cow.

Daniel

16

Only acceptable for the dairy farmers of Barad-Dur.

Daniel

17

But can we keep “cow-irkers”? I like that one.

18

Right. Because logic always works against malice and rumor.

And I’m not a huge fan of the word myself, but none of your suggested alternatives are more accurate. The word “meme” contains a hint of “urban legend”–a non fact repeated frequently enough to be taken as fact. Is there a better word that includes that connotation?

19

If I see you’re a participant in any such thread, Daniel, I’ll try to remember to call it a “viral factoid” or something. Or, I could just use the word that I think will most clearly communicate my meaning to the greatest number of people, and hold good thoughts for anyone who has private, no doubt rational, reasons for expending psychic energy on hating any such word.

20

No it doesn’t–at least, not in the original usage of it, and it’s a good original usage. Your use of it to mock those who pass on memes suggests that you either don’t understand the word’s origin, or else you have no respect for it.

If you’re using it for its connotations, that’s a cowardly way to argue things. Say what you mean, don’t hint snidely at it in a poorly-understood connotation that’s more-or-less peculiar to your own usage, so that people vaguely realize they’ve been insulted but can’t put their finger on how.

A meme is not a non-fact (and it’s not, sweet Jesus, a “viral factoid”). A meme is an idea, a concept, that reproduces itself. “Happy Birthday to You” is a meme. The word “meme” is a meme.

Logic doesn’t always work against malice and rumor: see this post, and its request for you to stop with the malicious innuendo carried out through a word’s cryptic connotation. However, at least it’s an honest form of argument that lets folks know exactly what you mean and allows them to respond forthrightly.

Daniel