Seemingly innocous "Hot Button" topics on the SDMB

In My Humble Opinion
121

Re. dryer lint thread - http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=269863

Basically, an actual but minor issue came up, it just so happened that two people care way, way too much about it, one of them said something (s)he probably regretted later, and it just flared up from there.

It ended pretty quickly (thank Og).

Oh yeah…American Idol. The horrible judges. One unworthy candidate surviving week after week after week. The horrible song selections. Disco. Nickelback. MacArthur Park. Performing order. This. That.

Okay, I’ve been watching on and off for a few seasons, and this is what I’ve observed:

  • The judges have ABSOLUTELY NO EFFECT on who gets eliminated. It’s all done by voting, and no one’s going to be swayed by arglebargle about “pitchiness” or “missing the low notes”. The most they can do is help someone not get voted out…y’know, the sympathy thing…and even this is dubious. They’re there to stir things up and add some entertainment. That’s it.
  • It’s winner-take-all. Which means that even if a completely unworthy contestant miraculously survives for several weeks, as long as (s)he doesn’t win, it makes no difference.
  • Going first is death…uh, why? The lines don’t open at all until the show is over, and there’s always a recap. American attention spans aren’t that short.
  • The winner will be signed by a mainstream, vanilla, money-conscious label (this isn’t a punk rock competition, after all) and will be expected to sing mainstream, vanilla, money-making songs. Therefore, there is absolutely no problem with having completely vanilla songs on the program, and all the contestants know that going in.
  • And it hardly matters anyway, since the prize is a recording contract…not a million dollars, not a new home, not ownership stake in a business, a recording contract…which is no guarantee of anything. As any winner not named “Kelly Clarkson” (who’s a damn good singer) can attest.

This is the least serious and consequential reality series that I know of. Can’t really understand all the passion and outrage.

122

If history (and the Pit) has shown us anything, it’s that there is no subject so mundane or trivial that it isn’t worth launching missiles over.

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Smoking is the worst. In public, outside the door of a public building, or the hottest button of them all…taking a smoke break while at work.

Traffic is a pretty major one as well. Proper yielding regarding U-Turns springs to mind. Plus the age-old debate about driving the speed limit in the hammer lane.

There are others, and these are repeats, but I’ve personally fanned the flames in threads about these, so I thought I’d repeat them.

My all-time favorite had to be the letterbox debate. Endlessly funny.

124

You only say that because your parents never spanked you. :stuck_out_tongue:

125

I remember once I made a tasteless remark about Terry Schiavo, and a couple Dopers got on my case because I said nobody grows tomatoes in England.