Sunday, September 09, 2007

As much as I hate bringing MySpace into this...

There is something that has been really getting under my skin at an increasing level. This irksome problem I speak of is the content of the posts on the Poudre Myspace forum. It seems that 95% of these posts consist of students “arguing” back and forth about politics and ethics. I placed arguing in quotations because what they do is closer to pre-pubescent boys shot full of testosterone squabbling over who sucks more. Insults are hurled back and forth and are filled with disgusting slurs that would make the biggest bigot proud and spelling and grammar that would make even a fifth grade teacher cringe. These people seem to think it’s OK, actually not OK, but cool, to toss around profanities, threats, and slurs without a second thought. I’d like to think that they don’t understand the seriousness of what they’re saying, but intuition tells me otherwise which makes me seriously concerned about the state of their moral character.

The intensity of hate that I witness on the boards seriously concerns me as well. These threats, slurs, and profanities are coming from people who are 18 and younger. How can someone have so much hate inside them at such a young age? Have they been raised to act/think like that? Has something truly awful happened to them to change their point of view? Or have they just adopted that persona to fit in, and if that’s the case, when did hate become cool? Doesn’t anyone realize that if a serious politician read what they were writing they’d be deeply ashamed and quite possibly horrified?



(This is the abridged version of what I initially wrote because I felt like I should cut some things out because they didn’t really pertain to TOK.)

9 comments:

Dani said...

After going to this link and reading the first post (which happened to be for the Poudre Democrat group) I almost started crying, and im not joking. I didn't realize the level of hate in our school.

The threats and slurs seem to be an easy way to put someone else down and make yourself seem tough at the same time. One guy actually started a decently rational comment ("dude how about using intelligence to prove your points rather than making threats. that way some might actually respect you a little bit more than the abysmal amount they do now"), which I respected since it seemed so out of line with what had been said up to that point. However, as soon as he was rather pathetically challenged through threats and language, he almost returned in kind. Finally the discussion seemed to dissolve into a weapons comparison (at least thats where I stopped reading)

It seems like there is a social/peer pressure to act like this over a discussion. I find it interesting the ways people find to insult each other when they dont even know who the other one is. Could you imagine talking like that to someone, only to have it turn out that they are one of your good friends? Could it be their parents or friends who encourage this behavior? For example, there is a discussion currently open as to whether atheists can be considered US citizens. Isn't this unconstitutional???

Like Mrs. King told us today, maybe both sides are right, and they need to acknowledge that and walk away. Or at least agree to disagree. How can this antipathy be fostered in someone who cant even vote yet? I cant see how they could have had an experience that so deeply traumatized them that they felt the desire to respond that way. I cant find any way to justify this kind of writing.

I'm sorry that I couldn't clarify anything, but I truly cannot understand this level of hate, nor the unwillingness to change or even try to see the other point of view. If its cool, then obviously I'm way out of the loop. I would be ashamed beyond reason to have written something like that.

Sierra Tamkun said...

I very much agree with Dani. I think that this hatred relates directly to our study of the old man at the funeral. How can so much hate exist? I think that quite a bit of it comes out of un justified beliefs. We've been talking in class about knowledge, and truth tests, and such, and I believe that alot of the hate that comes out today comes from people not understanding, just blindly believing. I think that people are constantly trying to justify themselves to others, it creates a sence of validation. Just like the truth tests! I think, however, that all too often these justifications are based too strongly on emotion. Many times they are not even based on experiance, but on authority, or the experiances of others. But as we talked about today in calss, perception plays a huge role in all of this. I really disagree with the profanity and such. Why can't our generation find creative ways to express themselves? What is happening to everyone?

ethan_is_ninja said...

I had the chance to recently read the Poudre myspace group bulletins and instantly an image of two cavemen clubbing each other on the head repeatedly came into my mind. Has our school de-evolutionized? I found it funny that one man started a post by quoting a famous line by JFK "Ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country." and immediately following that was a hateful comment. and every comment following that contained enough profanity each to make a gangsta rapper cringe. I found that those bulletins are the complete opposite of or intellegent TOK discussions and that made me wonder..why?

Dani said...

I completely agree! They start out with a quote, or something and then it turns into a hate comment. (E.g. the atheist as a citizen post)

I was discussing this with my aunt who is a high school teacher is Louisiana, and she said that there wasn't this level of political interest in her school at least, and therefore not quite this level of hatred between liberals and conservatives.

In this case, is enlightenment, in the political sense (and i use the term "enlightenment" very loosely) a bad thing because it allows for basic understanding, and then steadfast adherence to that belief? If you believe in something so strongly you refuse to change?

I can think of it in several cases from these comments from schoolmates (which really shocked me), to personal relations between friends, or relations between political parties and business groups to religious wars.

klneff said...

Sorry if this is somewhat disorganized, I don't really have time at the moments to organize my thoughts...

in regards to the whole amounts of "hatred" people possess, something I want to pose is possibly people don't truly grasp what their saying. We hear "a picture is worth a thousand words" and "action speaks louder than words" but truly, don't words hold power themselves? Here we are expressing our anguish and fear for our generation in... well, words. I don't deny the worry of hatred, because by all means, I know it exists in the forms of prejudice, malice, jealousy, and so many other un-charming forms. But at the same time, I can't help but think that sometimes kids don't ever really grasp what their saying. I myself have NOT read the myspace forum, but if it's anything like other posting forums I've found randomly on other sites, it's bound to be filled with all sorts of "colorful" language. Yet, one truly doesn't NEED innappropriate cuss words to express anger, hate, or unhappiness. It's for this reason that I doubt some of the genuine hatred expressed. In either case though, it really is sad. Are you really discussing politics and gaining new views if all you do is bash people? I think there's a serious lack of judgement here, kids don't always know all they think they do, they don't know the strength in what their saying, they don't know everything about those they truly "hate" so much. It's ok to hate, it's human. It's what you do with your hate that is so powerful. Thanks to all who blog and respect eachother and don't use profainities, really.

katrina337 said...

Honestly, I know most of those people who are doing that on the Poudre forums, and yes, they are filled with that much hate and they are dead serious about what they're saying. And really....they're undereducated, that's most all of what I have to say. They've been taught anger and hatred all of their lives, and they think everyone in the world is below them...because they said so. It's stupid.

Dani said...

Katrina, where do they get this antipathy? School, parents, friends...?

katrina337 said...

Mainly-parents. I know some of them are abused by their parents. Half of them do just follow what their friends say, so that's also a large part of it. And the rest of it (from what I can gather) is that they just feel that they've been wronged by society, and that society is now in debt to them or something. Rather than approaching any situation logically, they'd rather just...threaten their way out of things, I suppose.

Dani said...

How do parents justify their feelings? If they cant justify them to their kids (and their kids take it on authority that their parents are right) the I can see why the kids wouldn't be able to. However, I question my parents beliefs and what they tell me. I agree with a lot of my dads political beliefs but consider my mother to be inept in matter of politics.
Why do some teenagers have a rebellious stage where they don't believe and/or question authority whereas some don't?
Why do some people hold on so strongly to some beliefs and don't even consider looking at another viewpoint when they will accept other ideas as long as they make sense?