civility – I'm the Only Person Reading This

https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/comments/trhu13/jim_carreys_take_on_will_smiths_slap_at_the_oscars/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share

I must say that I agree with Jim Carrey.

That act represents the death of civility in the United States of America. Unless Will Smith is psychotic, which I’m guessing he’s not. And not just his act but the response to his act, which was mostly nothing significant, represents the death of civility.

I was talking with a friend recently and I mentioned the concept of “fighting words”. Like, “Them’s fightin’ words, Jeb! <spit>”. Well, the last time I checked, there are parts of our semi-retarded nation that uphold the law that if you are spoken to in a certain way then you are permitted to physically assault the speaker. Well isn’t that just so precious!!! It basically enshrines the idea that if your ego is damaged (because you failed to keep it healthy) then whatever happens next is okay.

Which is sort of like where we are with “cancel culture”. People’s feelings get hurt and now there’s a problem. Well, consider yourself lucky if hurt feelings is the worst things that happens to you this year, kid. 🙂 Good luck avoiding all negative energy in the universe!

My solution is to just do your own thing, keep looking forward, onward & upward, and know who you are. And also know that you can’t control anything about what someone else thinks about you so stop wasting time and energy on being concerned about it.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/elliewoodward/ellen-degeneres-defended-herself-hang-out-george-w-bush

Sorry to get all complicated and stuff but. . . .

Words matter. Terms matter. What we say and how we say it matters a whole lot, assuming of course that you want to convey information and you want other people to understand it. If that were not the case then why bother saying anything?

So in this case, it’s important to define what it means to be friends with someone and I think it also is worth defining what it means to be nice to someone. If what Ellen said is genuine then it would have to hold true that she would have to be friends with Hitler and be nice to Hitler. And I think that is ethically tenable depending on how you define friendship and being nice.

See what I mean?

Personally, I think at the end of the day we have to be able to connect to feelings of love for every single person on Earth in order to have a civil, just, and peaceful society. So I would be okay saying I love George W. Bush, but he’s also a fucking idiot and a war criminal and there’s no fucking way I would choose to spend time with him. If I were to find myself spending time with him I would strive to be civil, respectful, and treat him as a human being, as I would want to be treated. We should all do the same toward each other every day.

I think Ellen’s error is that the way she put it sounded too sickeningly Disney.