today’s comic is pretty much a true to life representation of my weekend (only without the smiling). i was hoping to have a big thing at my recently ex-parented apartment, and invited a bunch of ‘friends’ up to have a good time. yet out of all the people i invited, each and everyone of them had an excuse for why they wouldn’t or couldn’t come (each one on their own very credible, but taken with the fact that they ALL had an excuse, not very convincing, especially seeing as how i gave them a month’s notice so they could possibly clear their respective scheds). and then there were the ones who just ignored the whole invite all together… i mean, you’d think that out of 10 or so people, at least ONE would have been able to make it; the contrary reality says something to me right there… but that’s another issue… so anyways, i spent the weekend alone, as per usual, and had to find some creative ways to keep busy, including but not limited to watching movies, ironing, finally throwing my hat over the wall and buying a $75 poster i’ve wanted for a while, getting drunk (i dislike drinking alone, but i’ll do it if i have to – after all, i’ve got a family history of alcoholism to uphold), and baking a cake (though not in that order). in summary, i am on my way out of a pretty bitter weekend. seems to me like proof enough of friday’s rant…
in other news, the tampa bay something or others did something that too many people seem to get worked up about… football is easily one of the more boring sports to watch. silly americans…
in the #3fs channel, goony just reminded me of something i was thinking about earlier. PETA is stuffed full of empty shirts. cruelty to animals is bad, i’m sure, but they target specific areas, namely fur coats. you see this in their ad campaigns (where they get hot celebrity women to pose naked with the caption that they’d rather go naked than wear fur), or the more extreme ones who throw red paint on fur coats – the theme’s the same: they don’t like fur. okay, granted, the fur industry for animals is bad (what with the traps and all that), but i wouldn’t want to be the cow who gets her throat slit anymore or less than that minx in the trap. i mean, for gods sake, i’m reading ‘the jungle’ by sinclair right now and it is packed with imagery of chicago slaughterhouses that would turn anybody’s stomach, and elicit some real empathy for those poor cows. yet the fact remains that PETA (who is against animal cruelty, a broad issue to be sure) targets mainly fur as clothing. why?
seems like a pretty obvious answer to me: they’re lightweights; they’re empty shirts; they’re activist wannabes who only get involved to save the cute and cuddly animals of the world. i’ve never seen a PETA activist or ad directed against wearing cow, snake, or alligator skins. those animals aren’t as cute, and thus appealing to save, despite the fact that they feel pain just as much as any other animal. i mean, seriously, do you think PETA would say a thing if the new fashion was a rat skinned hats? i doubt it. as a group, PETA seems less concerned with the broad issue it claims to oppose rather than the ones the snuggly part of their consciences can embrace with eskimo kisses.
so why this vitriolic, unsolicited attack on PETA (who, lets face it, don’t really measure up as an influential and important lobby)? because to me it’s indicative of a much larger problem with the protest culture of today. i can’t tell you how many people i’ve seen and talked to who are strongly against something, but can’t give you any other reason than ‘just cause’. i know people who attack tory leaders because it was fashionable, but couldn’t lay down a coherent criticism. i know people who won’t eat at mcdonalds not out of protest of their clear cutting amazon forests for grazing land for cattle, but because they ‘just don’t trust big corporations’. i’ve seen anti-globalization riots at wto summits, claiming that free trade hurts developing nations (despite the fact that free trade brings those countries cheaper food, cheaper clothes, cheaper medicine, cheaper houses, CHEAPER PHONE SERVICE, while expanding the market for them to sell what little goods they have to the world). was there anybody who couldn’t predict that there was going to be violence at concordia when netanyahu visited? i remember once in high school, there was a huge class walkout to go protest at the local MPP’s office that was more about getting an afternoon off school than protesting (because the students didn’t understand that a backbencher has less to say about institutional policy than the guy who delivers the chinese food, not to mention the fact that for an effective protest, they should probably make sure that the MPP is actually PRESENT TO WITNESS IT!) protesting now is not about informed protesting, but to just protest as a cultural phenomenon. people have no clue what they’re talking about these days (not that massive youth-initiated protest movements ever did). it’s a cultural thing, and just like anything and everything else in western culture, it’s watered down to appeal to the lowest common denominator to a point where actual objections are ridiculous. it’s been bugging me for years, this notion i have that people should have actual reasons against something rather than take the position of the mass (like my rant on cloning). i swear to god, i will repeatedly take a fairway wood to the head of the next activist wannabe i see…
wow… that felt kinda good…