The things that matter in life.

The things that matter in life.
The things that matter in life.

Friday, December 4, 2020

Why you should check things BEFORE publicly expressing them.

Written off-the-cuff, with little editing. (Some of us can do that, and still produce brilliance.) Please excuse typos, off grammar, awkward sentences, etc. I have better uses of my time than to proofread this. It makes its point.

Let me tell you a story: In 2010--the height of Tea Party times--a college student who was studying--I kid you not--CHOIR DIRECTING (the conservative counterpart to "Gender Studies"--he's gonna be saying, "Do you want fries with that?" for a long time) was volunteering at the local GOP office. As typical of conservatives and Tea Party people, he knew nothing about the reality of political science matters.

One day, he came up to me all excited, saying, "I came up with two great bumper stickers." I'd explained his Teabrainery to him before, and made no effort to hide my grimace. "Oh no!" I said, before telling him with great pain to tell them to me. The first one was low-grade, but tolerable. And I told him that. Then came the second one. He prefaced his reciting of it with GREAT pride in it, and I responded with, "Oh, this is gonna be bad." And it was: "MY GOD FORBIDS COEXISTENCE." I forget how much of my response involved how the easy response was, "So, when are you leaving?" versus how this could be taken as a threat to those who believed differently. The truth was, this dimwit thought "coexistence" meant syncretism--the bringing of all the religions and philosophies together into one common belief. He had already had it printed. Hopefully I headed him off from putting on his vehicle (I did not have the heart to ask). MORAL OF THE STORY: It's good to have intelligent people check your stuff BEFORE putting it out. Regardless of your own knowledge.