BB coverage of Rob Ford

I understand your pain, but recently I had an experience which changed my mind.

I was sitting reading Boing Boing, posting mild-amusing contexts and then watching the screen for hours to see how many hearts I got, because my therapist said that was the best way of improving my self-esteem. I decided to eat a banana, so I went into the kitchen.

As soon as I touched the banana, before I could even just look at it, an apparition appeared before me. “I AM THE XENI OF THE BANANA,” she said, in a voice that sounded like someone playing Iron Maiden on a Tesla coil. “THERE ARE THREE BITES TO THIS BANANA,” she said. (It was a small banana.) “BECAUSE YOU ARE VIRTUOUS AND SOMETIMES CLEVER, FOR EACH BITE I SHALL GRANT THEE ONE WISH.”

“Please stop using all caps,” I begged, “it’s hurting my ears.”

“Okay,” she grumbled.

Now I’ve read all the folk tales and “The Money’s Paw” and I know anyone who is greedy or who tries to lawyer their way out of the consequences is just asking for a world of unpleasantness. When people wish for things, it usually turns out they didn’t know what they really wanted after all. So I thought about it pretty hard.

“Oh Xeni of the banana, tell me - what is the single thing that is the greatest barrier to my happiness?”

She didn’t say anything. “Err…”

“You have to bite the banana. It’s in the rules.”

I bit the banana. It was actually a little tasteless, but that’s my punishment for buying them green and eating them before they were ripe.

“Your wish is granted! It’s Mark Frauenfelder spamming ukulele videos.”

While there are much worse travesties in the world, like the price of sour cream, I didn’t like sour cream and so I didn’t buy it. But it struck me as wildly implausible that ukulele videos were really that much of a problem for anyone.

“That’s risible,” I said. (I learned that word as an English major, and since I paid so much for the education, I try to get as much out of it as I can.) “I just scroll past them anyway.”

“Your time on this Earth is precious,” she said gravely, “and just on a side note, it’s a good thing you didn’t wish for immortality because then I would have had you six ways from Caturday. But think about it - everyone’s time is wasted, just for the sake of a few. Do you think you’re the only one who hates those things?”

It was a small step in the right direction, at least. “Xeni of the banana, please remake the world such that no one ever needs to suffer through a ukulele video again!” I took the second bite of the banana.

“Your wish is granted!” There was a glimmer to her eye that I really should have taken to be some kind of foreshadowing or something, but I thought it was just the new LED lights I’d installed with my dad’s help. (Actually, I’d just eaten a sandwich while he put in the lights, but he still did help, technically.)

I saved the rest of the banana, because I read on TVTropes that you should always leave a spare wish just in case you got reamed by the other two.

On Saturday I went to see my friends at a restaurant. The restaurant is so crowded, hardly anyone ever goes there any more, but the food is good. We sat down and ordered our food and just looked at one another.

Everyone else in the restaurant was just staring at each other, too.

Someone said "n tb thr s ths hlrs ct clld Mr. Another person said “Wht s t bt twrkng nd Ml Crs nw?”, but then gave a look like her eyes were trying jump from their sockets and use the optic nerve as a bungee cord.

I said, “'v bn plng Krbl Spc P-”. The feeling I got I don’t think I could describe without hitting this forum’s spam filter, but …it was like suddenly the whole world was spam, noise, a tale told by an idiot, signifying MAK YR ORGAN GROOOW.

And while I was happy I wouldn’t have to hear from D___ about the latest offense against men’s rights, or from N___ about how many metric tons of crap she had to put with that was caused by her never tolerating a gram, I really did like hearing what my friends had to say, and besides I wanted to make a joke about there being video proof that fairies existed in Iceland because Bjork was on Google+.

Around me, people were now discussing, stiltedly but without being disemvowelled, the economic crisis in Indonesia. Someone tried to say something about a crossroads, but that was disemvowelled too, because it was a Simpsons reference.

In that moment came the realization that Boing Boing was just like my table of friends. I went there to hear what they had to had to say, and maybe say something myself. Sometimes Cory’s posts were a little bit less measured than his Guardian columns, and my own personal hell will always be that scene in Clockwork Orange only with ukulele videos. But I put up with their personal tics, because what goes on in Boing Boing is generally pretty interesting.

I ran home to the magic banana. (I’d put it in the fridge, but it was going brown.) “Oh Xeni of the banana, please, please, undo my previous wish!” I crammed the banana into my mouth.

“Your wish, and my wish, is granted!” she cried out, in a way that really isn’t PG-rated.

“Your wish?”

“My wish was that if you didn’t like Boing Boing’s content, you’d realize maybe some people don’t care about yours. You can vote with your feet, but if you wanna read the stuff you’re interested in, you’ll have to scroll past the stuff you’re not.”

“Please, great Xeni,” I begged. “I ate that banana peel and all. Can I have a unicorn chaser?”

“That would require a fourth wish,” she said, and disappeared from my life forever.

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Jardine’s reply was funnier.

regator.com
treehugger,com
thousands of Twitter users
southslopebounce.com
and dozens more google pages

Take your shaming to Toronto City Hall, where it belongs.

Oh, but you hate it when Cory namecalls?

Yeah, whatevs

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How about you go start your own website and compete?

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Yeah, and if you actually follow the links and view those sites apparently using the term (and note that I provided a google link to the search results for “‘Rob Ford’ Laughable Bumblefuck’”) you’ll see that virtually all of them are linking back to boing boing.

Oh no, it has?!

A blog such as BoingBoing, once known as the world’s beacon in investigative reporting, has been re-publishing stories that have appeared elsewhere? How far they’ve fallen. The shame. I don’t know how they live with themselves.

Republishing stories that have already reported elsewhere… why, next thing you know, they’re going to start accepting and publishing the comments from the common rabble! And then where will we be? Anarchy, that’s where.

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Websites full of news from some other country that you don’t have any reason to care about?

Welcome to the world of non-Americans!

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Don’t be so linear.

If you’d followed my comments from the start you’d know that then (as now) I have been polite about my opinions. I had an opinion which disagreed with site’s, but I didn’t even ask for it to stop. I simply asked if there’s was a way I could continue to read Boing Boing without having to be exposed to the one specific story thread I didn’t like.

I think you need to sit down and think very long and hard about the comment you just made.

So, are you basically saying that the free ice cream is not to your liking and Cory should serve you something better suited to your palate?

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I think he’s saying he’s grateful for the free ice cream (as we all are), but doesn’t want the one that tastes like cr*p to be shoved in his face every time, without ever being able to voice any objection (i.e. the very behaviour that Cory - and Boing Boing generally - often strongly object to when other websites do it).

And he may also be saying that he should be free to voice those objections in a polite way without having dozens of concern trollies and zealots tell him that he “should be grateful for what he’s getting, and shut up.”.

`[quote=“AcerPlatanoides, post:33, topic:14679, full:true”]
So, are you basically saying that the free ice cream is not to your liking and Cory should serve you something better suited to your palate?
[/quote]

What I’m saying is that Boing Boing is the only place that calls Rob Ford “laughable bumblefuck.” You should know that’s what I’m saying because that’s what I said in the posts you are ostensibly replying to.

If you want to say something different, such as you have above, you are free to do so… but it would be nice if you could make the statement on your own without putting words in my mouth.

At any rate, I suppose the obvious response to your analogy would be say that if Rob Ford’s ice cream is not to your liking you should vote him out in the next election. And that until then you should enjoy the ice cream you’ve already selected. I somehow doubt that you will find this answer very satisfactory, though.

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Except it’s not being shoved in your face. It’s more like a buffet setup. It’s there, and if you don’t like it, pass on by and choose another. You’re unable to voice any objection? I think you already have. But, when you’re in a buffet situation, in somebody else’s house… it’s mild enough to say, “I don’t like this.” Once, maybe, but even that is, at the end of the day, unnecessary… I don’t comment on the loads of articles I have no interest in. If everybody commented “I don’t like this article being here” on articles they didn’t like, the comment threads would be full of useless junk. But if that was all, you’re free to say it, and you might get a, perhaps somewhat sarcastic, reply along the lines of “well, then don’t read it.” And once you’ve stated your objection, then you can move on and not read any of those articles when you see them. But if every time you see it (or even just once), you jump in and say, “I don’t like this, you shouldn’t be serving it, can you please tell me how I can not have to look at this awful awful thing?” That’s moved outside the realms of polite objection.

That’s when you’re kind of being a d*** and insulting the hosts. And it doesn’t take ‘zealots’ or ‘concern trollies’ to point that out, just average people who aren’t d***s. If someone’s holding a gun to your head and forcing you to read every story in it’s entirety, please, introduce a series of coded typos or something containing your situation and location in your next reply so we can rescue you. Otherwise, it should be simple enough to, upon seeing “Rob Ford” in a headline, to scroll past it to another story.

That’s a very stupid response. I mean, even leaving aside that the situations are very different (Ford’s actions affect people, it’s not something that simply can be ignored, it’s not offered free, it’s paid for by non-optional taxes at least for those of us living in Toronto, and many of us didn’t select it), strictly as an analogy, that’s stupid. If the ice cream you’ve already selected is not to your liking, you don’t have to “enjoy it”, you can throw it out. Which is what many of us wish to do to Rob Ford. In your case, you seem to be selecting ice cream you know you dislike and then complaining about it, instead of just passing it by like a normal person.

You can throw out your ice cream, but you can’t get your money back. Rob Ford has been stripped of his power; he’s effectively been thrown out. You can’t get your money back, however, because the democratically chose political process doesn’t allow for it.

And if you want to complain about my complaints, then why not complain about BB’s complaints over Fox News, the Daily Mail, bad science reporting, etc.? These are all things that BB chooses to consume & comment on when they could ignore it instead.

Maybe part of the reason that BB does this is because the media isn’t like ice cream, either. Media has the ability to influence the way people think and it contributes to the state of civil discourse. Commentary on media can be seen as valid, even if it’s consistently and predictably negative.

[quote=“ghostly1, post:36, topic:14679”]
If everybody commented “I don’t like this article being here” on articles they didn’t like, the comment threads would be full of useless junk. But if that was all, you’re free to say it, and you might get a, perhaps somewhat sarcastic, reply along the lines of “well, then don’t read it.” And once you’ve stated your objection, then you can move on and not read any of those articles when you see them. But if every time you see it (or even just once), you jump in and say, “I don’t like this, you shouldn’t be serving it, can you please tell me how I can not have to look at this awful awful thing?” That’s moved outside the realms of polite objection.

That’s when you’re kind of being a d*** and insulting the hosts. And it doesn’t take ‘zealots’ or ‘concern trolls’ to point that out, just average people who aren’t d***s.[/quote]
Except I’ve only mentioned it once, in a single article. And I didn’t insult the hosts. In fact, I clearly stated that I was very supportive of Boing Boing generally, and have been for years. Had you read my entire comment thread, you’d already know this. (You did read it, didn’t you?)

Besides - what’s the point in having a discussion board if no one is ever allowed to voice a contrary opinion? It would just be full of people telling Cory how great he is, shouting down the dissenters, and then patting each other on the back for their superior tolerance and mature ‘conversation’.

At no point has any of the Boing Boing staff explicitly said that people are not allowed to voice a critical opinion of their articles. In fact, I believe their terms simply ask people to be constructive and not abusive.

But if you think you are right, and I am wrong, then you should get Boing Boing to change their rules to only allow comments that agree with the story author. I think you already know that would be pointless, and so you are attempting to enforce your own set of rules on those people who don’t tow the party line.

Why should I have? Were we talking about you personally? In my reply to you, I was addressing a post in which you were answering for somebody else who you thought felt the same way you did, and I was talking, in general, about people with that attitude. I thought we both were. So, you’ve only mentioned it once. Good for you. Let’s have a look at that post… okay, sure, aside from suggesting that the host has a personal vendetta with somebody to a level that makes you personally uncomfortable and presumably, you think makes them not objective, it WAS relatively polite, as, I feel, were most of the responses to you… And then in subsequent posts in the thread, you accused him of being childish and spiteful and like a cheap tabloid and suggested that having to see it was like crap being forced on you. Less polite. You got the answer you were looking for, a way to filter out the posts. Is there really a need to harp on it? If you felt you were treated rudely I guess you can can argue you have the moral authority to strike back against the people who were rude to YOU, but to continue to attack one of our hosts is, no, not very polite.

Who said nobody could voice a contrary opinion? If you think Rob Ford is great, or he’s a jerk, but one who should be allowed to continue in his job without harassment, by all means, you’re welcome to say it, and we can have a debate on the issue. “I don’t like the host’s opinion and don’t want to read it.” isn’t really a contrary opinion so much as an attack, nor is it particularly constructive. If you don’t want to read it, don’t read it. But you’re right, you’re free to post that opinion too, nobody’s stopped you. Just like a bigot is free to make a racist remark… but we’re also free to call them a d*** for it. If they then shout “What happened to my freedom of speech, you’re oppressing me by calling me out,” or demand tolerance for their opinions, they just look more ridiculous, because freedom of speech never means freedom from consequences. You’ve been less than polite to the hosts, and we’re pointing that out.

You seem to be all about the freedom to say it, and then have a problem with people responding in kind or reacting to you based on it.

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Did you just equate my disagreement with Cory’s reporting style to being a racist? Wow.

ghostly1 - Take a break. Come back tomorrow and re-read your posts. I don’t think you’re being as neutral as you think you are.

If you feel I implied you were a racist, or as bad as one, I apologize, sincerely. I wasn’t trying to equate the two, I merely intended to point out that complaining we’re “zealots” or “shouting down dissenters” is the same kind of thinking they use, not in being racist, but in believing that they should be immune from criticism for the offensive things they say, in the name of freedom. It’s not even a comparison about your disagreement, per se, btw, but rather your reaction to other people’s reactions to your disagreement. I’m tired, and went with the cheap and obvious example of a use of that type of thinking in the hopes of making it clear to you how misguided it is at it’s core. If I think of a better, milder example before bed, I’ll happily substitute it in (I suspect you’ll still be offended, because at the heart of the comparison is the point that you seem to not want to face: that you’re being rude and then suggesting the people who point it out are somehow unfairly stifling you).

I didn’t claim to be neutral, I think I was quite open in that I think you’re in the wrong here (though perhaps I misinterpret you… which issue do you think that I mistakenly think I’m neutral on?). You on the other hand, have claimed to be polite, so I’ll suggest you turn the advice back on you. Take a break, come back tomorrow and reread your posts. I don’t think you’re being as polite as you think you are.

but doesn’t want the one that tastes like cr*p to be shoved in his face every time, without ever being able to voice any objection

who, other than the reader, is shoving anything in anyones face.

what you choose to read is what you choose.

it’s nobody elses responsibility, other than ones own.

and as for voicing objection, i see nearly a dozen complainy comments. There’s your say! you have had it. Hope it works out for you!

I mean, are you for real?