Today I saw a news article online about a statement made by a Conservative “talk show host”. I won’t repeat the statement, or give you the site, because…well….I’m still cleaning chicken soup off my monitor from gasping when I read it and I don’t want you to suffer the same fate.
But my spray-of-broth choking fit immediately prompted me to wonder if my boycott of complaint allows me to grumble about the foolishness of public figures.
I don’t watch TV except — I boldly admit — Top Chef and Project Runway. I am a proud, though sometimes disillusioned, Democrat and quite liberal socially and otherwise. I’m married to a person who occupies the opposite end of the spectrum, which makes for some tense moments. I don’t like action movies (except anything with Tommy Lee Jones) and my taste runs to poetry, plays and movies which “make you think”. My favorite flick of all time is My Brilliant Career, followed, very closely, by When A Man Loves A Woman. Coming in third these days is Beasts of The Southern Wild. That’s how I roll.
So — I rarely hear (except, I must say, in the background) political views by loud-mouth talk show hosts, the rantings of actors and actresses in skin-tight clothing, or the pronouncements of people making full use of their allotted 15 minutes of fame and maybe a few of mine, too. I don’t have to focus on these things. They don’t impact my life. I already know what (I think) I believe. I try to read source material to form my opinions, a task made easier by the internet. I skip even the editorial pages which express views in line with mine.
On the rare occasion, such as today, when a strongly held opinion or stubbornly undertaken action with which I disagree occurs — something said or done in the public eye — should I voice my disgust?
Still pondering this one. Until I get to the end of my pondering, I’m holding my tongue. And cleaning off my monitor.
What do YOU think?
Political stupidity is hard to swallow. I think people deserve to hear both sides of the political spectrum, and the editorial page is a civilized medium in which to voice your disgust. So I guess I’m saying to go for it. God gave you eloquence for a reason.
Ahh, well. NVC tells me that there is no “political stupidity”. To say so is to presume that there is “smart” and there is ‘stupid” and, moreover, that I am the person who gets to decide. There are things with which I disagree because they don’t meet my needs, one of which is to have the world ordered in a particular way. But are they stupid?
But what I’m really talking about is kvetching. Not well-reasoned presentation of opposing views. Just kvetching. Like, “Holy Moley how can someone think that1 What an idiot! i don’t care how rich you are, you can’t fix stupid!”
That kind of voicing of disgust would probably detract from my need to go a year without complaining in order to make my life more wonderful, wouldn’t it?