Not quite daily then…

I know I said I’d post daily about the stupid I find on the internet but, honestly, some days there’s just so much stupid that I can’t keep up. And other days I just need a break from the internet.

Today there is so much in the news about the Markles trying to be just like the rest of us and failing spectacularly. Also we have a new prime minister who talks the talk but can she walk the walk? That remains to be seen.

There’s lots of stories about murders and programmes being made about old murder cases. Plane crashes, car crashes and awards ceremonies that might as well be car crashes. Except for Brendan Fraser and his new movie. Can’t wait to see it. Always liked him since George of the Jungle. Brilliant film!

But then I came across this story in the ever faithful DM. In case you can’t be bothered to click on the link, it’s a story about a woman who bought a Cricut machine and has been creating iron-on logos for her teenage son’s clothes. Bragging online that you’re infringing copyrights from some of the biggest brand names out there surely isn’t the brightest thing to do? But that seems to be the logic from people these days. What’s worse is that she’s feeding into her kid’s future problems when he can’t afford legitimate brand named clothing so will probably fake or steal it if it’s that important to him. This, at best, is very bad parenting.

As someone who detests anything branded (except Ford and maybe Apple products) I certainly don’t go out of my way to shove these things in other people’s faces and I certainly wouldn’t produce items with their logos on and brag to the nation that I was saving money on authentic products by producing my own versions. I suspect we’ll be hearing soon how she’s getting “cease and desist” letters from the corporate lawyers for these firms. And it would serve her right. Ignorance is no defence.

I know copyright is a very complicated and, sometimes, grey area but the general rule is seek permission from the copyright and/or trademark holder first. I’m sure if she did this they would never have agreed to let her do what she’s doing. As much as I hate corporate greed, it’s still theft when someone takes money from a company by producing fakes. Regardless of whether or not she’s selling the items to make profit or just using them for her son, she should have sought legal permission and definitely not plastered it all over social media. Aside from anything else, now all her son’s friends know he’s wearing illegal fakes and if that doesn’t heap on the ridicule and bullying then I don’t know what will. Very irresponsible on all levels.

But that seems to be the nature of internet – or rather social media – addicts. They really aren’t a clever bunch are they!

Daily Express special education

I haven’t read too much on the internet today. There are lots of stories about the ridiculous antics of a certain prince’s wife which surprise no-one much. More lies and weird recollections which “may vary”.

But my son happened across some news links and one of them was a story on the Daily Express (DE) about E10 fuel and the major changes across the UK in November. Upon reading the story, it only applies to Northern Ireland, since we’ve had the stuff for a year now. So, having been clickbaited into reading that, we found links to other stories.

This article, written a few days ago, tells drivers to follow a little known hack to cool your car down and save fuel. We were intrigued as to what this new ground-breaking “hack” could be. And to our absolute amazement 🫢 it’s something we had on our car 10 years ago! Do read the article, if you can find it in amongst all the irritating adverts and links. It’ll be worth your while, honest! Just don’t blame me for your little grey cells losing the will to carry on.

And at the bottom of the article you’ll find this…

Notice the bracketed words in capital letters at the end of each link (that’s just a screenshot, don’t waste your time clicking on it) trying to add gravity to the stories you must read. Once you get to know the DE, if you so wish, you’ll realise that these headlines must be written for the hard of understanding English because often the stories just ramble. The DE is second only in ghastliness to The Sun which is an appalling rag of a paper aimed at very small minded sheeple and is written in language even a nursery age child could grasp. And it makes little sense to anyone with a functioning logical thought process! Quite why anyone reads those papers I couldn’t understand, until I decided to write about the amount of stupid out there in the world today.

Standards have most definitely slipped. It’s disappointing for a forward thinking country that’s supposed to be civilised – but it is funny. And that’s the reason why I subject myself to it all. I’m always left shaking my head but I can laugh about it… and share it with others. I do like to spread the joy!

*this was written on my iPad so I’m hoping the links work, blame Apple if they don’t (my nickname is 🍎!)

Struggling a bit today

Not because there isn’t much crazy out there but because there is so much that I’ve had difficulty choosing from the mountain of idiocy presented so casually to the general public.

One thing that never ceases to amaze me is how people don’t realise that it’s one thing being stupid but quite another to almost be proud of the fact. Maybe it’s because I’m of an older generation but if I find myself wondering about something, I tend to search Google for an answer. I do love reading Quora, in particular the forum called “Stupid Answers to Stupid Questions.”

I think a large proportion of these questions posted are just to wind people up. Or perhaps they’re posted to see who can come up with the most creative answer. Either way, it can be funny or it can leave you shaking your head wondering how these people function in polite society.

Some brilliant examples include:-

What do the British call the Atlantic Ocean?

What do British people call roads?

How much does it cost to buy all the money?

Why do people claim the United Kingdom isn’t bordered by the Pacific Ocean?

Is there video footage of the crucifixion of Jesus?

Which is cheaper: free shipping or flat-rate shipping?

I mean… come on! Surely there’s no-one daft enough to think these things, let alone ask them on the internet outside of a search engine. Well, it seems there are such people. There are also many Americans posting things that are guaranteed to upset most nations with their superior, but uneducated, attitudes.

This is not all the crazy I’ve found today though. There’s the 10 year old transgender model who supposedly knew at the tender age of two and a half years old that they were in the wrong body… not surprisingly the mother is trans and the partner is trans, non-binary. The father, who is straight, has been removed from the child’s life. Talk about agenda pushing. I’m saying this because, having raised a child, I find it hard to believe that a child would even be able to say the word transgender, much less know what it means or understand the consequences of such an important decision which will affect the whole life of the person.

I try to understand the points of view of these minorities. I have transgender friends, gay friends, pansexual and asexual friends. And I ask them to educate me rather than me just assuming I know what it’s all about. But it seems that there is some degree of infighting amongst these newly labelled genders and sexual orientations. This story in the DM today has me scratching my head. It seems that each of these types of orientations are not very tolerant of each other. I wonder, where will it end? If all the non-straight people can’t get along because of their differences then nobody will ever be tolerant of any other group.

There’s also this story, where a man wants to eat food that others think he shouldn’t be eating. We are not vegan or vegetarian by nature. We were created to be carnivores, our diets need the balance of nutrients from all food sources rather than chemically made supplements to replace what’s missing when we exclude food groups. And again, this intolerance of people with differing views. Just crazy.

There were a couple of other noteworthy stories today. One involves a man who, during his arrest for shoplifting and carrying a bladed weapon, farted in a police officer’s face. The headline felt it necessary to point this fact out, almost making the farting part the actual reason for arrest. Upon reading the story, it was just a secondary part to the arrest story. But it made me chuckle even though it’s abhorrent behaviour and he definitely deserved his sentence.

And then there’s dear old Lewis Hamilton and his dubious fashion choices. I don’t like the fashion industry. It’s something of a joke. People dress like morons and other morons copy them. It’s a horrible industry which exploits people for profits, it’s unscrupulous and manipulative. But, if you can bear it, have a look at this and tell me this is going to catch on because a multi-millionaire racing driver thinks it looks cool. I’m sorry but that outfit deserves every word of scorn poured on it, and judging by the comments from the general public, I’m not alone in thinking this is an embarrassment and definitely a fashion faux pas.

So that’s it for today’s internet crazy. Just in case you were wondering about the answers to those Quora questions… here’s the link to the forum. Enjoy!

Somewhere in the internet wilderness…

Another little grey cell loses the will to live. Over the last couple of days I’ve been reading a lot of ‘stuff’ on the internet. Various sites, including Reddit, Quora, Daily Mail and Bored Panda, are my chosen targets along with local newspapers (I resent calling them that) from around the country.

I’ve discovered, in my travels recently, that there is an increasing amount of stupidity swimming around out there and I’ve decided to start a series of blog posts on the most stupid thing (in my opinion) that I’ve seen on the internet each day. Now, bearing in mind that it’s only tea-time in the UK, there’s still a fair bit of today to find even more stupid than I already have. But that can go into tomorrow’s post.

First I’ll start with yesterday’s stupid so you can get a feel for what I’m seeing online. I was reading an article on the Daily Mail which was taken from Bored Panda about a forum on Reddit that posts stupid things people write on Facebook. Are you still with me?

In this one particular post, a bloke says he can’t understand why we even need farmers because most people just go to the shops to buy their fruit and veg. Well, duh, how the hell does he think it gets to the shops? Honestly! That’s right up there with kids today thinking eggs come from cows, milk comes from pigs and bacon comes from chickens! I’m just speechless at the level (or lack) of education in the world today. We’re supposed to be evolving!

Which sort of brings me onto today’s stupid. This article on the Daily Mail (DM). What prompted me to write this now is that I picked up a crochet project today that hasn’t seen a lot of love lately. It’s called Joyful Dance and it’s a lovely pattern by Helen Shrimpton of Crystals and Crochet. So I’m merrily crocheting on this and my mind is turning over the irony of working on something that includes the word ‘dance’ when the DM article is about exactly that. Dancing. In the rain, to be exact. And how some female (I presume) person of colour (if that’s the correct term now) is complaining because Drew Barrymore posted a couple of videos of herself dancing in the rain.

To put this in perspective, we haven’t had a lot of rain worldwide for months now. So any time it rains, just about everyone I know is out in it (barring thunder and lightning) because it’s so lovely and refreshing – and very, very welcome (for a change). Now, this woman on TikTok of all places, starts ranting about how Drew Barrymore is racist for copying a trend that supposedly started on TikTok earlier this year where black men were filming themselves ‘frolicking’ in the rain, in fields etc.

Ok, so that means that I’ve been racist since I was a little kid, when we used to don our wellies and go out in the rain playing in puddles until we were called in for our tea. I’m going back over fifty years and suddenly, just because a white actress puts a film of herself online doing exactly the same as we all did as kids – before this complaining woman was even born – she’s racist and sexist along with everyone who isn’t black and male!

I’m not racist. I’m not sexist. I’m not anything-ist. Apart from maybe p-ist. I’m so fed up with being labelled by people who don’t know me. Who assume that because a minority of their voices were heard in the media that suddenly they are right and everyone else is just plain wrong.

I thought the whole point of their BLM argument was that they wanted to be equal around/across the globe (got to be inclusive of the flat earthers as well) but they’ve decided equal isn’t good enough. They have to be superior. They’re finding offence and accusing people of being racist when there’s no evidence of it at all. It’s so divisive which, I think, negates their whole point about being recognised for their contributions through the ages.

I saw a question on Quora a few days ago. It could have been posted just to troll people, there’s a lot of that on there. But a teenager was saying that she fancied this white guy but he didn’t want to go out with her and how could she not see that as anything but racist.

Well, I just shake my head at some of these sorts of questions. It’s like, suddenly, if you’re white you have no right to choose who you want to date. I’ve been subjected to this myself in the past. The truth is, contrary to their narrow-minded opinions, I am not attracted to black people in general. And I wouldn’t vilify anyone who felt the same about any race, colour or creed. If you don’t find someone attractive, it’s likely to be about anything but race.

It’s a whole can of worms that would be best left closed. People around the world need to understand that it’s alright to have an opinion. It’s not always alright to voice it especially when you’re accusing someone of a character trait that they might not even have.

If all of this proves one thing it’s that there will never ever be world peace. People just can’t let others get on with their lives without accusing them of something or being offended by everything. I was brought up to “live and let live” and that’s what I do to the best of my ability. But sometimes every boundary is pushed by someone who thinks they know it all and who pigeonholes everyone because it doesn’t suit them to believe we are all the same but different.

I wonder what tomorrow will bring? Each day I read something and think, ‘I’ve heard/seen it all now’. I definitely haven’t!