Recently I have begun to reimmerse myself in the 'Punk Underground'. I have discovered bands that are very, very outside the mainstream(Propaghandi, for example, who have songs called The Only Good Fascist Is A Very Dead Fascist and So Apparently I'm A Pc Fascist(Because I Believe In The Rights Of Humans And Non-Humans). One of the bands I've discovered is called NOFX(No-Ef-X) and they have a song called Franco Unamerican which is a perfectly straight forward Bush era protest song with some very hard hitting lyrics(I'm tired of all this embarrassment/the whole world wants us to get a better president). I realized something as I was listening to the song for the six or seventh time that changed my life: Hating Politicians can create great music. Really great music.
Now let's flash ahead a few days after I first heard the song.....I'm at the beach in a rented condo watching MSNBC. The hosts are attacking the Republicans and having a jolly old time which just confirms what I've know all along: It is far more fun to be in the opposition then to be in power. When you're in power people hate you because you're not doing 100% of what you want. When you're in opposition you have no responsibilities really.
So when you have a president who is incompetent and makes terrible decisions you get 1) Awesome Protest Music and 2) The Ability To Protest The Heck Out Of Everything. With that in mind....I ENDORSE SARAH PALIN!!
Frm. Gov. Palin will never be able to handle the stresses of the job and is so thin skinned that she will probably declare war on Britain because they bowed to the Queen instead of her. The liberals will be able to rise up in opposition and the punks will be able to get as angry as they want, it'll be wonderful.
Editors Note:
The Write of this article is using a form of humor known as sarcasm to advance his point, that Former Governor Sarah Palin is not fit for the job of president. He is also using this form of humor to attempt to get you to laugh, which makes him feel loved and wanted. Opinionated Media does not endorse or recommend the use of sarcasm to advance points and they certainly do not endorse or support Gov. Palin becoming president.
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Second Anniversary
Hello all
I just realized that I totally missed our second anniversary, I do apologize. A lot has changed since I started this blog, first and foremost among the things that have changed is me. I am, of course, older and now write in a different sort of way, about different things. So, with that in mind, I am making some changes to this blog.
The most obvious change will be the name of the blog. I have begun to find 'The Liberal Rocker' to be both immature and, quite frankly, a little obnoxious. Thank you for putting up with me, I have no idea how you managed it. It is now going to be changed to Opinionated Media(which is also the name of my production company).
The second most obvious change is that I'm going to start writing more often about different topics. In the next few days, for example, I'm going to be writing an article titled Why I Want Sarah Palin To Become President, an article about a staging concept for the musical Evita, and possibly some music or television related pieces. So I will still be political and I will never pull a political punch but it will become less of the focus.
Also, hopefully, my writing will improve. I am going to attempt to write in a more mature, adult, intellectual way. But do not fear, I still believe in humor as a weapon so you will still see humorous asides in parentheses.
Thank you for sticking with me for all these years and thank you for, hopefully, sticking with me going forward.
Yours,
Rock4ever
All Over But The Shouting, Just A Waste Of Time
---The Replacements, Nevermind
I just realized that I totally missed our second anniversary, I do apologize. A lot has changed since I started this blog, first and foremost among the things that have changed is me. I am, of course, older and now write in a different sort of way, about different things. So, with that in mind, I am making some changes to this blog.
The most obvious change will be the name of the blog. I have begun to find 'The Liberal Rocker' to be both immature and, quite frankly, a little obnoxious. Thank you for putting up with me, I have no idea how you managed it. It is now going to be changed to Opinionated Media(which is also the name of my production company).
The second most obvious change is that I'm going to start writing more often about different topics. In the next few days, for example, I'm going to be writing an article titled Why I Want Sarah Palin To Become President, an article about a staging concept for the musical Evita, and possibly some music or television related pieces. So I will still be political and I will never pull a political punch but it will become less of the focus.
Also, hopefully, my writing will improve. I am going to attempt to write in a more mature, adult, intellectual way. But do not fear, I still believe in humor as a weapon so you will still see humorous asides in parentheses.
Thank you for sticking with me for all these years and thank you for, hopefully, sticking with me going forward.
Yours,
Rock4ever
All Over But The Shouting, Just A Waste Of Time
---The Replacements, Nevermind
Saturday, May 7, 2011
I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying.
"Be yourself; everyone else is already taken."
--Oscar Wilde
So my last post(Wake Up Nerd Culture, You're A Sham) got some interesting comments from Kenny and Elfarmy but I think that either they totally missed the point or I did a terrible job communicating the point(possibly a bit of both). So let me clarify:
The point of the post was not that John Green is a terrible guy. I don't think he is. I think, with that quote he was trying to make "Nerds" feel better, because he's probably a nice guy. However in trying to do that, I believe, he fed into an us vs. them mentality that I think is pointless and silly.
The point of the post wasn't that being part of a group is bad. I don't believe it necessarily is. I think that if you change yourself to be part of that group and refuse to take part in anything outside the group, and identify yourself solely as being part of that group then being in that group is bad.
The point of the post was that I believe that there are a large number of people, several of whom are my friends, who have labelled themselves nerds and they then feel the need to like certain things and feel certain things and be a certain way. And that bothers me.
One might ask, oh how do you know that they are changing themselves to fit in? Because their tastes fit in perfectly with the majority of nerds, they love the same books, the same music, and the same tv shows. And no one fits in that well with any one group. People are complex and have varied tastes and interests(which incidentally is what John Green's Paper Towns is about).
I do consider the Nerd Movement to be a cult or if you'd rather a religion. And I don't want to sound angry or bitter or anything like that but it does annoy me when I see members of my generation basically lying about themselves so that they can find a group. If the group is demanding that then the group is morally reprehensible but if it's just the individual doing that because of some pyschobabble mumbo jumbo then it is the individual's fault, and they need to understand that they don't need to do that.
When I said that being uncool is the new cool what I meant to do was say that when nerds are all "We're uncool, but we're find with it, we read and write and that makes us so strange and outside the mainstream. We're freakin' underground. Heck yeah!" they're wrong because they're basically becoming mainstream. And people are jumping on the bandwagon of not jumping on the bandwagon. I think that the nerdfighteria(or whatever it is) has either caused this or fed it a lot.
As the quote at the top of the post says just be yourself. Being anyone else is just sort of pointless and you'll look back and wonder why you did that. Come out of the nerd closet, come out as an individual.
--Oscar Wilde
So my last post(Wake Up Nerd Culture, You're A Sham) got some interesting comments from Kenny and Elfarmy but I think that either they totally missed the point or I did a terrible job communicating the point(possibly a bit of both). So let me clarify:
The point of the post was not that John Green is a terrible guy. I don't think he is. I think, with that quote he was trying to make "Nerds" feel better, because he's probably a nice guy. However in trying to do that, I believe, he fed into an us vs. them mentality that I think is pointless and silly.
The point of the post wasn't that being part of a group is bad. I don't believe it necessarily is. I think that if you change yourself to be part of that group and refuse to take part in anything outside the group, and identify yourself solely as being part of that group then being in that group is bad.
The point of the post was that I believe that there are a large number of people, several of whom are my friends, who have labelled themselves nerds and they then feel the need to like certain things and feel certain things and be a certain way. And that bothers me.
One might ask, oh how do you know that they are changing themselves to fit in? Because their tastes fit in perfectly with the majority of nerds, they love the same books, the same music, and the same tv shows. And no one fits in that well with any one group. People are complex and have varied tastes and interests(which incidentally is what John Green's Paper Towns is about).
I do consider the Nerd Movement to be a cult or if you'd rather a religion. And I don't want to sound angry or bitter or anything like that but it does annoy me when I see members of my generation basically lying about themselves so that they can find a group. If the group is demanding that then the group is morally reprehensible but if it's just the individual doing that because of some pyschobabble mumbo jumbo then it is the individual's fault, and they need to understand that they don't need to do that.
When I said that being uncool is the new cool what I meant to do was say that when nerds are all "We're uncool, but we're find with it, we read and write and that makes us so strange and outside the mainstream. We're freakin' underground. Heck yeah!" they're wrong because they're basically becoming mainstream. And people are jumping on the bandwagon of not jumping on the bandwagon. I think that the nerdfighteria(or whatever it is) has either caused this or fed it a lot.
As the quote at the top of the post says just be yourself. Being anyone else is just sort of pointless and you'll look back and wonder why you did that. Come out of the nerd closet, come out as an individual.
Wake Up Nerd Culture, You're A Sham
(one quick note, this is in no way a response to Elfarmy's recent post, as I've been planning on writing this for days)
"I think when people talk about nerdiness what they're really talking about are smart people who are trying to think hard about the world. And I don't think that's an insult, I think that's a great thing."
---John Green
I have spoken very often to friends of mine(and nowhere near enough on this blog) about what I like to call "country club mentality". Country Club Mentality, as I define it, is when you decide that whatever religion or country or state or church or group you happen to be part of is the best because it's the best and only people who are part of whatever it is you are part of are great people. "God Bless The USA" "Only Christians Go To Heaven" "When people talk about nerdiness what they're really talking about are smart people who are trying to think hard about the world" Ectera Ectera
I have....problems with this mindset and, in fact, I view it as the cause of a great many of our society's problems. John Lydon(or Johnny Rotten as he used to be called) once said that "National Pride Leads To War And Hate, Nothing Else, Planet Earth All The Way"(you'll be seeing that quote again) and while I don't 100% agree with that I certainly agree with it to a point.
And now we come to the "Nerd Movement" and where I start alienating a great many of my readers. It has become cool to be uncool. People are changing who they are so as to appear that they refuse to change who they are. Not Fitting in has become the new fitting in. And I have had enough of it.
A large number of people of my generation have decided that they are nerds and, because they are nerds, they must like certain things. All these so called nerds love John Green, Youtube Based Musicians, and Joss Whedon. They all do, all of them. When every member of a group loves the same things you don't have a group of people who are outcasts you have a fraternity.
That John Green quote is one of the finest examples of CCM(Country Club Mindset) that I have ever read. All nerds like to think intelligently about the world and that's the defining characteristic of the group? Really? To me that is not only ludicrous but offensive. Jocks can be just as smart and think just as hard about the world as nerds. Geeks, Punk Rockers, Emos, they can all be smart and think about the world. And someone who has as much sway with as many people as John Green has should know better than to play into age old stereotypes. He should have known better.
In the day of yore everyone agreed that Kings and Queens had the right to rule because God gave them the right to rule. They ruled because they were supposed to rule. We use almost the exact same logic today. Nerds are the best, because they're the smartest. Why are they the smartest? Because they're nerds. Logicians call that a circular argument and is a logical fallacy. But that is the thought process that CCM is based on. We're the best because we're the freaking best. USA USA, Won't you be a nerdfighter like me?
I am a firm believer in being diverse. Just because I listen to Punk Rock doesn't mean that I can't listen to showtunes. I like punk and I like showtunes and if you have a problem with that, that's your problem. Just because I watch the occasionally reality show doesn't mean I can't enjoy Doctor Who or Parks and Recreation or The West Wing. Just because I love Inception doesn't mean I can't love Frost/Nixon or True Grit. I am a firm believer in being a cultural omnivore(a term taken from one Linda Holmes on NPRs Monkey See.) When you devote yourself entirely to one thing or one style or one genre you miss out on all this awesome stuff in different styles and genres. That's why the argument "Oh Reading is so awesome, way better than watching that stupid television" strikes me as being very uniformed. Books are a medium and television is a medium, to say that one is better than the other just because some things created in the other are garbage is silly. Have there been mind-numbingly stupid tv shows? Yes, but have you read some of the YA books being published today?
Every medium, every group, ever organization has merits and disadvantages, which is why being exclusively in one group or organization or medium is never a good idea. Openness creates diversity and diversity is where greatness comes from.
I don't see the point in being in a group in which EVERYONE thinks the same things. Walk up to almost any nerdfighter and ask them their opinion of "Once More With Feeling" and they will, almost to a man, rave about it till the cows come home. Where are the nay sayers? Where is the independent thought? It, to me, is the same as when Christians identify themselves first and foremost as Christians. They listen to Christian music, watch Kirk Cameron Movies, and read inspirational books they are closing themselves off to the world and Nerds are doing the exact same thing. And it makes me mad.
"I think when people talk about nerdiness what they're really talking about are smart people who are trying to think hard about the world. And I don't think that's an insult, I think that's a great thing."
---John Green
I have spoken very often to friends of mine(and nowhere near enough on this blog) about what I like to call "country club mentality". Country Club Mentality, as I define it, is when you decide that whatever religion or country or state or church or group you happen to be part of is the best because it's the best and only people who are part of whatever it is you are part of are great people. "God Bless The USA" "Only Christians Go To Heaven" "When people talk about nerdiness what they're really talking about are smart people who are trying to think hard about the world" Ectera Ectera
I have....problems with this mindset and, in fact, I view it as the cause of a great many of our society's problems. John Lydon(or Johnny Rotten as he used to be called) once said that "National Pride Leads To War And Hate, Nothing Else, Planet Earth All The Way"(you'll be seeing that quote again) and while I don't 100% agree with that I certainly agree with it to a point.
And now we come to the "Nerd Movement" and where I start alienating a great many of my readers. It has become cool to be uncool. People are changing who they are so as to appear that they refuse to change who they are. Not Fitting in has become the new fitting in. And I have had enough of it.
A large number of people of my generation have decided that they are nerds and, because they are nerds, they must like certain things. All these so called nerds love John Green, Youtube Based Musicians, and Joss Whedon. They all do, all of them. When every member of a group loves the same things you don't have a group of people who are outcasts you have a fraternity.
That John Green quote is one of the finest examples of CCM(Country Club Mindset) that I have ever read. All nerds like to think intelligently about the world and that's the defining characteristic of the group? Really? To me that is not only ludicrous but offensive. Jocks can be just as smart and think just as hard about the world as nerds. Geeks, Punk Rockers, Emos, they can all be smart and think about the world. And someone who has as much sway with as many people as John Green has should know better than to play into age old stereotypes. He should have known better.
In the day of yore everyone agreed that Kings and Queens had the right to rule because God gave them the right to rule. They ruled because they were supposed to rule. We use almost the exact same logic today. Nerds are the best, because they're the smartest. Why are they the smartest? Because they're nerds. Logicians call that a circular argument and is a logical fallacy. But that is the thought process that CCM is based on. We're the best because we're the freaking best. USA USA, Won't you be a nerdfighter like me?
I am a firm believer in being diverse. Just because I listen to Punk Rock doesn't mean that I can't listen to showtunes. I like punk and I like showtunes and if you have a problem with that, that's your problem. Just because I watch the occasionally reality show doesn't mean I can't enjoy Doctor Who or Parks and Recreation or The West Wing. Just because I love Inception doesn't mean I can't love Frost/Nixon or True Grit. I am a firm believer in being a cultural omnivore(a term taken from one Linda Holmes on NPRs Monkey See.) When you devote yourself entirely to one thing or one style or one genre you miss out on all this awesome stuff in different styles and genres. That's why the argument "Oh Reading is so awesome, way better than watching that stupid television" strikes me as being very uniformed. Books are a medium and television is a medium, to say that one is better than the other just because some things created in the other are garbage is silly. Have there been mind-numbingly stupid tv shows? Yes, but have you read some of the YA books being published today?
Every medium, every group, ever organization has merits and disadvantages, which is why being exclusively in one group or organization or medium is never a good idea. Openness creates diversity and diversity is where greatness comes from.
I don't see the point in being in a group in which EVERYONE thinks the same things. Walk up to almost any nerdfighter and ask them their opinion of "Once More With Feeling" and they will, almost to a man, rave about it till the cows come home. Where are the nay sayers? Where is the independent thought? It, to me, is the same as when Christians identify themselves first and foremost as Christians. They listen to Christian music, watch Kirk Cameron Movies, and read inspirational books they are closing themselves off to the world and Nerds are doing the exact same thing. And it makes me mad.
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