Health and safety warning

[liv]

If anyone else today forwards me this festering pile of maggot droppings that makes even spam look good by comparison, there will be violence.

As it is I've already been less than polite to people who don't know any better. And the only thing that has kept me from breaking something so far is that someone who is not an islamophobic, tech-illiterate, credulous moron (and who happens to be rather cute, in fact) sent me gratuitous hugs earlier.

Anyone want to restore my faith in humanity? (No, that doesn't mean sending me pictures of cute animals, humanity was the operative word.)

Comments

[redbird]

Faith in humanity, at least a little: I've had an entirely civil political discussion in my journal in the past few days. There have been a few negative comments about politicians, but no gratuitous name-calling, and no attacks on other posters.

[lethargic-man.livejournal.com]

I don't know whether this (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/7226778.stm) will make you feel better or worse about the maggot droppings.

But you can have some gratuitous hugs from me too.

[ewx.livejournal.com]

“Teaching of the Holocaust is compulsory in all secondary schools between the ages of 11 and 14”

(from the URL you quote, quoting Ed Balls.) Is that new? I'm pretty sure we didn't get taught about it at school. (FSVO ‘new’, it's a while since I was 14.)

I think my parents probably told me about it first, and I probably picked up more detailed information from the excellent The World At War (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World_at_War).

[midnightmelody.livejournal.com]

Up until Sept 2008 (and I'm not sure about after that), it is the only compulsory period/topic between 11-14. It's been there since the beginning of the National Curriculum, I believe. (So 1990 or thereabouts.)

[pseudomonas.livejournal.com]

and at least when I was at school, the National Curriculum only applied to state schools.

[midnightmelody.livejournal.com]

Indeed, it is still only statutory for state schools. (In practice, many private schools follow the national curriculum at secondary level.)

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

That is, people telling you the more gullible version, not merely objecting to what the one school did, nor saying "Look at this forward, aren't forwards crap?"? How on earth?

My supply of credulous or offensive forwards dropped to about zero years ago (and I didn't even do anything about it). In fact, I know many of my friends are very sceptic, and most sensible, but for whatever reason, no-one seems to send me forwards any more without checking snopes, I'm pleasantly surprised. And that doesn't exactly restore faith in humanity but is very slightly positive :(

If you've been getting that repeatedly *sympathy* *more hugs* People do stupid things, they have my symapthy, I wish I could fix it :(

[megamole.livejournal.com]

credulous or offensive forwards

They're still infectious; look at the number of utterly pointless Facebook applications, especially the ones which require you to invite 20 friends before doing anything.

May they all be pushed 300 yards up the devil's festering rectum.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

And I assumed email forwards were still common -- it's just that I (and I hadn't considered it until just then) seem to have been spared! :)

utterly pointless Facebook applications, especially the ones which require you to invite 20 friends before doing anything.

Oh yes, they're ridiculous/evil. But I don't mind so much, because although I wish friends considered whether I was likely to want such an invitation, I understand how they might fail to. And wish the authors of deliberately offensive applications could be zotted. And wish the technical side of the problem was fixed. But the ones I've seen are generally insinuating I might like to compare my friends and see which sort of fish they are, which is wrong, but not very wrong -- I *might* do -- whereas email forwards generally seem to suggest I should be (a) credulous (b) militant (c) in a cause I don't believe in (d) and may find personally offensive.

[nameandnature]

I found a Greasemonkey script which puts an "Ignore and ban all requests" button on the requests page on Facebook. So apps which are annoying are only annoying once.

[syllopsium.livejournal.com]

this? (http://newsbiscuit.com/article/essex-criminals-slam-rubbish-dog-fight-212)? :)

I'd also recommend loadingreadyrun (http://loadingreadyrun.com) as being diverting at times.

[midnightmelody.livejournal.com]

I have faith in humanity, and faith in our future. (http://www.teachforamerica.org/about/special_initiatives/teach_for_all.htm) Partly because wonderful people like you are involved in teaching.

[megamole.livejournal.com]

Oy.

*hugs*

[sunflowerinrain.livejournal.com]

One wonders if the offending journalists are deliberating nudging the credulous toward Islamophobia, or if they are merely chasing what they perceive to be the popular vote^W^Wpunters' opinion^W^Wview most likely to sell. If the former... don't we have a law against that now? ;)

[hatam-soferet.livejournal.com]

You only just got that? Or you're getting a spate of it now? Either way, pleh, you can do without idiots doing that. (I had friends who would always send me forwards. Had. I gave them fair warning not to send me idiotic stuff, and once I was fed up, blocked their email.)

I'm going to write a restorative post, come check my lj in a moment when you get up.