Regarding my last article, I just want to be serious for a moment. In no way do I endorse deliberately pissing off coworkers. Far from it. However, this is exactly what happens. You get a new job, you say that it will be different this time. This time you will work your butt off even harder so the employer doesn’t have a reason to let you go. You honestly want to impress them, because you absolutely have to break the pattern of job loss and desperation that keeps forcing you to get a job with lesser pay. But then, there is always that dick-in-the-arse coworker that seems to think that you are deliberately embarrassing them, that for some reason it is your fault that they can no longer coast along at minimal effort. But, doesn’t that fly in the face of everything you were told growing up? You’re told to work hard, impress your boss and the world is your oyster. This is not how it works, though… is it? More often the harder you work the more people you piss off and turn against you.

Does this mean that you are supposed to slack off, and produce less than you’re capable of, just so the lazy workers can like you, not want you dead, and not work against you? I don’t know, maybe. The economy is tanking and I cannot afford to go without work. So, maybe it is best to betray my own abilities and do less. It certainly seems that hard work earns resentment not reward.

If you’re like me you can’t just not work hard. I was brought up with a work ethic that I cannot fight against. Every time I try to dial it down I feel so horrible that it doesn’t last. In the end I am a bad person for being one of the few who absolutely has to work harder than everyone else. Why? It’s not ego… and it definitely is not to make others look bad. I have to be the best because the last thing I ever want to be accused of is not pulling my weight. It is embarrassing being told that, and it hurts, so I avoid it.

I wish I lived in a world that matched how I was raised. I wish I was raised in a world that sees talent, facilitates it and helps it grow and prosper. I don’t. Instead I live in a society that shuns hard work, that cares nothing about people, and effectively treats those like myself as garbage. How it happened I cannot say, and I won’t try.

I will get another nowhere job, work my butt off, piss off coworkers, just by being good… and then get let go because I don’t fit in. I don’t fit in because I have ethics. I cannot change that. I will not change that. I will work, go home, write a blog or render a 3D image… or something. I will return to work and feel miserable, because I cannot fathom why someone or other finds me so offensive. I will go through that same cycle again and again, day after day, until I get laid off again… and again. I usually like ending these little rants with something positive at the end, but I see no positive here right now.

Peace

Also known as prepackaged falsehood and non-wisdom that can often give you a false sense of intelligence and enlightenment.  Whether it’s in Facebook, Twitter or any other social media you encounter, you will have a good lot of garbage in your feed passed off as truth.  But, how many of us actually take the time to think through them before sharing?  I do, and you may think you do, yet social media is still being flooded with drivel that’s mostly false.  Those memes you see that quote famous people, are either tongue-in-cheek, grossly misstated, or outright lies… lies that can make you look stupid, ruin your car, or kill you.

So, why are these things so popular?  We are products of the instant gratification age.  We have been molded by the fast food, automatic seat adjustment, rear view cam, drive through banking, park in the spot absolutely closest to the door society.  So, why would our social media be any different?  We want our information just as fast, just as automatic, just as convenient and just as prepackaged as everything else in our lives.  Just like fast food we don’t want to take the time to be sure we aren’t getting fed garbage.  We get our news instantly and never look past the source we get it from, because we have so much else we would rather do, see, hear and play right now.  We don’t want to mess with the details or turn our heads just a little further to get a better look at the subject.

We definitely do not want to go beyond the familiar and comfortable.  We haunt the same places that appeal to our preconceived notions we were raised with.  Our friends are our friends because they agree with everything we say, and vice verse.  If they don’t, they were never our friend in the first place.  At least that’s what we tell ourselves so we don’t feel like the closed off, narrow minded, sheep we’ve become.  No place does this become so rudely apparent than the racial issues plaguing our world right now.  

These issues are dividing us more and more, daily.  We can thank the internet for that.  Hey, at least you get the news on the race war, that many seem to really want, instantly.  Don’t get me wrong, the internet is not in itself bad.  It’s a great thing.  However, not only do we have the sum total of human knowledge at our beck and call, we also have the sum total of idiocy at the speed of stupid.  And because we refuse to take the time out of our over busy day to check the facts many of us get convinced of the craziest of ideas.  

Too many believed it when Gliese 581g was reported to be an “earth-like” planet, and only because a single member leaked the news before anyone could stop him and tell him he’s too stupid to be a scientist let alone someone looking for exoplanets.  Well, the report was found to be a false alarm, but that didn’t stop those who wanted to believe the idea so badly to become hostile to those who preached calm, collected reason before jumping to a conclusion before all the data was in.

The same thing happened in just the last twenty-four hours when Dr. Lawrence Krauss, of the LIGO team tweeted that gravitational waves were found.  Well, LIGO itself refused to back up Dr. Krauss, who, it turns out, is more of a showboating egomaniac, like Richard Dawkins.  And FYI, they often make appearances together, when tilting at religion.  As a side note, I often wonder how it came to be that the job of science is not just the discovery of natural processes, but also to bait and troll religion.

When it comes to social memes, if you want to convince a lot of people of the factually incorrect, all you need to do is put it in a square picture, slap quotes around it, and drop some famous person’s name at the bottom and, bingo, many more will believe it than not.  You would be absolutely amazed at the amount of false information that get’s passed around virally in this way.  That is, if you took the time to look around and verify.  

I know, memes take many forms and not all are bad.  Some are funny, some may actually inform.  I’m talking about those people that don’t give a first thought before sharing and flooding my feed with ten or twenty words combined to generate some kind of reaction instead of inform people of truth.  It wasn’t that big of a deal before.  I simply clicked on the down arrow and block the source, with the logic that if I cannot trust the source, I’m not interested in what it has to offer.  However, recently I’ve been doing more source blocking than reading the stuff I really do want.  You know, the not dumb things, the not mean things, just those things that enrich me.  

Alas, getting what I want and need does not happen nearly enough anymore, but that’s life on the web.  We do have to take the bad with the good.  Yet, that doesn’t mean we aren’t allowed to combat falsehood when we can, in hopes we can change a mind or two.  If just one person out of a hundred stops and thinks, even for a second, then it is worth it.  Even when ninety-nine people launch into such linguistic vitriol, that you wonder of they should be force-fed a box of soap by their mommies, it is worth combatting them.  Obviously, we have the high ground of morality and truth on our side, so we shouldn’t get the feeling of being overwhelmed by these people.  Calm reason will always win out over hostile attitude.  

It is not just bad information that is at risk.  Property can be damaged, in the case of the memes that promote putting sugar in your gas tank so the ethanol doesn’t freeze.  Lives can be lost, as in the case where it is suggested, in a similar meme, to route a hose from your car’s exhaust pipe to inside the cab if your heater isn’t working.  I admit… they are funny as hell, but when the wrong person gets that in their feed, they may actually try those things without checking.  I know you may feel that if people are so dumb to try these things they deserve to have their car royally screwed and to lose their life.  But… I mean, think about it, if you shared that last one, with the hose from your exhaust to your cab, and someone dies because of carbon monoxide poisoning… you are a party to murder, or at least manslaughter.  You will have helped kill someone.

So, the Lemon appeals to it’s own audience, to take a moment to look into the validity of something before sharing it.  I know, you may not be used to looking into these things, but you aren’t alone.  I’m here to assist and give you a direction.  I wrote a guide on detecting bullshit a while back, and it is a pretty easy thing to do.  Click this link, even share it.  Remember, it’s only funny until someone loses their car, or life.
Peace

Most of us are unappreciated.  I’d like to think that we all do our best to facilitate other people, but that would be myself being delusional… and you too, if that’s what you strongly believe.  One could be the most talented, intelligent, useful and wise person, but all others – at least those in the position to help one grow and prosper – seem to see is just another nobody.  Obviously, we’re nobody, otherwise why else would we be at the very bottom of the totem pole in every aspect of life.  It must be all our fault.

We are often told by those who judge us that the one commonality, in all the situations that negatively impact us, is us.  But, how far does that logic really fly?  Does it not seem to you that there are other commonalities that prevent us from getting any form of satisfaction in life that are not just us?  Well there are; shitty managers, rich people, crazy people and friends of shitty managers, rich people and crazy people.  Taking full blame for every adversity that befalls us is disingenuous and self defecating. Stop it.

As a person who has learned long ago to look objectively and critically at oneself, I’ve been paying attention to both sides of the issue.  What I have found appals me, confounds me and makes me angry.  For a species that is named wise human too many of us behave so unwisely.  For an animal that can empathize, and are able to choose decency over impropriety, we more often choose the latter.  They step on anyone who gets between them and their objective, and sacrifice the soldier to save an officer.

We demonstrate our worth over and over again, or at least we try to if anyone would take the time out of their busy narcissism to look.  We do this because that is what we’re told we’re supposed to do.  If we do not demonstrate our worth, how would the overseers know?  Well, we do demonstrate, especially when we aren’t aware of it.  It’s evolved human behaviour.  We seek to show others what we can do.  It is why we call to friends to “check out what I did”.  When we’re particularly proud of something it shows… even when we don’t realize it.  The logic of this whole demonstration equation puts the onus solely on us.  It is not a one sided issue.  It is also the duty of those in control to look for these demonstrations, because if they do not they are failing us… not the other way around.

No wonder most of us don’t have the confidence to follow through on things that help us grow, that push those comfort boundaries and help fuel our self esteem.  We are taking too much blame for the shitty situation we are in.  Surely some of the downtrodden have done it to themselves, but that does not automatically translate into everyone who is downtrodden has been the sole author of their fate.  

We are flooded with negativity about ourselves so often from birth to death that, on the rare occasion that we do actually take pride in something we’ve done, at best that pride falls on deaf eyes and at worst we are ridiculed for it.  Our pride is muted, or outright destroyed, and our self esteem takes that hit every bloody time.  Once in the accretion disk of the black hole, I call depression, an incredible amount of effort is needed just to not slip closer to that hole.  So, you can imagine the effort I have put into this personal realization that I don’t suck, that these overseers are anything but sages, that this entire system of how bosses rule roosts is deeply and utterly fucked.

The Gallup organization, you know the one we used to trust but don’t even hear about anymore, had done a multi-million dollar study worldwide to find out that people don’t leave jobs, or even companies… they leave people, specifically managers.  This then begs the question,why in all the levels of hell has nothing been done about it?  Why have we gone so long, from the beginning of capitalism til now, completely and totally brain dead on this?  My guess is, we haven’t really been brain dead.  Including a very few managers, we are deeply aware of what’s going on.  We just cannot fix it.  We are forced to play their game by their ever changing rules, made up ad hoc… rules, by the way, they clearly do not have to follow.  Most of us are too scared to say anything, and this is understandable, because if we do we are labelled and placed in the GTFO queue.  The moment anything can be used as an excuse to be rid of the squeaky wheel we are turfed.

Some of us have unions that protect us, but only some.  The vast majority are not union members.  We have to rely on the laws of the state, laws formed by politicians bought and paid for by the big boys to leave them openings to screw anyone who stands up for themselves and insist on a fair shake.  We are dropped like hot potatoes and we are left with no recourse to call them on the shitty logic they just used as justification.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure there is a good employer out there SOMEplace.  One that doesn’t recycle Christmas party speeches, with empty verbal respects paid to the very people they’ve screwed over in order to eek out that little bit more profit.  I’m sure there’s a company out there that isn’t out to fool stakeholders just how awesome the company is doing, when it’s actually tanking. This brings me to another question that’s begging in my head right now.  Is a company laying off because the economy is tanking, or is the economy tanking because these companies are just too narcissistic to recognize that they’re screwing everyone?  Did you know that 2016 is the year that the rich possess half the world’s wealth… and they’re getting even richer?

I digress.  This is about how we, you, don’t suck.  This is about how it’s really not your fault.  This is about taking control of the little part you can, that part of you that cannot be denied by anyone, that part that tells you that you are valuable even (and perhaps especially) when they refuse to see it.  
Peace

Certain things get forgiven and overlooked because they’re friends.  We often try to reason with them on the same grounds.  Sometimes an issue arises that forces us to take a closer look at why we try to keep them as friends.  Invariably, that issue becomes the proverbial straw that broke the back of a once healthy camel.  For me the niquab is that issue.  It has sparked a cascade of racism from people I never realized were that bigoted. And maybe it’s not just the racism that gets to you.  Maybe it’s the feeling of associative guilt, or the embarrassment that gives you pause and makes you rethink your friendship.  Either way, you know things won’t improve, though some of us keep trying.  

So, this is my question: when is it appropriate to end a friendship with someone too stupid, and bigoted to associate with; when do you call it quits?  Now, I’m not talking about race jokes.  They’re jokes, I get that.  We’re humans, and as such it’s healthy to create a little fun out of what we don’t understand or agree with.  I’m also not talking about small things, those little comments that fly through all our heads.  Things like, “damned packy” and “go back to… [insert country of assumed origin]”.  All we know are the visual indicators.  Our brains have the compulsive need to fill in the blanks.  So, I’m not talking about the small innocuous things.

I’m talking about the real meat of it, the people who complain about job theft from foreigners.  Those who bitch about people who choose a cultural icon, one that’s been around longer than our nation, to be the focus of their anger, hatred, ignorance and fear.  Those that use freedom of speech to bully an entire culture based on little to no information.  

Do you remember bullies?  Those assholes you covered for because they’re better once you get to know them, or they you?  Remember the ones you accepted as a friend because you simply got used to the toxic stank?  With equal stupidity you’ve justified and made excuses for despicable behaviour that‘s inexcusable.  You’ve gotten used to it and whether or not you realize it you don’t care as much.  You don’t care because you’ve excused their backward-thinking, knuckle-dragging, idiocy for so long it’s become part of you to accept it.

Back to the question, the reason I brought this up.  Do you put up with substandard behaviour because it doesn’t really affect you?  Or, like me, do you feel everyone should be held to the same rules of ethics as everyone else?  Do you think that everyone should get a few chances to get it right?  Or, like me, do you feel that 3 chances only gives assholes 3 opportunities to do whatever they want with impunity?  

But, as they say, it’s a chance, a freebie, a gratis.  That’s how they work.  Okay, maybe I’m being a wee bit zealous.  Change can often be a very difficult thing.  It doesn’t make them bad people if they’re making an effort.  As soon as I finish such thoughts I realize, in full disappointing reality, that these are people that have to put effort into not being racist… and they’re failing at it.  This thought brings my angst right back.  It doesn’t matter if it’s a friend or even family, the feeling of disgusted anger remains.

To answer the question, for myself at least, It has always been appropriate to ditch someone for being an unforgivably, intolerant, bunghole.  Maybe you knew all this already, but are too hopeful that your friends would eventually grow up, smarten up and man up.  Maybe they refuse to change because you’ll always be there to give them another chance.  Maybe your racist friends don’t give a flying bonobo to whom they direct their hatred.  And maybe they don’t give flying bonobo about your opinion.  
Peace