Rou

It’s a simple idea. Just read the fucking article.

In my constant attempts to kill time at work, I spend a lot of time reading forums. Politics, general life, video games, all manner of topics. Generally, they have new posts often enough to kill a substantial amount of time.

One constant source of annoyance to me is people who don’t read the fucking link. When someone posts a link and begins a conversation about it, you need to read it if you want to talk about it. Otherwise, you don’t really understand what’s being talked about.

For example, I posted up a rather long article that discussed the problems with the ‘dumbing down of America’ and the effects of that trend on politics and media. Now, this was a 15 page article that ranged over a long litany of examples and topics.

Three minutes after I posted the link, someone replied with the platitude “if you don’t like it, move’.

Come on people, even if that wasn’t trite and tired, they didn’t even read the article. There is NO way you can read a 15 page article in 3 minutes. And that assumes they saw my post seconds after it was posted. I’m a speed reader and I don’t think I could get much past the third page that fast. And that doesn't count hitting the reply button, typing a response (even a short one) and clicking submit.

I don’t understand the desire to reply to something that you didn’t even take the time to understand even the gist of the article. Particularly when all you offer up is a meaningless expression. If you didn't care enough to read it, don't reply. If you feel the desire to reply, read it.

I don’t know. I mean, there are rumors on the internets that a lot of people are just dumb, but that just seems too easy an answer. It seems as if they deliberately avoid taking an interest in conversation and instead want to just exchange talking points. I take it as the height of idiocy to say something without reading the link to understand what is being discussed.

I know, I know… I’m raging at the internet for being the internet. But every once in a while, my stupidity meter just gives the fuck up. Then I just want to whip out my sniper rifle and help Darwinism along.