Remember when it was just “LOL”?
And then we had LMFAO.
Well, I know LOL is considered to be a word. I am not sure about LMFAO.
Meanwhile kids and big kids who were computer geeks and video gamers were creating all kinds of acronyms for messaging one another and, if adults stumbled into one of their conversations, they would quickly get lost.
I distinctly recall the learning curve I had to go through to make any sense of any conversation I had with a random player in World of Warcraft. At first, I presumed it was just the age differential. But then I understood they were speaking a sort of code and I needed to get onboard or get left behind.
Now, we have this chasm between left wing politics and right wing politics, even though, what we should all agree on is that America’s hoarded wealth is doing nothing to make America great, or even better. America’s hoarded wealth is making us poorer as a nation. Noam Chomsky, Anand Giridharadas, Robert Reich, Bernie Sanders and Nick Hanauer are all making an effort to sound the alarm, but everyone else is doing such a good job of stirring up the muck and setting the left wing have-nots against the right wing have-nots that the ones who hold the solution to some of our ills get a ‘hall pass’.
In any event, if you have somehow managed to not learn what “FFS” means, it means “For Fuck’s Sake”. No one online uses For Pete’s Sake anymore. Just an FYI. FPS will mean nothing to the last few generations.
I titled this column FFS because of the QAnon nitwits and your run-of-the-mill conspiracy theorists and your social media antagonists and your garden-variety Looney Tunes characters who keep posting about fires being purposely set by “people not like them.” People who don’t look like them, talk like them, think like them or worship the same god. As if County Emergency Management services and police departments and county sheriff’s departments don’t have enough on their plates already.
I was reminded earlier that conservatives’ brains are hard-wired to be fearful. And then I saw this meme on my timeline from a friend. It’s too good not to share here.
I know arson is a thing. I understand, that when it comes to many business and home related fires, an arsonist is often the culprit. I have even heard that is not out of the realm of reality that - occasionally - firefighters have been known to provide themselves with job security. (To be clear, I am not suggesting that firefighters have instigated ANY of these catastrophic conflagrations.)
I’ll bet close to 99% of the fires were due to lightning strikes, carelessness with cigarettes, campfires, fireworks, hot vehicles in dry grasses, out of control burns, people just being stupid and other unpredictable forces of nature. But, why not politicize fires? We’ve politicized everything else.
My little mountain town has seen a spike of mountain bike thefts, and theft in general. But, I have no reason to believe it is anything other than desperation, an uptick in local drug use and/or bad people doing bad things. In fact, thieves are likely to be apolitical.
More like nihilists than Marxists or Fascists.
Those who spread the conspiracy theories about certain political organizations purposely setting fires are doing all of us a disservice. Already there have been ‘men with guns’ acting as law enforcement, but not law enforcement, setting up roadblocks and stopping and questioning folks whom they are unfamiliar. Predictably, this will lead to tragedy just like letting a 9 year old handle an automatic weapon should have been predictable for the firearm instructor who was shot and killed during instruction.
The Pacific Northwest has been in a dry spell for months. We knew it was only a matter of time before the fires started. In fact, throughout the summer, I thought to myself how much I wished for a solid spate of rain but, every single time I did, I also thought, but that would bring lightning. It was a Catch-22. We needed the rain, but it would undoubtably come with the risk of fire.
Now couple the unusual dry spell (climate change, anyone?) with millions of pent up people aching to get outdoors - and, at least in California, more than 12,000 lightning strikes - and you have a recipe for fire disaster. It’s no wonder the West is on fire. It’s no surprise either.
But what it is not is an effort by extreme left activists to get back at the conservative folk in the hinterlands.
And it is dangerously irresponsible for people to keep posting that crap and for Facebook, in particular, to allow it to continue.
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Alert reader Nancy Enz Lill - I think she and Shan Perera are competing with one another - once again shared something that looks especially pertinent - a film called Social Dilemma.
Frankly, I have no idea how I am not zombified by now.
Also, 22 year old ASL professional, Libbey Ketterer, literally has her hands full signing Cardi B’s raunchy song known as WAP, which I thought appropriate for this particular column since I was discussing all the latest acronyms and all.
WARNING: SEXUALLY EXPLICIT SONG AND SIGN LANGUAGE! DO NOT CLICK IF YOU ARE AT WORK OR IN THE VICINITY OF KIDS OR YOU JUST HAVE TENDER SENSIBILITIES!
You could listen to it with the sound off and still be impressed by Libbey’s talents.
Or use headphones!
Or please spread the word. . .