I need to rant. I'm on my second margarita, and I need to rant.
In the past couple of months I've come into contact with some of the most mind-baffling and infuriating people I've ever experienced. I keep hearing these people say in so many words, "this doesn't affect me so I don't care about it" EVEN THOUGH it affects a great portion of other humans, their friends and family included. For example, a girl from one of my classes wrote in her blog (not verbatim, paraphrased) "the news only has bad things and is like boring and all the bad things happening in the world don't affect me, so like I don't want to know about them. I like celebrity gossip and fashion, and this one website I follow even has a section called 'Kindness!'" ARGH!!! Do you not care about anyone or anything but yourself? Do you think that if you don't know what's going on in the world, then it isn't really happening? Guess what: protesters are still being tortured/killed/abducted in Egypt, the Bank of America is still trying to frame Wikileaks, and the food you eat and beauty products you use still have dangerous chemicals in them that the government ignores because it's run by the heads of those industries (a.k.a. people who have LOTS of money).
Another guy that I interviewed while working on a group project for my journalism class said "yeah, I don't get the news because, you know, it brings me down. I need to keep my good vibe going." Okay, yeah I guess that's so since you look and act like you're tripping balls half the time.
ANOTHER couple of guys in my Political Philosophy class raised his hand today to offer an explanation for why it makes sense to disallow a gay judge from ruling on a case involving gay marriage. He said "if a heterosexual person, like me, was the judge, then since the ruling doesn't affect me at all, I would be a less partial judge." A gay judge might have a stake in the outcome of the case, so he might rule in his own favor (i.e. if he wanted to be able to marry his partner). Okay, I can see where these guys are coming from, but seriously, is there such thing as a truly impartial judge in the first place? ALL judges have their own interests and opinions. They're supposed to ignore those and merely interpret the law, but the law is so ambiguous in some instances that they must rely on their own judgments (hence, the term "judge"), which I am not convinced can really be separated from personal beliefs and opinions. Further-- why does being heterosexual mean that the judge wouldn't be affected? I certainly have many, many friends and probably some relatives that are gay, which means that, even though I'm straight, I most definitely will be affected, because the people I care about will be. But whatever, some people, I guess, don't care about anyone but themselves.
Next point of annoyance:
When walking around campus, I always see people I know from classes. Whether we've actually talked in class or not, we know that we know each other, and I look at them, make eye contact and try to smile. They look away and walk by without acknowledging my existence let alone that we know each other from class. Does this happen to you? Isn't it irritating? It all started happening with this graduate student named Robin that I know from a few philosophy classes. We've had three classes together, and she never acknowledges my existence when we walk by each other on the street. I thought perhaps she's just stuck up because she's a grad student and I'm a lowly undergrad, but it started happening with lots of others, too. This one girl, she calls herself Irreverent Mary Emma Young, I've actually had 2.5 classes with and we've talked in classes and sat next to each other. I saw her on campus last Thursday and we walked right by each other, I smiled, she looked away and kept walking. What is wrong with people? Are people so worried about seeming too friendly, or are they too self-conscious to be honest human beings and wave or say "hi" if they recognize someone? Or are they just fucking stuck up? Mary Emma is a model for a fashion magazine run by a student group, so perhaps she's much too pretty to acknowledge the existence of...another pretty girl. I just don't get it, and I'm tempted to stop the next person who does that to me and ask them why they did it.
People are just so...ruled by everything that doesn't matter. Grow up.
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