#GoKillYourself: the latest fast-growing trending hashtag; danger ahead

You have the power to delete and protect yourself.

(Photo Credit:  Cyberbullying via Facebook)

Commentary:  There is a disturbing trend emerging on many internet discussion forums and social media sites.  Tried and true manners and etiquette are fast disappearing.  The problem seems to stem from the fact that some people no longer appreciate the challenge and beauty of a lively debate.  Instead some seem to want to use these threads as a platform where their opinion is the only one that matters.

Whereas before the only thing such commenters blew up was their own ego, now we are living in a time when you never know what they might do.  More and more we are seeing the particularly ugly comment #GoKillYourself.  It was probably there all the time, but with all of the recent stories of children, teens, and adults killing themselves over cyberbullying, these vicious comments seem to jump off the page.

The comment is usually preceded by a hashtag for emphasis and may contain other instructions.  Some of the more common ones are #ShutUpAndGoKillYourself,  #LogOffAndGoKillYourself, #StopTalkingAndGoKillYourself, #LockYourselfInARoomAndKillYourself, #GoJumpOffABridgeAndKillYourself.

Forums are meant to be places where people can safely gather and contribute their opinions and views to the topic of conversation.  What is alarming is that there no longer seems to be any appreciation of the fact that people can agree to disagree and still be civil.  It is certainly fine to attack someone’s point of view with a stinging rebuttal.  In fact, these very differences of opinion can lead to a thread with pages of engaging and entertaining comments.  But it is never okay to attack the person who made the comment.

Why do people want to shut down a conversation if it isn’t going their way?  Why not just silently excuse themselves and find a thread more suitable to their liking?  There are many theories.  The person may have no, or very little, control in their own lives, so it gives them a sense of power to badger other commenters; especially while remaining invisible behind a computer screen.

Maybe they are a part of a group or culture that uses #GoKillYourself as a figure of speech and mean no harm.  For example, the highly offensive “B word” and “N word” have been so overused in  everything from TV programs and movies, that many people use it in regular conversations as if it is a term of endearment meant for friends and loved ones.

Whatever the reason, it needs to be stopped now.  How can we get rid of this virus?  Well that seems a monumental task, but there are some steps we can take to move in that direction.  Moderators can block or delete commenters who do this.

Some threads have thousands of replies and the moderator, unless comments have to be approved, often does not see every response.  Readers can be a great help by flagging any comment that contains the phrase #GoKillYourself  or any of its variations which will bring it to the moderator’s attention.

Why is this vitally important?  A look at any news site will reveal an alarming number of recent mass shootings and murder-suicides.  It is impossible to tell which commenter is almost to that point, or mentally ill, and for whom that simple command will be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.

We must do everything possible to make sure a silly hashtag order is not taken seriously by the wrong person who mistakes it for “voices in their heads” telling them to do it.  So if you or any of your friends do this, start a campaign to stop it immediately.  Because the person you tell to #GoKillYourself might do just that, but not before taking many other innocent bystanders with him or her during a real life rampage.  Let’s #KeepItClassy and #TakeBackTheInternet.

Texas gov. hopeful hits campaign trail with Obama-bashing rock star

Ted Nugent and Greg Abbott 

(photo:  forwardprogressives.com)

The sun is threatening to set on the Lone Star State.  Texas politics has reached a new low with the state attorney general Greg Abbott welcoming rock singer Ted Nugent to hit the campaign trail with him.  Abbott is considered to be the front runner in the race for the GOP gubernatorial nominee after Gov. Rick Perry (R) announced that he will not be seeking a fourth term.

 

Ted Nugent has long been outspoken and, often controversial, in his views.  But he outdid himself in a January 2014 interview with Guns.com reporter Daniel Terrill.  He called the sitting  President of the United States of America a litany of disrespectful names to include a “subhuman mongrel”.  You can view the disgraceful video here.

CNN reporter Wolf Blitzer, along with many others, reacted swiftly to Nugent’s being a part of Abbott’s campaign rallies.  Blitzer questioned whether Abbott’s campaign knew how offensive Nugent’s remarks were to the office of the President, as well as to others who have suffered grave oppression.  Among other things, Blitzer said, “That’s what the Nazis called Jews to justify the genocide of the Jewish community,” he continued. “They called them ‘untermenschen,’ subhuman mongrels, if you read some of the literature that the Nazis put out there, there is a long history of that specific phrase he used involving the President of the United States.”

When called to task for including Nugent, a campaign aide for Abbott brushed it off saying, "The controversy is what he said in the past. We are not endorsing Ted Nugent, he is supporting us," the aide said.  That may be true that a candidate cannot control who supports him, but he can certainly control whom he invites to share the spotlight with him and who is seen as sharing like-minded views.

 

Wendy Davis, who will likely be the Democratic gubernatorial candidate facing Abbott called it an “insult to all Texans”.  You can read the full reactions of other politicians here.  Greg Abbott has claimed he didn’t know what Nugent represented.  Now he does know and it will be very telling to the voters if, now being aware, he keeps Nugent on as one of the faces of his campaign.

Lyrical Love

Hi everyone.  Well here we are four days after the one and only Mrs. Carter has shattered all ITunes records ever with the secret release of her latest album "Beyonce".  While I too am thrilled with her latest success, I am not at all surprised.  Jay-Z is still in the videos with her and she is still smiling from ear to ear.  So I can't help it.  I want to re-share a post I first published on February 8, 2012. Just because.  :)  

This post is pure indulgent romantica.  I am just so digging Beyonce's evolution of love right now.  Let's take a stroll "back down memory lane" (another great song, but we'll talk about that another time).  Now I'll be the first to admit that I wasn't really a fan of Jay Z and Beyonce as a couple in the beginning.  I thought he was too gangster and she was too elegant.  But as time went on, they kind of grew on me.  And now I'm totally rooting for their love to last.  Let me explain why I get such a rush out of this couple.

Queen Elizabeth II Celebrates Diamond Jubilee

    

 

Credit: en.wikipedia.org

As a proud and happy citizen of the United States, I’ve always considered our government the best ever.  I love the democracy of the citizens of our country having the choice, and the means to elect our leaders.  Our presidential candidates have the opportunity to lay out their platforms before the people and we have the privilege of making a choice of the person that we, the majority of voters, feel will make the best commander-in-chief for America.  Yes, a government by the people, for the people, and of the people.  Many of us, rather smugly at times, have viewed the English monarchy as a rather stuffy lot.  I, too, was guilty of this.  That is until I got, almost involuntarily, sucked into watching the global coverage of Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee Celebration.

Nothing in Common???

You know, I was just thinking about and marveling at how writing can cross all boundaries.  Maeve Binchy is one of my favorite authors and has been for a long time.  “Circle of Friends” was one of the first books of hers that I read.  I immediately connected with the anguish and joy of the young woman, who was a little chubby compared to her other friends, but turned out to be the type of woman that the handsome hero of the story couldn’t help but fall in love with. And when the movie aired with that dreamy young Chris O’Donnell giving visual to the imagination, I was hooked for good.

I immediately read every Maeve Binchy book I could get my hands on.  So enamored of her stories and well-rounded characters was I, that it was quite awhile before I realized where she was from.  One day, I finally slowed down long enough to wonder at the name of a city I didn’t recognize.  I was shocked to find out the setting was in Ireland.  Maeve Binchy is actually from Dalkey, Ireland.
Shouldn’t that have been obvious the first time I read one of her books you might ask?  The only excuse I have is that I was so engrossed with the depth of her characters’ emotions and the thought-provoking story lines that I just didn’t notice.

As I read later Maeve Binchy books, I continued to be wrapped up in her characters.  Her characters don’t live in a “character” world where they do whatever because they are characters.  They are written as if they were real people with real emotions, real confusions, and some surprising consequences for their actions that the reader immediately recognizes as something that they themselves, or someone they know has experienced with the same outcome.

So it’s really interesting how a reader in her twenties (me at the time) could read and be thoroughly vested in the feelings of women in their forties and even fiftyish/sixtyish (“Evening Class”).  How could a black woman (me, then and now…lol) be swept away into a world far away from America, where no one in the story “looks” like me?

The answer my friends is the writing.  I agree with many of the experts who say that it is important to target your audience, and this is undoubtedly true.  But I submit to you that a good story still and always will appeal to a hungry reader, regardless of their demographic.

What are your thoughts?  Target your market first then tailor a story to that market? Write a good story and let it find its own market?  Or some combination of both?