SoOoO Much to Say Part 4 in Book Six: Trying to Hold On 2019

Alright y’all… between the Memorial Day Weekend and Work keeping me busy… this is kind of all being done at once. SO… I separated it out into various portions to hopefully make it easier to read. The best way to read this is Chronologically so… in the following order.

SoOoO Much to Say Part 1
SoOoO Much to Say Part 2
SoOoO Much to Say Part 3
SoOoO Much to Say Part 4
SoOoO Much to Say Part 5
SoOoO Much to Say Part 6
SoOoO Much to Say Part 7

BEGIN Part Four

So after all of the mess from the weekend… I had a rough night sleeping. Surprisingly NOT because of leg pain. Nor because of the fight. Nor because of being afraid for how busy Tuesday was going to be at work (though some of that). The CPAP machine was being weird. The way it fit over my nose seemed really uncomfortable and the amount of pressure the machine was using felt uncomfortable. So I’ve got this all-around uncomfortable plastic ninja mask sucking and blowing at my face all night. Yeah… rough night of sleeping.

Woke up super early on Tuesday. I mean, I had planned to wake up early so I could be at work early due to expected busy-ness but I woke up even earlier than that.
Checked my phone. Which I don’t usually do when I first wake up. And should not have done on this day either.

Notification from Instagram. Okay, odd. Typically my Insta is just photos of Nala and I haven’t posted any recently. But I had noted a College Humor Post. The post had said,
“Real Headline: Top Twitch streamers earning $50,000 per hour to play latest games!
Translated Headline: Insult to Injury- Person owning your ass online may also be getting filthy rich doing so.”
My Response: “Most painful and frustrating is that some (ME) who would otherwise be all about making $$ playing video games instead have real jobs keeping us from reaching the top levels that would allow us to make $$ playing games.”

You know… the ultimate Catch 22 of being an adult?!? The whole notion of wanting to monetize your hobbies but you work so you can afford your hobbies but working means you have less time for your hobbies? Kind of… the cornerstone of the challenge of adulthood?

Apparently, Instagram was notifying me that my comment had been offensive as someone stated, “What is a ‘real job’ and if you say real jobs then that means fake jobs exist. So is streaming a fake job? Are entertainers doing a fake job?”

I know that it is just… foolish and pointless to allow something like this to impact me… but for some reason it just… sticks in my craw. What is a real job? Any job that takes you away from a hobby or beloved activity. Does that mean as a logical fact that there are “fake jobs”? No, that is an obvious logical fallacy. Also, though this is semantics, it should be noted that I said “real jobs” instead of “REAL jobs” the emphasis or lack there of being important for understanding of the underlying statement. My response (which I have not shared because I don’t feel a need to further this debate with the individual) would be, “If you are playing your favorite sport, game, or engaging in recreation FOR A LIVING, I believe that sets it apart from what would otherwise be considered a ‘real job.’ Whether white collar, blue collar, rust belt to silicone valley if your job is to Play Football… you work hard, you train hard, you do your very best… but I would certainly distinguish that job from a coal miner. If your job is Darts Champion… you work hard, you train hard, you do your very best… but I would certainly distinguish that job from an Administrative Assistant. If your job is to watch Netflix movies all day and recommend Genre Headings… you work hard, you’re creative, you do your very best… but I would certainly distinguish that job from a Flight Attendant. So YES; if your job is to Play Video Games… you work hard, you train hard, you do your very best… but I am certainly going to distinguish that job from an attorney!”

Then I came over to Prosebox and saw a bunch of various different Front Page Entries all from different PB Names but… ultimately? All of the entries read like… well, like they were being written by some bitter octogenarian sitting on his porch shouting at people for being less intelligent.

Seriously.

Like an entire entry slamming people who use their Prosebox space to discuss emotions and opinions instead of “making factual arguments.” It’s like… dude? This isn’t ScholarlyDebateBox.com. And there were several of these. Just this wash of early morning (to me) entries from people just waxing critical about folks that weren’t “engaging in intelligent, scholarly, factual debate on this site.” I found myself saying, “Not everybody’s looking for a fight all the time!” And then catching myself, realizing the humor.

The attorney… saying “Not everybody’s looking for a fight all the time!” Strikes me as funny. But also familiar. Too often law students would try to turn EVERY discussion into a CREAC exercise. CREAC is the shorthand for legal writing which stands for Conclusion, Rule, Explanation, Application, Conclusion. Poor Example: The court cannot use the evidence gathered in this case due to fruit of the poisonous tree (C). The Constitution states that all citizens are free from unlawful search and seizure (R). This means that the police cannot randomly stop someone on the street without sufficient probable cause (E). In this case, my client had just left a taxi cab wearing a black coat and was stopped by police who started frisking my client without stating IF he was being detained, why he was being detained, or what probable cause existed for being detained (A). Therefore, the court cannot use the evidence gathered in this case due to fruit of the poisonous tree (C).

Now, while CREAC certainly has excellent uses… the idea that every communication should be treated like some CREAC exercise is dumb, foolish, and points to either a disconnected soul or a cold heart. Because sometimes… people WANT to talk about emotions. Sometimes people NEED to be able to say, “This is what I believe to be true because I believe it. Why must you attack me for (believing in God)(enjoying Comic Books)(loving Keanu Reeves films)(or other things)?”

NOW… I will say that there certainly is a limit to that. As with all things, extremes are bad. One cannot require all conversations to be academic debates relying upon well-researched peer-reviewed evidence. So to, one cannot require all conversations to be emotional diatribes relying upon emotion and feeling to the exclusion of logic, research, or information.

Which is what we rather see in a recent CNN/BBC story about the current research on Voting Statistics. Prior to the current age, you could ask people what motivated them to vote for a specific candidate and you would get answers like, “The economy” or “Military Spending” or “Domestic Policy” or “Foreign Policy.” The current research suggests that the NUMBER ONE issue that motivates people to vote for a specific candidate: Social Identity. In other words, voters are making decisions on policy questions driven almost exclusively by things like:
“Well, I identify as gender fluid, so I can’t vote for a Republican.” being met strongly with “I think all this gender confusion crap has been taken way too far, so I vote for a Republican.” And… that makes me feel so many emotions. Rage, sorrow, hopelessness, frustration. Because it isn’t about POLICY anymore and it isn’t about CANDIDATE anymore… it’s exclusively Identity Politics on both sides and it is frustrating as hell!!! “Well, I’m a strong Christian woman so I just thank God for Donald Trump.” WHY?! Because he’s Christian? Cuz he’s a shitty one if he is. Because he made it “okay to say Merry Christmas” again? Cuz you’ve always been able to do that! Because you buy into the bullshit hype that liberals are against Christianity? THERE WE GO! And it isn’t strictly a Republican thing! Why was Joe Biden leading in Democrat Polls even before he ever announced? Because he was directly connected to Barack Obama. Not due to policy. Elizabeth Warren has plans to tackle almost everything. But she’s not a wealthy old white man with connections to Barack Obama! Kamala Harris has a strong senate record and has discussed a number of plans that would help Americans in vast ways. But she’s not a wealthy old white man with connections to Barack Obama! I know that things like Name Recognition, Candidate’s Height, and other bullshit factors always played into the politics of Who Becomes President? But… people are openly now stating that all that matters is “Social Identity” and that is scary. Not to go directly to the Internet Go To Argument but if all that matters is “Get rid of Muslims” or “Protect our LGBTQ”.... it reminds me of “Get rid of the Jews” and “Protect our Aryan people.” The actual policies matter… or they should, anyway.

So after all of that, I did my morning routine and came to work. And work was busy! As detailed in Part 1 due to Tuesday’s Court Schedule. Heck, I was actually surprised when I was leaving work that Wife hadn’t called me to discover why I was running late!