I know it’s late, but HAPPY SATURDAY peeps! Today has been a complete mess but I”m here now and I really want to talk to you about something that’s been driving me nuts!
Common sense. Let me tell you a super quick story.
There once was a girl who knew that if a tv show was inappropriate she should change the channel, if the stove was hot not to touch it, and if there was a person she didn’t like or get along with to forget about them and move on. The end.
You see, I’ve been increasingly agitated by how quickly the rules of common sense are disappearing within our lovely society lately. I’m constantly being shocked and amazed by the size of the balls on some people and I think it’s time some people got fixed. Only nowhere near as humanely as Fido would be.
Think about it! Pan Am. A show that I never watched but liked the idea of was pretty much ripped off the air after a petition was signed, by an organization” that believed it objectified women. Which I find hilarious, since the Bachelorette is still on (so you’ll find all the happiness in the world between some man’s legs you’ve known for a month? Yeah ok.). Then there’s The Playboy Club. A show I’ve seen once (and actually was more “meh” towards”) that was ripped off the air because it was “inappropriate for children”. Forget the fact that the show came on at like 10pm (way past my kid’s bedtime.). How many times have people attempted to tackle The Simpson’s or Family Guy off the air? Forgetting the fact that you could CHANGE THE FLIPPING CHANNEL! But it’s not just in tv, that I’m seeing this lack of common sense, I’m now starting to see it within the blogging world, and that’s something that I won’t take.
Yesterday I had the opportunity to read a post containing a petition to get Goodreads, to band early reviews. Now lady’s and gent’s I’m sure Goodreads isn’t blinking twice at this obvious case of stupidity. But it really got my blood boiling! Who are you to take away my right as a goodreads user?! When I get an ARC I read it and immediately fill in the star rating of said book, no matter how close or far away it is to being published. And that’s my damn right! I may not post a full review but I do want people to start hearing the buzz about said book because that’s why I got the ARC! To generate buzz! Regardless of if it’s good OR bad, that publisher spent money on making that ARC and trusting me with it to generate BUZZ!
I know that not everyone is honest about the books they read (remember Cuddlebuggery’s latest run in?) but how dare you take it upon yourself to damn those of us doing the right thing? And you know what? If it would have been a fake 5 stars review, there would be no petition! There would be no indie authors up in arms (whom I shall NEVER support) about it! An eye wouldn’t even have blinked! But since your poor baby got a 1 star review a month before publication the whole world must bow down to you?
I don’t care how “noble” you think your intentions are it is not your place, to tell me what I can or can not watch, read, review, or flipping do. My brain works just fine thank you very much, and it’s been making decisions for me a lot longer than you think. But’s it’s not just this goodreads petition that pisses me off! Oh no, that would be too easy! After some digging I found that there is another goodreads petition to make it so gif’s are banned because “they serve no point in a review”!
See what I did right there? I took the facial expression I can’t show you and put it into my post. Sort of like what I do with my reviews, you judgmental dumbass! I don’t use gif’s because I want to take your attention away from the review. No. I use gifs to share my personality, to help show you the words I can’t find, to make you laugh after I’ve said a book you’ve been anticipating is super shitty and should not be picked up with a 10ft poll! But that’s besides the point! If you don’t like reviews with gifs in them KEEP SCROLLING! We all have the ability to scroll past those “tasteless and meaningless” gifs on goodreads. But, common sense ain’t so common right?
I’m seeing too many people on goodreads, blogs, and even twitter spewing hate and judgment. “You read my book wrong!” or “Why would you review this if you knew you would hate it?!” and “You review horribly, please disappear”. While personally I’d just pull out the “go fuck yourself” gifs, I understand that a lot of my fellow bloggers are a bit too shocked to do the same. And I get that! What do you say when a person approaches your personal opinion as if you have actually cut out their tongue and served it to their dog?
And this is what really bothers me. When did we become a society that is above tolerance? When did your opinion become more important than mine? And when did freedom of speech and the ability to make your own decisions become a right to only a few? I don’t usually get involved with stuff like this because to me it’s all very simple. If I don’t like a review I keep it moving, if I think an author is wrong I make a PERSONAL note to avoid their “work”, if a blogger pisses me off I cut them off. It’s not my place now and it never will be my place to say “let’s ban x-y-z!” or “this offends me, so it should go away!”. I find it amazingly ironic that the same people who will band together in the event of a book burning or book banning can look someone else in the face and say “you’re offending me, you must go away forever now”. And with that thought planted into you’re brains I say:
