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It was recently brought to my attention that on the afternoon of Feb. 20, my last post regarding my own interpretation of the Hulu ad was the subject of an overheated debate on the television forum found on Craigslist.

Somebody emailed me a link to the first thread and I read through – I was appalled by the ignorance and lack of tolerance being displayed. That people do not agree with what I have to say is one thing, but what blows me away is that not even one of the people who apparently didn’t hesitate to trash me and call me names – all behind my back, being totally unaware of this discussion – didn’t even have the gall to post a comment or express their own opinion in regards to my analysis directly on my blog; yet they were calling me an idiot, a jerk, someone who can’t have a good laugh, a pretentious and pompous ass amongst other things I'd never dare print here. This from people who’ve never met me and who, from what I gather from my site stats, didn’t even bother reading my other posts or learning anything about me.

What’s even more appalling was the sheer number of spelling and grammatical mistakes which appeared in the various posts from the people who took pleasure in calling me belittling and offensive names!

One fellow essentially called Canadians retarded and me an idiot because I make a reference to The Simpsons in the first paragraph. According to him The Simpsons stopped being funny 12 years ago and so anyone that still watches the show "has a sense of humor that sucks” (I could make an equally stupid claim and say that people who haven't watched The Simpsons for 12 years express themselves poorly... but I won't). Although this person didn’t have the bravery to point out what is funny, Fox should no doubt cancel the show - twenty years on the air and millions of fans are no match for a truly subjective and empty comment like that one!!!

Ironically, the only counter-interpretation of the advert offered was unbelievably empty and equally subjective; it essentially went like this: it’s funny and I like it so the 'idiot' (meaning me) is reading too much into it. This actually proved to be the entire basis of one woman’s argument who called me names behind my back and accused me of “going off the deep end” yet could not provide any reason as to why when another post asked her “how [I] went off the deep end.” According to her, the whole point of the commercial was to be funny (someone else pointed out that “no, it’s to sell a product") and I was obviously deranged for seeing a “virtual conspiracy” (whatever she means by ‘virtual’ in this context, I haven’t a clue) in it. Anybody familiar with the ad (you can see it in my previous post) has to laugh at this woman – the very idea set forth by the commercial deals with an alien conspiracy to rule the world!!! Hello! She obviously didn't get what I was saying - perhaps I should write a version for her that uses nothing more than monosyllabic words...

Another person, after calling me a “pompous idiot” because s/he “skimmed” through only the first page of my blog went on to make this comment: “So no content whatsoever is acceptable to him if it deviates the slightest bit from whatever PC mores he has cluttering up his damaged brain?” Not only is this person being totally judgemental and infantile, it is very obvious from his/her statement that s/he has no clue what mores are, and even more obvious that s/he also didn’t understand my interpretation of this ad. Further, I don’t see how s/he arrives at such a conclusion; if this person knew anything about me s/he would know that quite the opposite is true! However, I don’t just blindly ‘absorb’ everything thrown at me – I love to analyse and look behind the obvious meanings; I have an avid passion for literature and linguistics and having studied these fields for many years I have developed strong critical & analytical skills. Whether I'm wrong or right is up for debate, and I always do enjoy a good critical debate from which I can learn - but for me empty put downs and belligerent remarks that don't present valid arguments demonstrates a lack of intelligence.

So in the end, despite the brutal comments that were posted, no one - and I do mean no one - even put forward a concrete, empirically based counter-argument! All just empty opinions being passed off as professional judgements deemed to be better than my own. I wouldn’t even dare make such a claim of superiority; my Hulu post didn’t even dare make that claim, so who the f*** are these people?

And allow me to ask this: why else do ad companies hire psychologists and sociologists and a whole bunch of other specialists and hold panels and discussion groups and so forth before actually releasing an ad campaign? Apparently all they need is one good comedian…

Unfortunately, I don’t think the fellow arguing in my defence on the forum did much to improve my position; although I (obviously) agree with him, I have to admit that he did present his arguments in a fairly antagonizing way. But then I suppose it’s easy to get riled up in the face of such counter-productive idiocy…

Is it that whenever people feel challenged or when their own views are challenged, they become aggressive?
And why am I not in the forum defending myself and my view? Because I can’t be bothered with childish name calling and such narrow-minded thinking. I would nonetheless love to be offered links to these people's blogs (if they have the energy and discipline to actually maintain one...) and see what kind of brilliant and above-reproach perceptions they are offering to warrant such holier-than-thou attitudes when most of the posts can be paralleled to scribbles on the bathroom walls of a junior high-school...

As mentioned earlier, if those people that called me names actually had valid arguments and were legitimately opposed to my view, they would have had the guts to post their comments directly on my blog rather than secretly act in such a mean and asinine way!

There! That was my therapy; I did need to vent. Now on to other things...

Keep on clicking!

PDL

© 2009, Pascal-Denis Lussier
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