Hopeless Causes?

Posted on 05/02/2013 by Ol' Big Jim

UntitledJust recently, I’ve been inundated with requests both on Facebook and Twitter to sign petitions to shut down various Facebook pages. The pages in contention are about dog fighting, dolphin hunting, animal trapping and animal torture.

Now, here’s the thing that’s probably going to hurt my popularity (?), but I have to say it. My Facebook and Twitter accounts are just that. Mine. Period. End of discussion. I regard your Facebook and Twitter accounts the same way. They are your domains. As long as we all stay within the Terms of Use set by each entity, we have the right to say or do as we please when we are online.

I do not like the idea that someone would create a “cause” to shut me down because they didn’t approve of the content of my posts. I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t like it either. Of course, the case can be made that we are good, kind and caring folk who’d never do anything to hurt someone else. But, how do we know that? Just because I think I’m a fine upstanding pillar of the community doesn’t necessarily mean that ol’ Sister Bertha Betterthanyou feels the same way.

Remember that post you made not long ago that said “Of course I talk to myself. I need an intelligent conversation every now and again.”? When Sister Bertha saw that, she burst into tears. She actually thought you treasured those conversations you shared with her at least as much as she did. Now, she’s on a crusade to shut down your page. How dare she?

As appalling and despicable as I find pages that promote twisted activities like dog fighting, torture in any shape, form, or fashion, or any of the hundred and one things in this world I don’t like, I can’t see myself demanding that the rights of free expression be taken from another person. I don’t go looking for Facebook pages with that kind of content. As a result, I didn’t even know they existed until someone formed a cause and invited me to be a part of it.

Now, let me say this about that. Down deep in your well-meaning heart, you know Facebook isn’t going to shut down the pages in question, don’t you? Knowing that, don’t you feel just a little bit complicit with the dog fighters and animal torturers when you give them free publicity by pushing your doomed causes? Perhaps there is someone online, seeing your post who has the embryo of perversion inside him. Out of curiosity, he follows your link and eventually lands on the questionable page. His baser traits are titillated and another sadistic personality exerts control. Are you, perhaps, just a tiny bit responsible for exposing him to something he just might have missed without your help? Am I stretching things a bit? Maybe. It’s worth thinking about though, isn’t it?

Hundreds and hundreds of people are now aware of those pages, were blissfully ignorant of them until you came alone and caused the scales to fall from their eyes.

Here’s a suggestion. Rather than providing free advertising for these sick, twisted degenerates with a “cause” and spreading it round the globe, why not provide incriminating evidence to law enforcement authorities? When the culprits are arrested and jailed their Facebook and Twitter accounts will die natural deaths. Now, you tell me, isn’t that a far better idea than giving those depraved miscreants free publicity?

Here endeth the rant.

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About Ol' Big Jim

Ol' Big Jim, has been a storekeeper, an embalmer, a hospital orderly, a medical biller, and through it all, a teller of tall tales. Many of his stories, like his first book, New Yesterdays, are set in his hometown of Piedmont, Alabama. For seven years, he lived in the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world, Amman, Jordan where he spends his time trying to visit each one of the thousands of Ammani coffee shops and scribbling in his ever-present notebook. These days, you can find him back stateside, still filling notebooks.
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17 Responses to Hopeless Causes?

  1. HMCWriter says:
    05/02/2013 at 13:22

    I’m with you on this one. The more publicity they get, the better for them.

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  2. Thomas Rydder says:
    05/02/2013 at 16:50

    It’s touchy, isn’t it? You want to run around, smashing all their computers and wreaking havoc. But then, you have to wonder – if you blow the whistle, will Facebook or whomever share your horror? If not, then the scene you described inevitably ensues. Tough choice. Better to venture out into the “real” world, and fight your battles there. At least then, you can better predict the results.
    Great post, my friend….

    Thomas Rydder
    http://thomasrydder.wordpress.com/

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    • olbigjim says:
      05/02/2013 at 17:19

      Thanks for that comment, Tom! It’s good to know I’m not completely alone in my thinking.

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      • Thomas Rydder says:
        05/02/2013 at 17:20

        Oh, trust me…I’d like to run around with an Uzi and take care of the problem. Unfortunately, we live in an age of “understanding” and “political correctness”. BS

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      • olbigjim says:
        05/02/2013 at 19:33

        It was along about the time “political correctness” came into the vernacular that I began to notice a disconnect between me and mainstream society. It’s now a vast chasm.

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      • Thomas Rydder says:
        05/02/2013 at 20:27

        Gotta agree there. We spend way to much time nowadays making sure we don’t hurt people’s feelings, and not enough time kicking their butts…

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  3. Pingback: My brother “Ol’ Big Jim” with an excellent article on a very controversial subject…:) « Thomas Rydder

  4. Seumas Gallacher says:
    05/02/2013 at 17:05

    bang on the money, that man .! 🙂

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  5. Lorraine Jean Bush says:
    05/02/2013 at 17:18

    I feel the same, but i guess on a different level to you. when i get these posted on my facebook page, it gets me deep inside, almost tortures me. i cant get the visual of the animals in question out of my head, and even though it makes me look weak and a wuss, i usually end up crying over it. i guess i’m just an over sensitive person, with big issues. I do end up signing them, but the cost to me is unusually high. I know these things go on in this big bad world, and we can’t ignore that, but ingraining those images into my brain, damages me further, and i’m already damaged far too much. i’d prefer not to see it. If that makes me selfish in other peoples eyes, i can’t help that, but to me it’s a survival tool. LJ xx

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    • olbigjim says:
      05/02/2013 at 17:23

      Thanks for stopping by, Lorraine! That’s yet another reason I don’t like them. I’ve images in my head I can’t get rid of, and they stay with me. Knowing there’s nothing I can realistically do about it makes it worse. It’s escapist, perhaps, but frankly, I’d rather just not know anything about it… Keep coming back, my posts aren’t usually this much of a “downer”!

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  6. John w Howell says:
    05/02/2013 at 22:51

    I think more would agree with you than not. The right to say what is on your mind is why we are all here. Nice post; nasty subject handled well. – John

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  7. Ryan Brooks says:
    17/02/2013 at 13:29

    It’s hard to know what the right thing is, but I feel similarly to you. Ultimately, I guess everyone’s gotta do what they think is right though, whether that’s being cruel to animals or shoving their beliefs down everyone else’s throats… That sounded a little cynical, didn’t it? Good article. 🙂

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