And now, a post that seems in defense of PETA
By Gina Spadafori
September 9, 2008
But really, it’s a post about annoying idiots.
We have an online forum at my workplace that is meant to improve teamwork and cohesiveness within work units, blah blah HR babble blah blah. Problem is, the forum has been taken over recently by childrenco-workers who don’t seem to realize they are actually at work, not at home in their pajamas posting to their favorite echo-chamber political blog.
Today, the entire affair spiralled down into a lot of silly but predictable election-season nonsense, including the claim by one person that one candidate is a secret operative of PETA. This splintered off into a side discussion of PETA, and then, as invariably happens, one of the posters immediately brought up that PETA stands for “People Eating Tasty Animals” and, furthermore, expressed the opinion that “if God didn’t want us to eat animals, he wouldn’t have made them out of meat.” You could almost hear him chuckling at his own cleverness as he hit “post.” This childman posted under his own real name, and he sits not 100 feet from me, which means I can vouch for the fact that he is not eight years old as you’d expect from someone who thinks such hackneyed old crap is clever, but about 60.
Of course, in his idiocy he is not alone.
Every single time there’s something about PETA and comment space after it, at least one brain-dead keyboard jockey like my co-worker will post both those things I cited above. And these repeats of what someone else first said, oh, a couple decades ago makes the idiot posting it feel he is the very picture of wit.
“People Eating Tasty Animals. PETA. Get it? Harh harh harh!”
Yeah, I get it. And you’re an idiot. Try having an original thought some day. If indeed you can.
A real knee-slapper and that’s the first time I’ve heard it……this week.
Comment by Caveat — September 9, 2008 @ 7:45 pm
I’m astonished that kind of discussion is allowed in your workplace. Where I work (absolutely in the bastion of Corporate America) one has to be VERY careful about making any kinds of political statements lest someone else files a complaint on them creating a “hostile workplace”. Not to belittle the importance of the right to work in an environment free of hostility - but some folks out there will jump on ANY opportunity to file that on someone else. So generally - especially in our litiginous society - it’s better safe than sorry. And in my workplace, at least, you bring up this kind of discussion at the peril of your own continued employment.
Comment by The OTHER Pat — September 9, 2008 @ 8:18 pm
I don’t think we’ll have an online discussion forum at my job much longer, thanks to today’s childish behavior. It actually had been running rather politely for many months without incident.
And then … it seems everyone in the company stopped what they were doing to start yelling at each other about politics in the online forum today. Nasty, nasty stuff.
That PETA thing was but a small and incidental part, really, except that it annoyed me that the poster thought himself so clever, sharing some old bit of dopeyness I’ve seen a million times, at least.
Comment by Gina Spadafori — September 9, 2008 @ 8:25 pm
…he wouldn’t have made them out of meat - AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! O! O! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Let me catch my breath here. AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
*dabs kleenex at eyes*
Comment by slt — September 10, 2008 @ 5:32 am
Why can’t people figure out that the best way to fight stupidity is NOT with more stupidity?
Comment by Janeen — September 11, 2008 @ 2:13 pm