{"id":1335,"date":"2017-04-06T10:58:25","date_gmt":"2017-04-06T15:58:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gilcanrun.com\/?p=1335"},"modified":"2017-04-06T10:58:25","modified_gmt":"2017-04-06T15:58:25","slug":"so-far-so-good","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gilcanrun.com\/?p=1335","title":{"rendered":"So far, so good"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s a beautiful day. Threw on my “No Meat Athlete” singlet and put in 5 miles<\/a>. Relaxed and enjoyed the rest of my morning. Even managed to catch the season opener of Archer, after I saw the premiere of Season 3 for Rick and Morty last night. Really, not a bad day at all right? Right.
\nOn my way to work today, and I’m thinking about this horrible “article” I saw with just the worst headline. It was for some vegan website about someone named Ruby Rose. I am aware there is a series called “Orange is the new black,” but have never seen it, and apparently she is an actress on this. We’ll get into my rejection of most pop culture in a minute. Let me stay focused on this supposed piece of journalism.
\nThe first issue was with the headline which was something to the effect of, “Ruby Rose says if you want to defeat Trump go vegan.” \u00a0So I’m thinking that maybe this will be a big piece about how learning to have compassion for all living things, human and animal, and respecting everyone and everything’s rights would bring about a change in consciousness that this world sorely needs. Nope. Strike one.
\nSo I read the article and they spend the first part of it talking about who she is. You drew people in on this person’s star power, and then, instead of following the inverted pyramid, like a good journalist would, you’re talking about who the person \u00a0you’re quoting is, and why we should care at all about her. Then talk about Donnie Pee-party’s (aka Lord Dampnut) attack on environmental regulations. Strike two.
\nNow, at the very end of the article, they finally quote what this Ruby Rose person said, and guess what they actually fucking said? She said that if you were angry about the erosion of environmental protection, fighting back against this could be aided by adopting a vegan or vegetarian diet. Not about defeating Trump, just a sensible quite about how much environmental damage is done by the factory farming of meat. Which, that nuance I’ve discussed before. Overall the number 2 contributor of greenhouse gas emissions. Zero new information and completely misrepresented what this person said. Strike three!
\nMore importantly; I am not vegan, and I don’t follow a vegan diet, but I understand the difference between being vegan and following a vegan diet. Vegans use no animal products or animal labor at all. Someone eating a vegan diet simply doesn’t eat anything produced from animal life or animal labor. Fairly easy distinction. You’d be surprised how many people just think it’s about what you eat.
\nThe good news is, they didn’t try and liken animal rights to human rights in any way. But they did a horrible job representing the issue, what the person said, and made all parties involved look bad. It’s so tiring. It’s at least irresponsible, at most plain ignorant. But stuff like this doesn’t help anyone. It hurts the philosophy of veganism, it makes people fighting against Comrade Donnie look stupid, and it helps further the idea that journalism can’t be trusted.
\nI’m going to level with you, this blog was not my idea. It was a friend of mine who convinced me I had something worth sharing in my own weird way. My brain is an interesting place and when I’m on, I tend to have a very unique way of showing it, that is entertaining and informative. I don’t care if people love me, or like me, or take to heart what I say. I’m here, and I say why I say in the hopes that people pull their heads out of their asses and stop treating their brothers and sisters like shit and the planet like business in liquidation. The irony there is, that some of the time I seriously wonder if it wouldn’t be better off if humans went extinct and the Earth were left to heal itself.
\nBeyond that, this famous person with this statement, the horrible soft drunk commercial with that Jenner woman, Scarlet Johannesburg playing a Japanese cyborg; I’ve been reading a lot of justified, righteous anger about advertising. I get that I just called TV and movies advertising. That’s all they are. I’ve watched entire TV shows and realized I just watched a 22 minute commercial for various products and ideas. I’ve watched movies and left the theater realizing I just watched a 90 minute advertisement for products, services, or ideas. I understand the human need to be entertained, to be distracted. But there is no mistaking that everything you watch, listen to, and mostly read, at this point in history is a market-tested, and profit-driven advertisement for something.
\nThis is why I do my best to pay as little attention to pop culture as I can. Yes, I love watching Archer and Rick and Morty, but I’m always looking out for what I’m trying to be sold.
\nBe entertained, but don’t get sold.
\n