Recent Comments

1. 8 days ago on Pickles

   I mean, fortunately, since those two guys got banned or just got tired and left, it’s not been an issue here. I wasn’t talking about here, just it’s a general societal issue.

2. 8 days ago on Pickles

   No, here it’s not been an issue. We just travel a lot and are acquaintances with a lot of people. It’s a trend I frequently see everywhere in-person, not just on the internet, and not just towards me either. And I don’t use Twitter or Instagram, but I do use FB, Youtube, Wikipedia, and some special interest group/hobby group sites under a different handle, only even then I don’t post much because of the above. Nothing like that I described has happened on Go-comics personally to me, though for about two years running a long time ago (some of it before I formally joined) there were two guys who used to post generally on this site everything they thought was wrong with two of the comics, on each strip of said comic they came across. They literally were there for no other reason to try to get people to dislike the two strips in question and if anyone dared say anything to them, they would start listing the reasons the person responding was wrong/foolish/etc. So fortunately on this particular site it’s not been an issue, but I’ve seen it be a huge issue towards me AND others elsewhere.

3. 8 days ago on Pickles

   It says nothing about you, what you like and dislike. That is the point. The individual attitude of like and dislike isn’t the point. That’s normal human. The point I’m trying to make is, there a quite large number of people in this world who believe that it is their duty to shoot down things that other people enjoy because they personally don’t enjoy them, or automatically assume people who enjoy things they don’t are somehow deficient. There are a lot of people who can’t simply say, “I personally don’t enjoy that thing much” when confronted with something they aren’t interested in. They have to either roll their eyes, ignore or openly say “That thing is stupid/tacky/tasteless/useless/babyish/for idiots/old-fashioned/too new” or basically any other insult implying “you’re an idiot if you like this.” I use Star Wars as a really common example because if you dare to enjoy one of the newer films or the prequels better than the original trilogy you will be absolutely BLASTED as stupid/immature/wrong/foolish in any comment section. Same goes for sports teams – you can’t just say “I don’t like this team”, you have to say, “You’d have to be an idiot to like this team”. Those are more extreme examples, but there are a lot of other things much smaller that this happens about. For instance, less-popular hobbies are often ridiculed as a waste of time or pointless by other people, especially if it’s something considered either too new or too old fashioned. It’s also common, if people prefer older TV shows or movies to new ones, or vice versa, people on both sides go out of their way to try to point out the flaws in what someone else is enjoying (“Why do you like THAT?”). When people see adults at places like roller rinks and arcades, the first reaction is usually, “They’re too old for that”.Many of us have lost the ability as a culture to simply say, “I personally dislike this” without having to try to spoil other peoples’ liking of it by calling it objectively/blanket “Bad”.

4. 9 days ago on Pickles

   On my end, Religion/Faith hasn’t ever been an issue. None of it has had to do with religion at all. It’s been more “perceived intellectualism” that’s the issue – I.e. “I have a problem with this so it’s inherently bad”. It’s all over real life and even more so on the internet. For an example, you’ll see a LOT of that (i.e. Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, etc) – if a majority of people dislike something, anyone who enjoys it will be ridiculed or called stupid or be told what they enjoy is bad. Look at how people get about home decor or clothes, refusing to acknowledge it’s all fads and making fun of anyone has a style different than theirs. Also I’ve moved quite a lot but several people I’ve known have run into the same thing if they dare to have an interest different from people around them, especially if said interest is something they enjoyed as a child and therefore must be supposed to “grow out of” later.

5. 9 days ago on Pickles

   It isn’t just me. The more I look into it the more I realize it’s a deep, longstanding cultural issue. Look at how fans of certain teams or TV shows or movies react. Ask anyone who genuinely wants to get into art or music that comes from a non-artistic family (not those in it for profit, just those in it for fun) and I guarantee you’ll hear that they went through something similar. Ask anyone who’s really passionate about a not-super-profitable or not-super-popular hobby how many people they know who don’t take it seriously or who say it’s a waste of time. Trust me, it’s not just me.

6. 10 days ago on Frazz

   As annoying as it is, you really can’t afford to rush road construction projects. Bridges and structures have to be built to special guidelines which are ‘written in blood’/there because of the cutting corners of other bridges and structures that failed in past generations that led to deaths. For regular roads, the ground has to be SUPER CAREFULLY graded and that alone can take multiple surveys and multiple redos before getting it right, especially thanks to weather. If you don’t do it right, after the asphalt is laid down, the road will fill with potholes immediately. You can tell which roads were made or repaved too hastily – usually country byway type things – because of how quickly they start to disintegrate.

7. 10 days ago on Pickles

   To be clear, I am referring EXCLUSIVELY to matters of simple everyday things that people do to pass the time, like the colors they prefer or the places they like to casually visit or the books they read or the movies/shows they watch or the sports/teams they like or simple hobbies like art or gardening or birding or making music or which clothes they prefer or which house they buy/how they furnish it. I am not referring to anything that there could legitimately be moral discussion about because they do cause harm to the self or to others in the long run.

8. 10 days ago on Pickles

   Though Opal is not going about this the right way AT ALL, and only making things worse, I can definitely relate to the feeling of practically no one in your circle being interested in innocent things you like – favorite hobbies, cars, books, movies, clothes, decor, vacay destinations, sports teams, etc. What’s worse, not being content with being ‘Not interested’, a lot of people genuinely believe someone is inherently less intelligent/less mature/tacky/tasteless for liking something people around them don’t. The fact paid critics who label things as good or bad based only on personal preferences have been allowed to exist is, I believe, a big part of this problem attitude, which has spread well beyond entertainment now. We’ve lost the art of being able to simply say, “this is/isn’t my personal preference” – nowadays, if someone dislikes something, however trivial, it becomes inherently bad in their eyes, and anyone who does like what they dislike is wrong and mentally deficient and “causing people to suffer” if they openly enjoy whatever it is. It can be downright miserable after a while when you literally have no one in your close circle to talk to about your interests who’s even remotely going to be sympathetic. You get so pent-up you’re afraid you might ‘info-dump’ when someone does finally show interest, so you get too scared to try, or begin to believe there must really be something wrong with you for your simple likes/dislikes. We need to normalize at least being respectful of other people if they are doing something they love, and said something is just simple entertainment/hobbies and not criminally/morally wrong. If you really aren’t interested, you don’t have to make it obvious or be a deliberate jerk about it. That’s why whenever someone talks to me about something innocent that they’re passionate about, especially older people, I make a point to listen. It costs nothing in the long run, and for some people it can really make their day or even life.

9. 15 days ago on Dogs of C-Kennel

   Cats leave “Kills” – sometimes still half-alive – where you can find them. If a cat does this for you, it’s saying it loves you/considers you its kitten and it is bringing you food or something to play with.

10. about 2 months ago on Back to B.C.

    Baby garter snakes will eat bugs. Some adults will still eat worms. Incidentally Eastern Worm Snakes and their relatives also eat bugs, as do baby DeKay’s Brown Snakes.