I suppose that it's inevitable in the era of social medical that all forms of it devolve to the lowest common denominator.
It's unfortunate, but also oddly illustrative of how people think.
Our city and maybe every city, has a net based site which sends out emails and has a webpage on things of importance and interest to the community. Indeed, I think it's a national service, which is tailored for each community.
It's supposed to be focused on community news.
You know, such as "saw weird creeper looking through my car on XYZ street last night" or "what's the weird insect that's been mowing my lilacs down . . . "
But of course, sooner or later, you get the the same deluded crap that shows up on all social medial everywhere and, ultimately, pollutes it.
You know, of course, what I mean without even saying it. The comments by those who seriously believe that everyone thinks exactly what they do on controversial issues. Perhaps this forum is even more tailor-made for it, as its local. So you have some poor sot who thinks that everyone in his community must think the same way as he does, as of course he believes that he's the soul of reason.
Some examples.
Riiterhouse
Just recently somebody posted the results of the Ritterhouse jury on the service, apparently believing that everyone must be following the results of a trial in Wisconsin even if they live in Wyoming, and of course it's posted in the "hurrah" type of fashion.
This came about as in "Hey! Ritterhouse in!" or something like that.
This isn't Wisconsin, and based on what little I've paid attention this, we all ought to be mighty glad about that. We don't need random opinions, really, on jury verdicts in controversial cases in other states. It only drags their slop into ours.
Beyond that, in backrooms and places where people can express their true feelings about matters, a lot of Wyomingites have pretty nuanced feelings about the case. I'm not hearing too many people cheering the kids three shootings, and even he doesn't seem to be doing that now.
At any rate, that issue has nothing to do with your neighborhood.
And of course, politics
And things being what they are, that means extreme right wing politics.
Just yesterday somebody with strong right wing populist feelings posted a "remember not to vote for" post about a member of the House. This person claimed the Representative is "no good for Wyoming".
Pretty quickly, some people rose to his defense, naturally enough. And in doing so they took aim at another Representative who is in the news a lot, and whom they noted is from California.
The first commenter never did say what it was that the Representative he was complaining about did, other than that he said he'd gone to them with the concerns "of a lot of people".
It's pretty clear that the complainer is an extreme right wing populist, but the interesting thing here is the "Wyoming" claim. I know that the person he's complaining about is a Wyoming native. The person he's praising, is not. Indeed, the candidate the writer is complaining of is a third generation Wyomingite and the one he likes really is a fairly recent out of state import.
And this is super common with our state's politic's, actually. The real fire breathing street level right wing populists tend to be imports from other states. Wyoming is a Republican state, but most of the GOP here is pretty middle of the road, at the street level, and not so populist, at least in the towns. Out in rural areas this tends, however, to be different.
I've noted this in person as well. I'll meet people from other areas and they'll comment on an issue with their very right wing opinion with the assumption that because I'm a native, my view must be populist on the far right. Most people from here, however, have a real mix of views and are pretty nuanced.
Which gets back to lists. Why annoy a neighborhood list with this sort of stuff.
Babble
While I'm on this, I'll note that a really good way to tell if a person, even in print, is an import from outside the region is if they use diction that demonstrates that they've watched too many Western movies.
"While doggone me jibbers, pilgrim, that ole politikking jabberer . . . "
Yeah, you're from New Jersey.
Stray Dogs
I do think the lists serve the purpose of people who have lost pets posting to find them, but there are some people who seem to sprint to their computer every time they see a dog.
More distressingly, there seem to be some people who capture any dog they seem and assume its lost, rather than just on a walkabout. If that dog wasn't a stray before, he is now.
I'd much rather have that, however, than "don't vote for candidate X. . he won't support my petition to ban the liberal commie barista industry, why dagnabbit I ordered a coffee and. . ."
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