10/03/2020
About 'that' post...
They say it's best to sleep on it. I've slept on it, for several nights since 'that' post and to be honest, I still feel somewhat in shock, but do feel the need to clear the air before 'business as usual' proceeds.
First and foremost, this page has never had intentions other than to create a bit of light-hearted humour amongst what's otherwise a dull and depressingly serious world/area we live in. If it's not s**t parking, it's knock-down ginger (can I still call it that? Maybe knock down-strawberry blonde or simpy door knocker-knockerson?) or irate Audi drivers to tree ripper-upperers. It doesn't mean to say we can’t sometimes get it wrong when it comes to humour, we're all human, and so to think that anyone ever takes it to heart or genuinely feels upset at a jokey dig, a p**s-take or a basic characterisation, then I'd like to apologise to any of the persons involved. That is certainly not the intentions of this page and I'd genuinely feel sad if something written here had upset someone.
I've actually got it wrong once before; I found out, apologised, deleted and never mentioned again. It was an easy quick process to put right.
Some facts that I feel do need airing, however:-
This characterisation thing; for fun, was first created back in the day the Parish Council was running for a new member. It's not new.
The people that found this page and it's stories, seemed to love the fun-poked made up stories ever since. I guess I'm a bit like the class clown; encourage me and I'll not need asking twice...
It was for this reason, I was shocked to receive a sudden barrage of abuse from two particular people with others in support, when the fake-news article using the local character I'd historically created, was featured once more.
I was, and have always been led to believe that everyone I'd characterised from the area actually found it quite funny. I'm still none-the wiser as to whether they do, or they do not, because other than Rod/Emu (I feel safe using these) I've not heard directly from them, only friends/friends of friends. The above two actually did message me upon first seeing a story years back to say how funny they thought it was. I thought "That's nice, fair play to you". As above, like a class clown, I've continued with whatever gets a laugh until told otherwise.
It doesn't mean to say people aren't allowed to feel differently. Not every person is the same, and some could indeed take it in the wrong way or feel upset. It is that scenario that I wanted to highlight last week where I say "Please! If anyone does feel this way, just message me, or have someone else message me on your behalf".
I just wanted clarification as to whether this was people getting offended on behalf of someone when they actually were fine about it, or whether they did genuinely not like it.
I didn't want to lose the fun aspect unless it was definitely no longer seen as fun. In the end, the barrage was coming in too thick and fast and so, I deleted it to be on the safe side.
What I didn't, and still do not appreciate are people becoming self-righteous, airing a barrage of directed abuse in such a manner that, accusing me of bullying, whilst also bullying, just seems chillingly ironic.
I was called names and accused of being some sort of loser for hiding behind a page. I was accused of loitering around the estate taking photos of poor parking etc...(Please understand, many of you actually do this for me and send in pictures, which I appreciate by the way) I was accused as if it's something outrageous, to be blocking the identity of the domain name we use for these blogs. I feel all this is actually a good example of why it's indeed anonymous...
The 'hunt' for my details amongst this episode confirms to me as to why this style page works better, being the way it is. I could almost feel the anger in the tone of text coming towards me when honestly, I was in shock. I'd almost felt as if I'd been egged on to walk into a lion's den. I'd walked into this den so many times over the years, yet the lions were so tame and friendly. Well, they were...
Thankfully I'm not delicate enough to take much offence but I guess in a roundabout way it helped me understand how some others might feel. The anger and bullying aimed at me, kind of helped me get another perspective. I at least, thank them for that.
As a modern-day society, we just don't seem to have a laugh anymore. The risk of upsetting someone is always there, but the tables have turned where that risk has tipped the scale to a position where, if anyone does slip up, there is no forgiveness and people 'want blood'. I was also quite saddened, to hear the comparisons being made likening that post to a certain unfortunate celebrity who took her own life. Please... for the love of brain cells, can we all be respectful enough to understand not any one of us knows why a person in the limelight takes their life, and what actual fears/feelings would have developed from a number of causes whether it's the press, partners, prosecution services, the thought of jail, drugs, depression.... To use a person's name and situation we have no knowledge on, to compare to a local fake news page with an audience of below 500 that is making fun, is quite absurd and dare I say it downright irresponsible.
It's not just here, locally, it's everywhere. Just at the weekend, England played Wales at Rugby and Ex. Welsh player Gareth Thomas made a joke that if he'd have known this behaviour was going on he'd have never retired! (Referring to Marler groping a Welsh players' tackle, and himself 'Thomas' as being openly gay').
No sooner than minutes, along with every laughter, there was an online barrage of abuse from people towards Thomas, claiming that his joke could be offensive to gay people. A perfect example of how the scales have tipped, where some folk seem happy to seek out the potential offence on behalf of others when nobody knows, whether anyone actually found it offensive at all!? It's these people who are driving the modern world down into a place of unhappiness, diminishing freedom of speech and an era of trial by public opinion.
I'll continue to try to be funny. Perhaps not always succeeding albeit.
Airing on the side of caution, I'll no longer use that character either. It does seem the post itself was lost in translation, as the message was trying to reflect something good. Something commendable. Perhaps I'll make a rare serious post about that separately, just for the record, as right now there's a topic that needs all the positive PR it can get which I'm sure, we all at least have that agreement in common.
Thanks,
Tw**ty McT**tterson.
