This Oil Spill Madness, Among Other Things

Not really sure what to say about this that hasn't already been said.

I guess I'm getting old enough that this type of grotesque corporate negligence doesn't shock me in the slightest. I've worked for huge companies before in the insurance industry, and the catastrophic clusterfuck of bureaucracy and red tape and insular political backstabbing made me want to throw up more or less every day. I had to stop reading Dilbert comics because they were too painfully similar to real life.

And that was just some shitty paper pushing company that doesn't really have anything to do with natural resources (other than consuming them at alarming rates) or people's lives or the environment. All they did was push money around and fuck themselves and their clients over in the stock market like every other clueless investment 'expert'.

So I guess the thought of a huge company like BP cutting corners and unleashing an environmental catastrophe through sheer negligence and stupidity doesn't surprise me. Not even a little bit. Actually, I'm surprised that this hasn't happened sooner and more frequently. Sort of like car accidents; I've been in a few, and now that I've been driving for almost fifteen years I'm actually amazed that I make it to work most days.

I generally try to avoid political and religious stuff on my blog since I eased up on my youthful militant anger that was spawned by a sudden realization that people are often quite horrible. But I'm not sure if there's a point in bothering anymore. Do I want to avoid offending people and keep my opinions to myself, or just let it all hang out? I don't really want to alienate people, but I'm also not a fan of censorship. I also don't like preachers, whether they're preaching religion or politics or patriotism or whatever brand of unthinking dogma they want to force other people to adhere to. It's pretty easy to turn into one of those tools, and the first step is opening your mouth too much.

That being said, people with strong opinions are interesting. Even if they make an ass of themselves they're entertaining to watch at least.

I figure if I draw something cool with every blog post I can probably get away with a lot of opinionated ranting.

So let's start off with a good, soft target: Conspiracy Theorists.

This is a pretty easy one: If you're a conspiracy theorist, shut the fuck up. You're an idiot. I don't mean day to day conspiracies about corporate and government espionage or negligence or human rights violations. We all know that shit happens. I mean the big retarded stuff, like alien abductions, that 9/11 was a government cover up, that global warming is a 'new world order' plot, or that the government blew up the BP oil rig on purpose. Yeah, that's right, that's the latest conspiracy theory nonsense I've had the misfortune to stumble across. It's sort of like when your cat shits outside of the litterbox and you step on it with bare feet early in the morning before you've even gotten your contact lenses in.

I subscribe to a few rules in life that generally seem to get me through each day without accidentally committing suicide or fucking my life up: Occam's Razor (Look it up), The Golden Rule (you oughta know that one), If it sounds too good to be true it is, Don't walk down stairs with your hands in your pockets, and one of my favorites: Heinlein's Razor.

"Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity".

Pretty simple. Granted, there's a follow up line that sometimes gets ommitted that reads "But don't ever rule out malice", so I suppose those conspiracy theory douchebags can get a little bit of credit there, but frankly, successful grand consipiracies are so god damn uncommon simple because people can be really god damn stupid.

As a species we're pretty good at building stuff and figuring things out, but only every now and then. When you get down to it we're just horny bipedal apes trying to outfuck the other apes in whatever way we can manage. Cynical, sure, but I feel the need to call it like I see it. It seems to be isolated instances of cooperation, hard work, and inspiration that get our species ahead, but 90% of the time we're just kind of taking up space and screwing everything up. I find that little 10% pretty magical and awesome, so maybe I'm not a complete cynic... Maybe a 90% cynic. Yeah, that sounds good.

Where was I? Oh yeah, BP and conspiracy theorists: both of you can go fuck yourselves. That about sums it up.