Tag Archives: identity

On fooling some of the people some of the time

Internet,

By now, I’m sure you’re aware of the little prank TOC pulled on Chicago last week. Some crab-asses protested by saying “It’s not April 1st!” But since this issue fell on April 1, we had little choice but to go with the joke a little early, and I think it worked better that way as it caught so many people off-guard and really helped to “sell” the joke. We even extended it to the blog that day, with a whole series of fake posts from Trump as well as some music, film and comedy “news.”

Here’s the “problem” with all this though: the internet knows no calendar. This stuff is going to stay up in perpetuity without the benefit of context. I’m enormously pleased that a few other lazy sites picked up our blog “scoops” and reported them as actual news (seriously, does “Shane ‘Handsy’ Butterscotch” sound like a real name to anybody?) and that on Wednesday we gave the home page a Trump-centric makeover. So I wouldn’t change how we rolled things out online. But there’s a decent argument to be made for making sure that six months from now, people know we didn’t really give Sixteen an 11-star review, James Lipton didn’t actually review Wicked for us and we acted like jerks during David Schwimmer’s interview for a reason.

In the past year, I’ve worked really hard – as has the rest of the staff – to establish TOC‘s bona fides online. We still have a ways to go, but we’re now seen as a trusted source for news just like other sites. And when sites like ours play jokes on April 1, we’ve got cover for our editorial integrity. But if we report that Vampire Weekend is starting a preppie clothing line on March 26 does that end up hurting us in the long run? I’m inclined to say no, especially when we led the day on the blog with stuff like this. But again: we had the benefit of context, and Google searches strip all that out.

So today, instead of pulling another elaborate joke on the TOC blog, we’re going to be explaining the one we pulled last week, and tagging our satirical posts and articles as such. It might seem like babying our readers in a way, but on the Internet, some jokes are only funny the first time you tell them.

Not created in my own image

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On Late Night with Conan O’Brien last week, Bill Maher was discussing the results of the Iowa caucus and specifically the religious beliefs of some of the candidates. His crabassery was typically longer on style than substance, and then he dropped this bon mot on how it’s impossible to reconcile faith with science:

“You can’t be a rational person six days of the week…and on one day of the week go into a building and think you’re drinking the blood of a 2000 year old space god. That doesn’t make you a person of faith, that makes you a schizophrenic.”

…and then went on to imply that all people of faith take the Bible as the absolute, literal truth. Check out the full clip here before it gets pulled from YouTube.

Let’s leave aside Maher’s questionable theology and his confusion over mental health terms or we’ll be here all day. But let’s also acknowledge that there are some people out there who do, in fact, base their knowledge of science on what it says in the Bible. They’re admittedly parts of the whole of the faithful.

Now, with this in mind, since I don’t confuse Bill Maher with his fellow cast members from Cannibal Women in The Avocado Jungle of Death, I’d appreciate it if he’d do me and mine the same courtesy and not lump all people of faith together.

In some respects, I can’t blame Maher for saying such dunderheaded things. It’s pretty clear that he doesn’t know any people of faith personally (or at least none that he respects) so he’s likely just assuming that we’re all from the same mold as dipshits like William Donohue or Pat Robertson.

Those of us who practice a quiet, private faith do ourselves a disservice in some respects. We don’t talk about how we’re as certain of the existence of Christ as we are in the existence of homo habilis (even though we got way better grades in religion than biology) because we’re so worried at being lumped in with the Donahues and Robertsons of the world, that we fail to offer any alternative view like how we’ve had lunch with priests often, but still find these jokes to be hysterical. In failing to do so, we allow the Donahues and Robertsons to be the public face of the faithful.

But the faith these men practice does not resemble mine, nor does it resemble the faith of the thoughtful, welcoming, social activist parishoners I worship with each Sunday (OK, every other Sunday sometimes): the (openly, for what it’s worth) gay priest who leads our service; the people who – when a family from Florida first visited our church on a morning off from staying with their son in his hospital room after he had been hit by a car while riding his bike – held hands with strangers and offered them prayers and counsel; the people who feed the homeless or created an anti-racism ministry or etc. etc. etc.

None of these people cracks a Bible before they make a decision about how to lead their lives, nor do they grab a concordance for help in answering questions about DNA or evolution. That’s because it’s not a rulebook for them, it’s a guide they use to have an ongoing discussion on how to challenge themselves to live a life based on love, justice and truth.

Now, I’ll admit my viewpoint is largely informed by my membership in an Episcopalian church that strives to make its liturgy accepting, inclusive and affirming. But that’s exactly the point.

In short, since they’re not the ones you see on television or read about in newspapers, it’s easier for Bill Maher to get you to believe that these people do not exist. But I have a feeling he’s not seeking them out either. Perhaps because it’s easier for him to maintain his own way of life when he has nothing to challenge it. It would probably result in too much cognitive dissonance and wouldn’t allow him to build a career on hackneyed, cliched generalities. Of course, I’m sure Maher wouldn’t be the type to do something he accuses others of. That would be schizophrenic or something.

Then again, maybe I’m wrong. After all, this is supposed to be the day that people like me are too busy drinking the blood of extraterrestrial immortals to have time for rational thought.

But unless people like me start speaking up, it’s too easy for others to assume there are those who do it for me.

A different kind of morning news

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I know I’m barely eking out a post a week here, but there’s a good reason for it that I’ll get into soon.

In the meantime, I’ve been reading a lot more blogs lately, which often overloads my brain. So I’ve been turning to the WGN Morning News blog as an amusing sorbet to cleanse my overburdened palette. But yesterday it uh…served up a course that was quite filling. (OK, I’ve bent that metaphor to the breaking point…onward!)

I want to direct you to a couple posts (1,2) from Ana Belaval, Around Town reporter for WGN Morning News. My appreciation for her is well-documented (if not a little hormonal*), and these two posts she’s written only serve to expand it. She lays bare the joys, fears, and difficulties most (not some, but most) new mothers have, especially those who have left a full-time job and plan to return to it. To whit:

It is a constant guessing game and when you think you have something down pat, the little bundle of joy changes the rules of the game. Add to that how sick I was after labor and how I cried every day for 2 weeks thanks to lack of sleep and hormonal mess, and I almost begged my boss to call me back to work.

It’s not only refreshing because of the topic – there’s still very little discussion in this country of the kind of physical and mental toll a woman undergoes after pregnancy – but also because of its presence on a corporate blog.

That’s not a dig against WGN’s blog, mind you. But blogs like that are designed to do certain things, and open up a frank discussion on the difficulties of working mothers isn’t usually one of them.

It’s illustrative of why blogs are important, why they require transparency to remain effective, and how they contribute to the culture even in ways you don’t expect.

* In retrospect, I probably would have written that post differently since it’s a little to close in content to what commenter #8 says, which is not an association I’d like to be guilty of. Especially since it’s the second post that comes up when you Google her name. Oh well, I can always blame it on this guy.

The word is out

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When writing here, I’ve never been particularly coy about who I am or what I’m up to. But I also don’t go out of my way to put myself front and center either, even if I make it a point to self-promote whenever possible. While the Internet now considers me the most famous me in Chicago* (take that, director of the short film Ten and president of Tribune Publishing!), I still like to pretend I have a certain amount of virtual anonymity.

I’ve had my short-term reasons for that, but mostly I like to have control over my world, and how I’m perceived. It’s silly, really, but the impulse is there nonetheless. As such, I’m not one to dwell much on my personal life here. I prefer to let the words and the work be the focus. In my job, you really have to make peace with the notion that you’re leaving quite the footprint for those who want to play technological archaeologist. Even though what I do here is separate from the job, I’m still aware it’s out there for all to see. And while I prefer not to obscure my personality, with great bandwith comes great responsibility. So I prefer to keep a firm grasp on the “me” that’s out there. It’s the difference between uploading pictures of oneself holding a beer…or holding a beer bong.

I’m occasionally jealous of some writers who take their lives and pour them so exquisitely over their blogs. Like this fella, for instance. It’s possible I’ll get to the point where I’ll say “Ah, to hell with it” but not quite yet.

Anyway, that’s about the biggest self-revelation you’re going to get from me here. But I figured since I had such an influx of new readers today, it might be best to let you know what you’re all in for if you stick around. I certainly hope you do.

* Nope, those aren’t my numbers at the top of that page. Told you I’m careful.