Okay. Let me explain to you how somebody got blocked, just now, in a conversation about a TV show.
I talk about any number of things on my Facebook space. Politics. Current events. The writing life. The latest tempests in a teapot centering on fandom. Daily doings from my own life. My cats, for crying out loud. Flights of humorous fantasy. Books, both those I’ve read and those I’ve written. Movies. And occasionally, TV shows.
Not everything I talk about is of equal importance. Sometimes I trade in big ideas, or what pass as big ideas when I’m talking. Sometimes I’m just nattering.
In this particular case, I was talking about a TV show, not a very good one. Then Mr. Soon-To-Be-Ejected, who as far as I know I’ve never even seen before, wrote, “I can’t believe people are talking about a TV Show on one of the old networks! Talk about not having a life!”
* Deep Breath *
Look, this is an awful big cocktail party. There are literally hundreds of thousands of conversations going on at any one point. Some will interest you and some will not. Encountering a conversation about something that strikes you as unimportant doesn’t mean that that’s the all-consuming obsession of those involved; it means that is what they happen to be talking about at this particular, specific moment. Nobody asked you to decide whether any given conversation is worthy of their time; again, everybody talks about a number of things, some important, and some not.
It is always possible to enter a conversation and disagree with its premise. That prompts debate and debate is good.
In no conversation you have just entered is it proper to interject, “This doesn’t interest me at all! You people are talking about something unworthy!” If that’s how you feel, you either walk away or you hang about in silence, waiting for the subject to change. You do not take a dump on an exchange between strangers. You go find another conversation.
The most scintillating bon vivant in the entire world, which I’m not, will occasionally demonstrate an interest in something that bores you silly. He will hold forth on the differences between brands of toilet paper, or something that strikes you as equally inane. Unless you are paying him money he is under no obligation to entertain you with every instant. Unless he is paying you money to act as his editor you are under no obligation to police his conversations for constant brilliance. All you did, in that single post, was establish yourself as a scold. You contributed nothing to the conversation but a turd. Sorry. But you can go now.
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