Remember how good it felt to be WRONG? Let me back up a bit. Ya see, I’ve been on social media over 15 years, and one of my favorite things to do has been to simply hold court, and spout off my idiotic thoughts and musings. I’ve been known to go off on the occasional rant, and it’s something of a therapeutic process for me. I’m cleaning out the junk in my brain, to make room for new junk. I’m the kind of guy who pretty much tweets thoughts right after they pop into my head – which can be both good and bad. In some cases, they’re meant as conversation starters. For example, “Whatever happened to Rachael Leigh Cook?” I could tweet that, and it accomplishes several things: 1) It gets the thought out of my head, 2) It possibly starts a conversation with others, and 3) In the rare case, it serves as something Rachael Leigh Cook might find, if she’s a self Googler, and it shows her she’s still appreciated. What I’m saying is that you never quite know what may result from a Tweet, and that’s half the fun of social media. Or at least, it used to be.
X, formerly known as Twitter, is a different place now. Over the years, the posting of random musings has become not as fun anymore – even moreso since Elon bought the place. Now, if I post something (apparently we don’t call them “tweets” anymore, since he threw away perfectly good branding) it either dies in the void (due to post throttling for free users, as well as many of my mutuals vacating the site) or some random Blue Check pops up to be an asshole. I rarely have *good* interactions on that site anymore, and almost never with strangers. It’s gotten to the point that when I do have a civil conversation with a rando, I’m compelled to thank them for being a decent person.
Another thing I miss, however, is the luxury of being WRONG. In today’s culture, we’re supposed to be knowledgeable and informed about EVERYTHING. Why? Because “Google is free”. That’s what every online a-hole will reply when you ask them to elaborate on something. Now, I know there are wonderful advantages to living in a time when the answers to most of life’s questions are a mere click away, but I miss the “magic of the unknown”. Today, however, no one is allowed to make mistakes, be uninformed, or be wrong. And even when they are wrong. they’re not allowed to SHOW IT, because that’s “weakness” or whatever. Well, I’ve never been that guy. I can admit when I’m wrong, and I give credit where credit is due – even when I might not want to. That’s the world in which I wish to live again.
So, I’ve been thinking about this a lot, and I’ve come to the decision that I’m not throwing my “best material” out to die on the vine, on a product I don’t own. If I’m gonna “hold court”, then it’s gonna have to be MY court. And that brought me to this: a concept I’m calling “Willfully Ignorant”.
Willfully Ignorant will be a post designation where I’m just here to rant about something. I used to do this here quite frequently, which is why Random Rants is a topic in my tag cloud off to the side. Over time, I got consumed by the West Week Ever concept, and then tried to cram everything into those posts. Have you ever noticed how they follow something of a talk show structure? There’s a brief monologue, then I hit movies, TV, the week’s news, and then whatever had the West Week Ever. Well, Willfully Ignorant will be doing the heavy lifting of that monologue portion. It’s basically an op-ed feature. I’m not saying I’m trying to be wrong about certain things, but I’m also acknowledging there will be times where I probably will be. I know that “The Truth” is a nebulous concept in post-Trump America, so this isn’t as crazy a concept as you might initially think. An important thing to remember is that this is a “pressure release valve” of sorts, in that I’m just getting thoughts out, and bringing you along for the ride. I’m not out to get you to change my mind on something, but I also wouldn’t be opposed to it if you presented a convincing argument.
So, what’s the post frequency for Willfully Ignorant? Well, that’s the beauty of it: there isn’t one. I might post daily. I might post weekly. I’ll post whenever I feel like it, really. So, while I’m not committing to a daily post, I’m also saying that might be the case at certain times. Just depends on how ranty I’m feeling! I’ll post links in all the regular places, but this is a good time to remind you that you just might want to check the site occasionally, as I can’t control what Elon, Jack and Zuck do and don’t show you, which is half the reason I’ve resorted to this whole thing. The Revolution will not be televised, nor will it be streamed. It will, instead, be blogged, and that starts today. So, please allow me to be Willfully Ignorant, as I try to figure out this world around us.
