"Help, I'm Being Censored!"

Over the past few weeks, I've seen a lot of news stories about important higher ups at various big businesses getting ousted from the company for comments they've made/things they've done.  Ranging from Mozilla's CEO being removed for support California's Prop 8 to, more recently, the Clippers owner Donald Sterling's comments over race.  I have no problem with them being removed for these things at all.  Actually, I support it.  What I'm writing about is right-wing America's recoil to these happenings.  I remember, while driving to or from Florida for spring break(sorry, I can't really remember which), conservative champion and my dad's knight in shining armor, Rush Limbaugh, treated these removals from office as a sort of radical left-wing fascist uprising.  His argument was that free speech had been attacked by the left because it did not fall in line with their ideology.  He went on to make comments about how, seeing as Obama at one point was not pro-marriage equality, and yet he wasn't attacked or ousted, that this is some sort of liberal conspiracy or movement to just eventually take over America and arrest those who disagree with our philosophy.
Have I ever mentioned that, given the opportunity, I would beat the living hell out of Rush Limbaugh? Like in a "no consequences" type of situation. Whatever.
What I think conservatives of Limbaugh's type seem to ignore or be blissfully ignorant of the simple fact that, in a publicly owned company, the right lies within the people to make choices regarding who runs the company.  If the people do not want Mozilla's CEO to support an agenda of anti-equality, then so be it
Let's not forget that the expressing of these opinions is in fact free speech, and that the choice of removal is made within a board of trustees, who do not have to listen to the public
But to hell with the truth, right?
Right

The Ethics of Social Media

In the world of politics, it is said that policy is always about 10-20 years behind the latest technological advances.  I'd like to expand this idea by saying that, for the professional working population, ethics and etiquette are always about 10-20 years behind the latest advances.  More and more now we see news stories about social media, to the likes of employers requesting Facebook passwords or social media background checks.  Ever more present is the use of online media in advertising campaigns, both for business and politics.  And with this rise, we see now more than ever the rise of disputes, feuds, and general mishaps over social media antics.  The Internet as we know it has given more people the power to project their voice than ever before in the history of humanity, and it is both astonishing and beautiful.  However, like with all technology, arises with it a class of people who stand upon the dividing line between the Old World and New, and with them comes the controversy.  People who are "in the know" do something which confuses or upsets someone who isn't, and as a result they lash out and attempt to return to a relative zone of comfort.  Now, on social media, I would go out on a limb and say that I am a sort of Troy personality.  This isn't meant as some kind of brag or boast, but rather just a statement of facts.  I am well known in and around the circles of Troy High School, both on and offline.  And I will admit that I do sometimes say and do things, both on and offline, that are crass, crude, childish, unprofessional, and downright disrespectful.  But in two recent incidences of this social media divide, I feel as if I have been both misinterpreted in my words and actions, and have as a result been unnecessarily ostracized for what I do and say.  In my quick explanation, I will not mention anyone specific, nor will I try to take the blame entirely off of me.  In the end, what I have said and done is my fault, and the consequences of those must be had.  However, I do feel that, to an extent, the reaction made to this was entirely unnecessary.
Over the past three years, I and some close acquaintances have been involved in a music project/social experiment of sorts.  We started a band with the sole intention of being the worst band in existence.  Poor recording fidelity, production, musicianship, writing, the whole nine yards.  Over the years, we wrote and recorded a good catalog of our joke music, intended for the ears of only our friends, and maybe the occasional innocent bystander on the Internet who stumbled into our realm.  It was a good time.  Recently, however, our musical well has run dry, and we have decided to end our little expedition into the realm of comically bad music.  To end it, we figured, "Hey, why not advertise ourselves/our end in a public space? That sounds like fun"
And it totally was.
In our advertising, both through us and our friends who are not directly affiliated with the project, we never once directly requested or implied that anyone should actually go to look us up online and give us a good ole' spin.  I think that's an important distinction, but maybe I'm just half-crazy. Oh well. A parent did decide, however, to look us up, and after listening to a few of our finer selections, became mildly upset.  They responded by writing several anonymous letters, including the director of the activity, the principle, and the local board of education, asking for our justice to be served.  Luckily for us, Tinker vs. Des Moines happened, and no action was pursued.  Those involved deemed it as not worth their time to pursue us for something that they did not consider to be wrong. Either that, or they understood the possible legal repercussions of taking action against us for something done outside of school grounds and time, in which we never did anything to purposely harm the integrity of our peers. I see this as a good allusion to modern life and social media, where perhaps a celebrity or politician might see something about them that, without the Internet, would go unnoticed, and react to it in a way that both unnecessary and improper.  The result of this can be a lot of publicity for both parties, and never is any of it very good.
This isn't my most recent spectacle of the horrors of social media in it's youth, but out of respect for time I will not explain it.  However, note that my stance on it is pretty identical to the one above, though more fitting for the circumstances at hand.
If you have any specific questions, feel free to talk to me about it openly come May 25th

Discussing Politics with Parents

One of the worst things an informed or knowledgeable person can do with their free time is to argue with someone who isn't knowledgeable.  Right below that would be trying to teach someone who is misinformed and is obstinate on a subject.  But luckily for us, the likelihood of both of these terrible traits taking place in the same person is rare, if not impossible, right? Sadly, it is not.  In the process of learning about the American political system, I have come to clash with my parents.  I've known my parents were both conservatives for a long while, and have, up until this year, thought that their beliefs were well founded. But upon learning my political identity and sharing it with them, I've learned that, at best, my parents are greatly misinformed on the subject.  I don't mean this as a sort of attack on their beliefs being in opposition of mine, but rather I mean to highlight the fact that my parents, who are themselves average American citizens, are simply misinformed in basic factual information.  After discovering this, I've asked many mature, voting adults their opinions on politics, as well as simple questions as to what they know.  What I've found is that most of the adults around me, those who have been preaching the gospel of whatever they believe to me at family meetings for nearly two decades, have absolutely no clue what they are talking about. Coming to this conclusion, I then set out to try and figure out the root of the problem.  There were many options to tackle, including American education, modern media, and the breakdown of compromise at the legal level of politics.  With a good portion of my rough polling group being conservative, I've found the thing held most in common between them is that they all watch FOX News.  So, over the past few months, I have put myself through the living hell that is actively paying attention to FOX's major political talk shows.  From what I've gathered from them, I'm led to believe that this epidemic in our voter base is founded in biased and outright fraudulent reporting. I've also learned that I'm not alone in my thoughts.  Websites such as Politifact and FactCheck have set out to take statements made by politicians, analysts, and the likes, and rate the accuracy of their statements on different scales.  But is this a solution? Hardly.  I can't honestly say I have one in mind, but I suppose the first step to fixing the problem is simply acknowledging there is one.  Now only if I could convince my mother...