I sort of held out hope for a while with Fox News, thinking that they kinda had the right idea by not kow-towing to the popular media stance.
I officially rescind that notion. Fox News is no better than any other media organization, I cite this article, and this corresponding news story, which bashes Mr. Rogers, claiming that he helped make today’s 18-24 demographic entitlement whores. If Fox News were the “responsible” news organization that it claimed to be, how about you cite all of the good that Mr. Rogers did? He taught kids that they can be who they are: meaning — they don’t have to engage in negatively influenced peer behavior! Like drinking, smoking, drugs, petty theft. Mr. Rogers taught us to share. He taught us to dream of the people we could make us in to. He taught us to avoid strangers, and tell adults if we were being hurt by other adults.
What the hell is wrong with being special, in a world that treats you as a mindless demographic?
But to Fox News, that’s okay. Because all the 18-24 demographic is are needy, spendy, non-political entities: they don’t matter in your demographics; and you seem very interested in slurring them across the board. By the way: this is the demographic that’s helping to fight this war you support!
And I’ve got a special tear for that idiot professor, Don Chance: there’s a special fucking place in hell for you, asshole.
Mr. Rogers has been pretty much unanimously understood as one of the most helpful people on this planet as far as understanding child behavior and nurturing them into functioning adults in society. If you have a problem with college students asking you for more points in a class, maybe you need to be the grownup in the situation and give these college students another life lesson: you don’t get everything you want in this life. How many times did you allow a student to have a boosted grade? How many times did you say no? Did you ever lay clear guidelines in your syllabus as to that’s how you ran your classroom.
Why not go after MTV, VH1, E!, and every show focused on 18-24, teaching them how to be indulgent, self-absorbed, narcissists? That’s right: because you wouldn’t get any air time. So of course, attack a completely innocent (and for that matter, dead and can’t defend themselves) party. Because that shit will completely get you the airtime you don’t deserve.
To be fair, I agree, “They’re just children” doesn’t hold any water with me, either; but attacking Mr. Rogers, and not the parents who raised them?! Perhaps instead of blaming the students, how about blaming the parents, who didn’t follow through on Mr. Rogers’ message of being a responsible adult.
It’s really hard to make your case, though, when you’re not taking words out of context, though, isn’t it? I’m interested to see how well your argument would stick if you had to take all of Mr. Rogers’ teachings as a whole.
Everyone is special, Don. And you’re one special kind of asshole.
For everyone who remembers all of the good in life that Mr. Rogers did for you, he has something important to say to you.
The Blog of JulZ 