I got "unfriended" on Facebook today. It was quite the trauma. A friend of a friend posted a linked article about how the "Income of [the]Top 1% Has Grown 100 Times Faster Than Bottom 50% Since 1970". That's quite a peculiarly specific slice of data, in terms of both time line and demography - to the extent that I have no "feel" for what it really means - but I think it's fair to say it's another treatment on the rich getting richer (much richer, it seems) while the bottom half aren't getting richer nearly so quickly. Actually, when I put it like that the sting seems to go out of an already not-very-stingy headline, but let's try to go with it and get on board with the feeling of shock and presumably outrage.
The chap in question, who shall remain nameless, is Addison Hodges Hart. He's something of a book-learning man. He's a writer. A pious man. He's a bit of a left-leaning thinker. And he doesn't like billionaires. He really doesn't. Because they are billionaires. Isn't that obvious enough for you?
Addison thought it was "outrageous" that there was this income increase gap. I took issue the whole notion of why intrinsically it was bad that a billionaire should exist. What was I thinking?
Here's how it started.
And this is what came next. Now, my spelling is a bit off, but forgive me - it was on a mobile device.
I guess Addison thought better of writing, "Oh, for Christ's sake. Wake up", because a minute later it looked like this.
The screenshot does not do it justice. It's a hilarious, animated gif of an ostrich pushing its head in the sand. It's just so bowel-burstingly funny. Presumably the ostrich was meant to depict me. It's a bit odd, though, since I expressed a specific desire to know more immediately before this. So funny, sure; but relevant, not really, no.
After this, I found that I was not able to add further comments or even edit my existing comments. There was no way I could further engage with this interesting argument. I had been unfriended, you see. This meant that I was unable to engage with other intelligent contributions...
Such as this:-
And this:-
And of course, this killer comment, from M.O. White, demonstrating his capacity to conflate and confuse two different issues and hurl a cheap insult in one splash of the pen. I bet he got a minor orgasmic pleasure from splooging his skills thus:-
I wasn't the only person to express an interest in understanding the moral framework behind all the censure and disapproval. Tim Harris asked:-
However, he had his comment deleted, presumably by Addison.
So that was quite the exciting afternoon.
The chap in question, who shall remain nameless, is Addison Hodges Hart. He's something of a book-learning man. He's a writer. A pious man. He's a bit of a left-leaning thinker. And he doesn't like billionaires. He really doesn't. Because they are billionaires. Isn't that obvious enough for you?
Addison thought it was "outrageous" that there was this income increase gap. I took issue the whole notion of why intrinsically it was bad that a billionaire should exist. What was I thinking?
Here's how it started.
And this is what came next. Now, my spelling is a bit off, but forgive me - it was on a mobile device.
I guess Addison thought better of writing, "Oh, for Christ's sake. Wake up", because a minute later it looked like this.
The screenshot does not do it justice. It's a hilarious, animated gif of an ostrich pushing its head in the sand. It's just so bowel-burstingly funny. Presumably the ostrich was meant to depict me. It's a bit odd, though, since I expressed a specific desire to know more immediately before this. So funny, sure; but relevant, not really, no.
After this, I found that I was not able to add further comments or even edit my existing comments. There was no way I could further engage with this interesting argument. I had been unfriended, you see. This meant that I was unable to engage with other intelligent contributions...
Such as this:-
And this:-
And of course, this killer comment, from M.O. White, demonstrating his capacity to conflate and confuse two different issues and hurl a cheap insult in one splash of the pen. I bet he got a minor orgasmic pleasure from splooging his skills thus:-
I wasn't the only person to express an interest in understanding the moral framework behind all the censure and disapproval. Tim Harris asked:-
However, he had his comment deleted, presumably by Addison.
So that was quite the exciting afternoon.
