I’ve Been Judged!
Well hello, dear Reader. I had a busy weekend–between working, a haircut, grocery shopping, some body mod, my sister’s stalker (in a minute, hang on), getting some decent bread pans (joy!) and Being Judged.
I had a lovely long leisurely lunch/dinner on Saturday after I left work, got haircut and modded, and wended my weary way home. Waited until it was dark and watched The Blair Witch Project, which was creepifying in some places but obeyed horror tropes with a fine well-trained obedience so far that the shiny new way of obeying said tropes didn’t have the punch, for me, that I’ve heard the movie had for other people. I have to say, the more interesting thing about this film is knowing how it was made, and the psychological terrorizing (lack of sleep, pursuit, strictly controlled food) of the cast that made for such a ring of verisimilitude.
By far the most interesting thing about this, however, is the “townspeople” interviewed, in some cases regular townspeople of Burkittsville MA, who say they know about the Blair Witch legend while being “interviewed” for a “documentary”. Some of them had no idea they were being mock-interviewed for a movie, and said they knew about the legend anyway. Hm.
The most effective scene in the film, for me, was the ending shot of the young man standing in the corner right before the camera is knocked to the ground. *shivers* That worked, and worked well.
A couple other things happened this weekend. I’m considering taking out a restraining order of my own against my sister’s stalker. (What is it with stalkers this year?) This started out with the stalker (an ex-boyfriend) sending me manipulative emails trying to get me to tell him something, anything, about where my sister was or what she was doing. I gave short shrift to that, and he grew venomous. There were nasty Myspace screeds (how pathetic is that?) and my sister got a permanent restraining order against him–with such proof as photos of her he’d mutilated and dropped in the mail.
Not long after that, the dumb bunny started leaving comments on my blog–from the exact same IP as his emails came from. They range from “apologies” for his behavior to nasty pseudo-”reviews” of my work, which all get caught in the mod queue. I think the idiot’s expecting me to be upset. Instead of, say, having the urge to point and laugh.
The thing is, I believe that under Washington law, using the Internet to harass someone is cyberstalking. And if a stalker cyberstalks a family member of someone who has a no-contact order against him, it’s a class-C felony. And with all the IP addresses matching and traceable…well, I’m so glad I have IP logging.
The only truly annoying thing that happened was Being Judged.
Now I know I’m untraditional. I’m used to people disagreeing with my philosophy, my spirituality, the way I dress, the subject matter I choose to write about. Disagreement is fine, it’s what America is built on. What irks me is people judging on a knee-jerk reaction.
Case in point? The Teen just recently contacted one of his childhood friends. The Teen’s perfectly willing and welcome to spend the night at the Friend’s house–but the parents are “christians”. They won’t let their child come to the Teen’s house (incidentally, mine) because they fear some pollution of their precious manchild.
Why do they fear this? Well, because the Teen’s birth mother (who has never met me) decided to badmouth me on the strength of (wait for it) the Teen’s old Myspace page, last updated when he wasn’t even living with me and now deleted when the birth mother raised a ruckus. I know, boggles the mind, doesn’t it?
These people haven’t even met me, have never even spoken to me or laid eyes on me, and I’m damn sure they haven’t read any of my books. (Not that my books would help you pigeonhole me personally, you understand.) And yet they feel comfortable making all sorts of assumptions about me, and insulting the Teen as well as me. Because it is, as the Teen said, an insult. “They’re insulting my family,” he said yesterday.
Not very “christian” to judge someone you’ve never met. I mean, Christ probably wouldn’t approve of that, no matter how habitually and fanatically his followers seem to enjoy doing so. I swear, most of the out-and-out bigotry I’ve encountered in the world is from people who classify themselves as “real decent christians” and who go to church religiously (ha ha). It’s gotten so bad I have to really struggle not to shut down when someone identifies themselves as a “christian” to me. I have to really, really struggle not to make my own snap judgment.
The difference is, I’m willing to make the effort, and usually…so-called “christians” aren’t. It’s hypocrisy of the highest order. Reminds me of a comic I saw once–in the first frame, a man holding a huge cross is beating another man over the head with it. “ATHEIST!” he’s screaming, along with other choice slurs. In the next panel, the disheveled victim has opened his mouth to say something–and the “christian” beats him to it. “Let’s have a little respect here!” he’s hastily saying.
I wish I could find that cartoon again. I want to paste it on my fridge to remind me to keep my temper. *sigh* And to remind me to keep my compassion. If I can laugh about it, it’ll be okay. People just don’t know what they’re missing by locking themselves up in fanatical, bigoted little boxes.
Poor things.
