When I first joined ProgressiveU, I looked at the site, at its blogs, and its ideals--and I thought, "Wow, this is a great site! I could get some very interesting reads here--and people might actually understand what I'm saying, for once!" While I have been seeing some great posts here--I've noticed a trend.
People seem to constantly post about the absolute, most non-progressive, ethos-based, over-sentimental posts. Some of it is really great. Most of it is awful and a waste of time.
Now, I might sound insensitive here--but this really is not the place to talk about that kind of thing. Even if you were abused, suffered some kind of tragedy, or something like that--that's not progressive. That is the name of the site, after all--ProgressiveU.
What I'm saying is that I see too many badly composed, vague and general poem about "pain", "suffering", and "sorrow"--which aren't even that good. What the hell are you talking about? It's not informative--we can't even post any progressive comments. This is not LiveJournal. Now, that's just the vague, "woe-is-I" (which is grammatically incorrect, by the way) bull.
(Also, I'll snap one other thing down while I'm here:
I vehemently oppose those posts that talk about a certain event, or a certain problem in society, and say "I don't like it", or offer a weak argument against or for it, or a horribly thought out solution that has the naivete of "just do this, and this, and everything will be fine". Please think! Don't say a few things, and say, "so that's what I think, discuss plz". Please!)
If you suffered a great tragedy--very few will sympathize with the person who wallows in their misery, especially on PU. What you mostly get is either some pity, or are just completely ignored. People love stories of personal strength here, on the other hand. It's a beautiful thing--and you can be respected for that. You're not being progressive here. If you want to post about that sort of thing... Provoke thought. Say something meaningful. Make a lesson out of it--if you were raped, you could put your mind to helping other people avoid it. You could propose ideas for change in society to construct better morals--you could advise people to learn self defense so it doesn't happen again. You could learn, and then teach, mental strength and personal faith and psychology. Do you see how many ways I just listed for you to be progressive? I wasn't even trying. If you really put your mind to it, you can make some great stuff.
If you're posting about that and not doing anything with it, you're wallowing in your misery, and you're probably pitying yourself a lot. Don't feel victimized--empower yourself. Otherwise, you're just whoring your emotions out for attention, and while some might look kindly upon you--I think it's disgusting. Granted, I do not doubt that some of you really are in pain. If that's the case... ProgressiveU really isn't the place for that if you just need someone to tell. It's not progressive at all--and the most you'll get is some sympathy or pity. You have friends and family for that. There's other outlets on the internet, for it, too--and if you really don't have anybody to talk to, talk to me. I'll listen and help you through it.
I'm just saying--ProgressiveU is not the place for that.
This is a very interesting view but isn't the point of this site to put issues you care about. If someone writes a post on something that happened to them the same as them merely informing people that this stuff can actually happened?
Yes. However, it is supposed to be progressive. Most of what I see is fluff, generalized, generally says something like, "this or that is bad, let's do something about it, discuss". If I wanted to say what I cared about, I could say it in just as few words and topic even more:
"I care about physics, science, math, religion, logic, any kind of mysticism or paranormality (may have just bs'd a word there, but meh) I can lay my hands on, and the mental, spiritual, physical, and psychological condition of the USA and the world as a whole (can't speak for the world since I haven't seen the world). I think they're pretty cool, some things about the world I don't like, I want to change them. What do you think?"
It's the same thing, just less fluff and more content--and it still has fluff. I can alert all of PU (or all who would click on my blog) by saying, "SEX, RAPE, DRUGS, VIOLENCE, RACISM, ABUSE, TERRORISM, THEY HAPPEN!", but do you think that would get me many ratings, or much constructive criticism? In a nutshell, that's what they're saying. Now, the people who actually work with these topics, work with their own experience, and create something provocative or thought-out--that's the stuff of gold, and I respect that. Do you see where I'm coming from? Too much sentimentality, not enough productivity. Sentimentality is nice--but unless it's backed up by a great amount of thought and coherent logic, it's not worth much here.
I agree.
That's what Xanga and myspace are for.
~AnGeLa~
I definitely agree with you. However, just because what is being written isn't progressive isn't going to stop people from posting. All we - and by we I do mean serious bloggers -can really do is point out the problem, do our best to filter what we read, and make sure our blogs fit our own standards.
I will say this though, I plan to be very careful with my own blogs from now on, I can see how it could become very irritating.
Joy! A convert for you.