WingColors

I am saying there should be some nuance of separation between them and the rest of the internet, and using them together in some sort of ubersensationalist keep-people-on-your-blog mechanism is irresponsible.

Full agreement. It's not only irresponsible, it's tasteless.

I remember visiting a forum once, years ago, about video games. One of the posters on that forum had an animated avatar showing a woman being shot in the head by a soldier.

No one on the forum seemed to mind! I never went back.

On the bright side us denizens of the Internet learn to recognize these crude, rude attempts at grabbing our attention for what they are. I don't see any way we can separate them from the rest of the internet, but I absolute agree with you: if I had a choice, I'd ban it from the Internet.

I know that this isn't specifically about Mr. Robert Lindsay's blog, but I bolded the parts that I found funny/contradictory in his little profile rundown:

Independent Left journalist in California. Revolutionary, Christian, liberation theology, replacement theology, civil libertarian, mixed economy, Sandinistas, Hugo Chavez. BA Journalism, MA Linguistics, Green Party, Communist Party USA, Democratic Party. Generally, topics focused through a progressive (Old Left), though heterodox, lens. Despises the PC, Cultural Marxist, Identity Politics, Western New Left. Iconoclast, smashes all party lines, angers everyone. If I'm not making you mad, I'm not doing my job. Channeling Lenny Bruce, Ambrose Bierce, Mark Twain and H.L. Mencken. Shoot first.

I'm pretty sure that some of those things don't fit into the Christian ideology.

That said, I agree with the whole shock phenomenom that seems to interest mainly the college age male sect should be regulated to it own little hole of the interwebz. My brother, who's 22 loves sites like break.com, where they show videos of all types of disgusting and terrible things (He ALMOST tricked me into watching 2 girls 1 cup, but I caught on before the video played. No poker face, that boy). I know that won't happen though, but like Article19, I've seen people use some disgusting and shocking imagery for avatars and icons on very public, very popular sites like Livejournal and continue to use them just to piss people off.

What I'm wondering is are we becoming too desensitized by the everyday violence that in order to peak interest people like Robert Lindsay need to include disgusting shock material to get us to notice?

I just don't understand why would anyone WANT to see someone really get beheaded? What kind of pleasure or sick sensation can you get out of it? I can barely watch that type of stuff in crappy horror flicks. I remember when I first started using digg.com one of the most popular stories was a (supposedly real) video that actually showed JFK getting shot, and the splash of blood and brain matter. And I'm not sure what actually made me watch it - I guess I wanted to see if it was real or not, but I was so disturbed after watching it.... and I'm from NY, so it's not like I'm not exposed to everyday violence and whatnot. I guess I feel it's different if you see it because it's a part of your environment, or if you choose to watch something knowing what you are going to see going in...

Mmm... We could see how many pairs of contradictions there are in that little bio... Christian could be interpreted to conflict with most of them. I'm also not sure how you could consider yourself as a destroyer of traditional institutions (iconoclast) and consider yourself as a member of a religion or political party.

Indeed that bit describes him as a leftist with liberal ideals but goes on to say he only means an unorthodox form of "Old Left" that he doesn't qualify other than saying he hates Marxism. Old-Left territory puts him in league with Stalinism, meaning he's actually closer to fascism than liberal democratic socialism.

All in all, it looks like he either used a bunch of impressive looking words to make people think "oh wow this guy know what he wants in his politics" and just didn't stop and think what those words meant, or he does believe in it all and he's just a very confused little boy. I believe both of these statements have truth.

He could replace the entire lot with: "Journalist in California. Bit of a fuckwit."

Good find Oli. As always I know you've seen the very worst the Internet has to offer but you also know the very best bits too. I fully support your comment saying the two must be kept apart.

Irrespective of whether there's a demographic that crosses over both areas, they should be kept separate.

It's a tad more sonorous than just bad taste. This man has been posting some virulently racist hate speech under the user name Palspal all over youtube for the last year. On his own site he has imaginary conversations with himself, posing as both a moderate and extreme anti-semite(sorry, anti-zionist) to show how moderate he is in comparison to himself. A rather confused nobody with some extreme personal problems and a paranoid delusional sense of reality, the be-heading video would have been posted to generate traffic to his site(its mummified) as are the bogus conversations he has with himself. All in all, a middle-class narcissist who simply does not get it, whilst LOUDLY proclaiming he is the only one who does.
Tasteless, sad and just plain wrong.

The internet is like a box of chocolates.
You never know what you're going to get.

I remember visiting a forum once, years ago, about video games. One of the posters on that forum had an animated avatar showing a woman being shot in the head by a soldier.

Now you know why I disallow image sigs, animated avatars and limit the members to MY Gallery of avatars on my forums... I can't stand how tactless people can be.

They seem happy with it and I add things as they request them so...