Monday's Most Active Threads

The most active thread yesterday was titled, "What’s a parenting choice you just cannot understand" and posted in the "General Parenting Discussion" forum. I am really baffled by the constant threads about things people don't like, don't understand, are tired of, etc. These threads are just excuses to criticize others who then get offended and start arguments. To her credit, the original poster acknowledges that some of her own choices might end up on other's lists. But, in my opinon, she still fails when it comes to empathy. Her example of a parenting choice she doesn't understand is not prioritizing getting a baby or young child enough sleep. Where are the parents who don't want their child to sleep and actually prefer to have a tired baby screaming all the time? They don't exist. For new parents, a child's time asleep is a refuge, it is a welcomed break. Nobody wants less of it. Maybe I'm wrong, but I feel like this is all an effort by the original poster to pat herself on the back for what was apparently a successful effort at sleep training her own child. If this is the case, the original poster's gripe is not that parents don't prioritize sleep, but that they don't address it exactly as she did. In other words, her real complaint is that some parents don't sleep train. Maybe I'm reading too much into this, but I am pretty sure that if the original poster took time to ask others to explain their choices, they wouldn't be so difficult to understand. In a follow-up post, the original poster stresses that she does understand that some parents don't have choices. For instance, some parents might need to wake a baby at 5 am because of day care or their job and the original poster emphasizes that she is not criticizing this. I'm willing to bet that similar explanations would also satisfy the original poster in 99.9% of the cases. I'm a fan of the adage of not criticizing others if you have not spent time walking in their shoes. As such, I find threads such as this very non-productive. But, I am apparently in a distinct minority since the thread has already reached 36 pages. Since I stopped reading after the third post, I have no idea what the other 35 pages say.

One of the top threads about which I wrote yesterday dealt with fashion at the Oscars. That was posted in the "Beauty and Fashion" forum. But another thread about the awards show was started in the "Entertainment and Pop Culture" forum. Titled, "The Oscars! 2023", this one overlapped the fashion thread a bit, but generally constrated more on personalities and the subjects of the awards. In addition, there is quite a bit of discussion of the performances that took place during the ceremony. As I mentioned yesterday, this is really not my thing so I don't have a lot to say about it. At 15 pages, it appears plenty of others do, however.

The third most active thread yesterday was titled, "‘Not a Meritocracy’" and posted in the "College and University Discussion" forum. The original poster says that the thread's subject line is a quote from the head of a "Big 3" private school who also said that college admissions system is broken. The original poster then goes on to say that she has observed that the children of families with "considerable money, privelege, and notoriety" have been doing well in admissions while other kids from the same school have been receiving disappointing results. She wonders if others are seeing a similar pattern. I've written before about how just about everyone is critical of the college admissions process and that everyone feels that it is particularly biased against them. Moreover, this also appears to be another case of what I've named the "DCUM Paradox" in which parents do everything within their means to get their children into the best schools, only to find that come college application time, they are competing with students at that and similar schools for a few select spots. Harvard is not going to accept the entire Sidwell Friends senior class and if one student is a third generation legacy whose maternal grandmother just bequeathed a new wing for the library, the rest of the class is basically out of luck (if any Sidwell seniors are third generation legacies who maternal grandmother just bequeathed significant funds to Harvard, that is purely coincidental, this was hypothetical). Beyond that, most of the responses I read were surprisingly unsympathetic to the original poster. Several posters pointed out that "Big 3" schools themselves are not meritocracies and accused the original poster of trying to buy herself into an elite school. Others said that college admissions was never supposed to be a meritocracy. One poster outright stated that for the cost of tuition at these schools he expects a leg up on public school kids and proclaimed no interest in a meritocracy. I have to admit that I am fascinated with this type of thread. I haven't read all of this one, but I'll try to find time to do so later. There is always an eye-opening post or two.

The final thread at which I'll look today was posted in the "Metropolitan DC Local Politics" forum and titled "Rolling gun battle in Capitol Hill tonight." The original poster describes a terrifying shootout between occupants of two moving vehicles. When the driver of one automobile was shot, the vehicle crashed into parked cars. Ultimately, two occupants of the vehicle died and one was wounded. The original poster is upset that nothing had been heard from DC Council Member Charles Allen. This thread demonstrates three trends that have been dominating the local politics forum: 1) posters fixated on crime; 2) posters absolutely, completely, insanely obsessed with Charles Allen; and 3) posters posting repeatedly in a compulsive manner. Admittedly, this was a pretty dramatic incident that probably deserves its own thread, but the repeated threads about crime are a somewhat new development on DCUM. I think much of this is driven by the new wave of "crime reporters" on Twitter. These individuals devote their time to listening to police scanners and then immediately posting about any incidents that catch their interest. I've found them to play a welcome role in providing information about what is happening around us. On the other hand, posters follow them on Twitter and immediately rush to DCUM to start threads based on the tweets. In the past, these posters might not even have known about many of the incidents, let alone started threads about them. As for Charles Allen, he has become the face of DC's response to crime. That is ironic given that the Metropolitan Police Departement is under the control of DC Mayor Muriel Bowser, not Ward 6's Council Member. For all the criticism Allen receives on DCUM, he is a remarkably popular Council Member. In both last year's Democratic Primary and the General Election, he was unopposed. The angry posters on DCUM could not even convince anyone to run against him. Next are the compulsive posters. I don't know if posters have an authentic concern about crime and actually hold Alen responsible for it, and, hence, detest him, or if they hate Allen and find crime to be a good issue to use against him. Either way, the combination of crime and Allen brings out some particularly obsessive users. For context, this thread is currently 11 pages and consisting of 155 posts. Of those, the original poster is responsible for at least seven posts, which is not a lot I guess. But, another Allen critic posted at least 21 responses. A third poster — also anti-Allen — managed at least 27 posts in the thread. But, the winner of the Allen-hating extravaganza was a poster who probably wore out her keyboard posting at least 46 times. That is 101 posts just between these 4 posters. In contrast, a dedicated Allen defender managed 19 posts. The Allen supporter was convinced that he was facing off against paid trolls, but he is simply unaware of the obsessive-compulsive nature of these posters. At any rate, if you are intersted in epic anti-Charles Allen rants, this is the thread for you.