Wednesday's Most Active Threads

The most active thread yesterday was titled, "why is mrs still a thing" and posted in the "Off-Topic" forum. The original poster noted that several of her children's teachers — of varying ages — prefer to use the title "Mrs.". The original poster thinks this is strange and wonders why they don't prefer "Ms.". On one hand, this is a fairly simple post that should be easily answered. On the other hand, this is DCUM. In a perfect world, posters — particularly those who themselves prefer to use "Mrs." — would respond with explanations for their choice and the original poster would leave the thread more knowledgeable and with a better understanding then she entered. But, sadly, DCUM is far from the perfect world. DCUM in an environment in which posting "I like dogs" will result in responses such as "Why do you hate cats?". Posters rarely answer the question asked, but rather the question that they think you meant to ask, or the question that they would have preferred you to ask. As a result, the post is addressed as part of a culture war. Posters imply that the original poster is being hypocritical because, as a feminist, she should support women's choice. This trend reached the pinnacle of absurdity when the poster who had brought up freedom of choice being a goal of feminism was herself responded to by a poster saying that the point of feminism was to give women a choice. Hello, you both are saying the same thing. Perhaps actually reading posts will result in more appropriate responses? Of course the original poster is not necessarily saying that those who choose "Mrs." should not do so, but just wants to know their reasons for that choice. Unfortunately for the original poster, almost none of the responders offered a reply that would provide such enlightenment. Plenty of posters described their own choice of titles, but not really offering much in the way of explanation for their choices. Other posters simply posted opinions about titles. One poster rejected her family name entirely, including her mother's maiden name, due to concern that the names had been used by male abusers in the past. An off-topic discussion regarding the entomology various words broke out. So, for instance, we were entertained with the history of the word, "hysterical". This discussion also highlighted the increasingly conservative nature of DCUM. I have to say that this is a disappointing trend in my view given the website's original userbase of progressive urban women. Now we have posters who equate choosing to be called "Ms." with being a man-hating, failure who will end up living alone in a cardboard box.

The next most active thread was posted in the "Entertainment and Pop Culture" forum. Titled, "I don’t like that attending the Eras Tour has become an elitist activity", the original poster is upset that tickets for the lastest Taylor Swift tour can only be purchased on the secondary market at exorbitant prices which means that the entire cost of attending a concert is only affordable to elites. There seems to be a few different aspects to this situation which those responding address. First, it seems that the face value cost of Swift's tickets is not out of the ordinary for today's top acts. Concert tickets have just gotten to be expensive. The issue is one of classic supply and demand, with a little fanaticism mixed in. Demand greatly surpasses supply, which has led to a thriving secondary market. Moreover, many Swifties have been attending multiple concerts, driving up demand even more. For the lucky ones that managed to work their way through the ticket-buying process and the TicketMaster minefield, a single concert with face-value tickets is a costly, but not an absurdly expensive, experience. However, some people of means — as well as some of fewer means and even less sense — have spent tremendous amounts of money on scalped tickets and expensive travel to multiple distant locations. In addition, brands have apparently bought blocks of tickets which they provide to "influencers". The combination of influencers promoting the concerts and brands that provided the tickets and those who have attended shows bragging on social media about the experience, many posters report being almost constantly inundated by social media posts about Swift concerts. There is some disagreement about whether the concerts themselves are actually "elitist", or whether the culture that has grown up around them is elitist. As one poster writes, "it's the bragging, one-upsmanship, and extreme conspicuous consumption around it that is elitist". Posters are particularly bothered by others showing off about how much they have spent to attend a concert. Some posters explain that they attended Swift concerts, or plan to attend one, but avoid the social media bragging and overpaying. For instance, one poster says that her family will attend a concert in Asia, but it will be part of a longer family vacation in the region. Several posters also emphasize that the quality of Swift's shows justifies the cost to a great extent.

The next thread I'll discuss was titled, "Ohio Vote Results" and posted in the "Political Discussion" forum. The original poster described the vote in Ohio on "Issue 1" which would raise the threshold for an amendment to the state constitution from 50% which it is now to 60%. As the original poster pointed out, this was largely seen as a proxy vote on abortion because abortion-rights proponents intend to bring an constitutional amendment protecting abortion rights up for a vote in November. The Ohio legislature was attempting to raise the bar for passing an amendment in an attempt to avoid passage of such an amendment. Issue 1 was handily defeated, demonstrating again the widespread support for abortion rights which have won everywhere the issue has been put to a popular vote. Most of this thread was devoted to the same sort of issues confronting abortion opponents nationwide. It is clear that Roe v. Wade has now become an albatross around the neck of the Republican Party. But, the Party has limited options for responding. One, which is demonstrated by abortion opponents in this thread, is to simply lie about the goals of those in favor of abortion rights. Abortion foes repeatedly claim that pro-choice activists favor "abortion up to the time of birth". This is simply not true, though no amount of explaining this to them has any effect. As Upton Sinclair wrote, "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it." But, in this case, it is electoral fortunes more than salaries at stake. The other option for Republicans which was only briefly addressed in this thread, is to change the framing of the issue. For instance, in Ohio, proponents of Issue 1, realizing that abortion was a losing issue for them, attempted to recast the vote as being about transgender topics rather than abortion. If the threshold is not raised, Republicans proclaimed, liberals will pass amendments in favor of gender affirming care and teaching children about transitioning. But, as they say, that dog didn't hunt. In fact, that dog has failed to hunt in a number of recent elections. Many DCUM posters and others in the DC metro region have been strongly influenced by what they view as Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin's successful exploitation of animosity towards transgender rights to propel himself into the governors mansion. But, other than in Virginia, the transgender topic has been a classic nothingburger. Outside of the Beltway, people either don't care or they care about other things a whole lot more.

The final thread at which I will look today was posted in the "Off-Topic" forum. Titled, "s/o slightly outdated phrases and exclamations", the original poster mentions "aw nuts" and "gosh darnit!" as two phrases she knows of people currently using that she considers old fashioned. I never really like describing these threads that mostly consist of lists or lots of short suggestions. Also, I am really running late today and I'm pretty far behind my schedule. So, I'll just say this is a 9 page thread that, if the topic interestes you, you are welcome to read. And, gosh darnit, to which you can even respond if you so choose.