DCUM Weblog

Yesterday was a day on which people around the world gathered around their televisions for one of the most watched events of the year: the broadcast of Super Bowl commercials. So naturally, the most active thread on DCUM was titled, "Super Bowl commercials". Posted in the "Entertainment and Pop Culture" forum, the thread managed to rack up 13 pages in just over 12 hours. Pretty amazing considering that most of our users were asleep during much of that time. Started with a prompt by the original poster to discuss the commercials, the thread is mostly a collection of opinions about the ads that appeared during the football game. Many users expressed dissatisfaction with all of the ads, opining that none of them were very good. Others found favorites, with the Dunkin' commercial being praised by several posters. Probably the most controversial ads of the evening were the "He Gets Us" ads promoting Jesus. Many posters pointed to the right-wing, evangelical Christian groups behind the ads, especially the family that owns Hobby Lobby. This provoked criticism from both liberal-leaning and anti-religious posters. However, posters who supported the message of the ads spoke up to defend them. Two commercials that featured dogs, one by the Farmer's Dog and the other from Amazon, were lauded by multiple posters. The Remy Martin ad featuring Serena Williams provoked some debate over the appropriateness of an athlete promoting an alcoholic beverage. At some point the thread was temporarily hijacked by discussion of the half time show and Rihanna's apparent pregnancy, though there was an entire separate thread devoted to that topic. One or two posters even posted about the game that periodically interrupted the commercials.

The most active thread yesterday was the thread about The Satanic Temple offering abortion services. I've already covered that thread so I'll move on to the next most active thread which was titled, "Uninvited from Super Bowl party" and posted in the "Off-Topic" forum. The original poster explains that her husband commands a military unit that has an annual Super Bowl party. The original poster, who has been feeling lonely and isolated, was looking forward to attending the party. The host of the party was scheduled to be on duty during the game, so the original poster's husband volunteered to take his shift. Subsequently, someone else — it's not exactly clear who — emailed the original poster's husband, copying the original poster, to say that due to capacity reasons the original poster and her children could not be hosted this year. Many posters found this behavior by whomever sent the email to be appalling and shockingly rude. Some of those went so far as to propose retaliatory ideas such her husband withdrawing his offer to cover the host's shift. While the original poster and her family had attended the party in previous years, this was the first year that her husband held the command position. Some posters suggested that those attending the party were planning to relax and maybe engage in gossip and didn't want the boss's wife around. As such, they argued, the original poster should not take this as a personal slight. It was just something that went with the job. They further hypothesized that the previous commander's family did not attend and that the original poster should not have expected to have been invited this year. Beyond that, multiple posters urged the original poster to focus on why she was feeling isolated and lonely and to work on fixing that rather than worrying about the Super Bowl party.

It continues to be college admission season which means that threads about college admissions continue to dominate the "most active threads" list. Yesterday's most active thread was one example. Titled, "UVA EA Stats" and posted in the "College and University Discussion" forum, the original post consists almost entirely of a link to a blog post by a University of Virginia Associate Dean which provides University of Virginia Early Action admission statistics. The one consistent characteristic of college application threads is the conviction by posters that the procedures are unfair and biased against them. In this case, posters are convinced that northern Virginia is not sufficiently represented in UVA admissions which, they believe, favor applicants from other parts of Virginia. This highlights one of the great contradictions I've come across from reading DCUM. Starting at an early age, many DCUM posters begin plotting their child's course to a prestigious college. If they plan on using public schools, they choose a neighborhood that feeds to top schools, follow school developments like a bloodhound on a raccoon's trail, make sure their kids check all the right boxes for extracurricular activities and take all the correct high school classes. But, then, come college application time they suddenly become convinced that this is all working against them. They come to believe that every other kid in their high-achieving high school, indeed every kid in every high school in the neighboring area, has the same qualifications as their kid. Moreover, just as in the case of Lake Wobegon, all of them are above average. Far above average to hear them tell it. The idea that some of these students, particularly if that student is the poster's child, might be turned down for admission while an applicant from rural southwestern Virginia is accepted simply cannot be countenanced. As such, this thread mostly consists of posters arguing that northern Virginia is being mistreated, other posters trying to convince those posters this is not the case, and a third group of posters who can't pop popcorn fast enough while they intentionally stir the pot or simply stand back and enjoy the show. This basically continues for 15 pages so far.

The most active topic yesterday was sort of a return engagement. While the thread is new, the topic is not. Diligent readers of this blog may remember that last month I discussed a thread about school calendars for the Fairfax County Public Schools. That thread was about 4 proposed calendars that had been offered for public input. A thread titled, "School Calendar 2023-2024" and posted in the "Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS)" forum revisited that topic because the school board was holding a meeting in order to approve one of the proposals. Posters provided live coverage of the board meeting, posting continual updates to what was taking place. Interspersed among the updates was plenty of commentary from posters kibitzing the board activity. Based on what was posted, it appears that the Board approved a modified version of what had been designated the "blue" calendar. This calendar provides for the first day of school two weeks before Labor Day, includes a two-week Winter Break, and a one-week Spring Break. These were all things that DCUM posters seem to have wanted (though, of course, there was not complete agreement on anything). In addition, the calendar provides for a host of Religious and Cultural Observance days. These days mark significant religious and cultural days in a variety of traditions and may be missed by students without earning an absence. Teachers are not supposed to introduce new material on those days so that absent students doen't fall behind. These days were selected based on public input and recorded absences from previous years. In the end, DCUM posters seem relatively pleased with the outcome, though everyone had their own personal nit to pick. The calendar was approved for three years, though the second and third years might be tweaked somewhat.

The three most active threads yesterday were all threads that I have previously discussed. So, the first thread I'll address today was actually the fourth most active yesterday. Titled, "Satanic Temple to offer abortion services in New Mexico", the thread was posted in the "Religion" forum. The Satanic Temple is a "nontheistic religious organization" that "uses Satanic imagery to promote egalitarianism, social justice, and the separation of church and state". The group has "utilized satire, theatrical ploys, humor, and legal action" in order to "highlight religious hypocrisy" (all quotes from Wikipedia). Finally, it should be noted that The Satanic Temple does not believe in a supernatural Satan. The original poster linked to an article about The Satanic Temple's announcement of the "The Samuel Alito’s Mom’s Satanic Abortion Clinic" which will offer abortion services in New Mexico. Clearly taking this all very seriously, the original poster is bothered that in order to receive abortion services, individuals must agree to conduct the Religious Abortion Ritual. The original poster apparently believes that agreeing to this ritual means joining a Satanist organization. In reality, the ritual amounts to little more than reciting two fairly mundane statements ("One’s body is inviolable, subject to one’s own will alone" and "Beliefs should conform to one's best scientific understanding of the world. One should take care never to distort scientific facts to fit one's beliefs" ) and membership does not appear to be a requirement. Many posters respond trying to convince the original poster that The Satanic Temple is not actually a group that worships Satan and pointing out that she is falling victim to their strategy of using satire to draw attention to their agenda. The original poster is not dissuaded and simply transitions into an opposing abortion generally. So, as a result, the thread basically turns into a debate about abortion rights. Ultimately, this thread shows the effectiveness of the The Satanic Temple's strategy. No other abortion clinic in New Mexico, nor indeed anywhere in the US, has been subject of one of DCUM's most active threads.

The most active thread yesterday was titled, "SOTU Thread" and posted in the "Political Discussion" forum. Created to discuss last night's State of the Union address delivered by President Joe Biden, the thread managed to produce 15 pages of discussion in less than 18 hours. With posts being created at that pace and needing to sleep for many of those hours, there was really no way for me to keep up with this thread. Most of my exposure was in response to reports of inappropriate posts. I was interested in how widespread participation in this thread was and, based on a quick analysis it appears that there were nearly fifty posters who contributed to the thread. Of those, five posted more than ten times including three who posted more than twenty times each. Based on what I've read, the thread is a combination of play-by-play discussion of the speech as it takes place, analysis and commentary on various points, discussion of audience behavior, and lots of talk about fashion. The thread also included discussion of Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders' response. DCUM has a liberal-leaning audience so it is no surprise that Biden generally received good marks while Sanders left a lot to be desired. However, conservative posters on DCUM are generally very vocal and frequently dominate threads due to repeated posting. But, it appears that last night even they struggled to find ways to spin things in their favor. Pickings were so slim for them that at one point the best they could do was fixate on Jill Biden kissing Douglas Emhoff as they greeted each other. Sadly for them, even KissGate was fairly short-lived. The highlight of the evening for many was a bit of political rope-a-dope by Biden who accused Republicans of wanting to sunset Social Security and Medicare, only be met by an avalanche of boos and jeers from Republicans. Biden adroitly welcomed the unanimity around protecting those programs declared them off the table. It was an amazing hoisting of Republicans on their own petard.

The most active thread yesterday was titled, "The 'White People Are Mosquitoes' Video in FCPS" and posted in the "Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS)" forum. The right-wing has perfected the art of manufactured outrage. This is particularly true around school issues, this thread being one example. The original poster launches things with the falsehood that, in the video, "white people are mosquitos". This is not only falsely stated in her subject line, but repeated in the body of her post. The video neither says nor implies that the mosquitos represent white people. The video twice says that microaggressions are mosquito bites, but the mosquitos themselves are not identified beyond merely being mosquitos. Since anyone, regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, or gender, is capable of committing a microagression, there is no basis for the original poster's allegation. Second, the original poster says that the video suggests that minorities "reasonably could engage in violence against white people". This is also misleading. To repeat, the mosquitos don't represent "white people". Moreover, to interpret the part of the video in which the narrator says that microaggressions can be so annoying that it makes "you want to go ballistic" as condoning violence requires a certain amount of willful ignorance. In reality, the video is a creative attempt to communicate the harm potentially caused by microaggressions. Whether the reaction to the video by the original poster is an authentic fear that white people are the real victims of efforts to combat racism or just a manufactured reaction based on political partisanship is not clear. But one thing that is clear is that the performative outrage around school issues mostly gets oxygen due to social media platforms including, in its limited role, DCUM. I am not at all comfortable with our forums being used in such a manner. As this thread ultimately demonstrates, the original poster's attempt to portray white people as victims is immediately exploited as a justification for racism by white people. Which, if not the actual goal of the thread, was an easily foreseeable outcome.

Yesterday's most active thread was titled, "How do you stay married to an ASD HFA Aspergers husband?" and posted in the "Relationship Discussion (non-explicit)" forum. The original poster writes that her husband was recently diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), something that she says explains the problems they have had in their marriage. She wants to stay married but doesn't know how she can do it given the difficulties that she attributes to his condition. She asks if others have made such a relationship work and, if so, how? This is a controversial topic that has come up repeatedly in the last several months. The controversy begins with the name of the condition, something the original poster demonstrates by using three different terms to describe her husband's diagnosis. Traditionally referred to as Asperger's Syndrome, this condition was later referred to as High Functioning Autism, but is now called Autism Spectrum Disorder Level 1. Regardless of what it is called, several posters attribute problems in their marriages to the diagnosis. An immediate point of dispute concerns why these women didn't notice the symptoms in their husbands earlier. This leads to a debate about whether those with ASD are able to "mask" or hide their symptoms. This highlights a paradox. Those with ASD are prone to difficulties in social communication and trouble reading social cues. Yet, these same individuals are allegedly capable of faking a persona for for long enough to get married. Some posters don't buy this scenario. Moreover, one poster strongly believes — and "strongly" cannot be emphasized enough — that "ASD" is being wrongly used to describe behaviors that have nothing to do with the condition. In this poster's view, the men being described are not on the spectrum, they are just jerks. Intermixed within these various debates are some helpful suggestions and advice for those involved in such relationships. But, of course, even the lessons posters have learned from their own experience are disputed.

The most active thread yesterday that has not already been discused was titled, "How often do you think applicants lie about their race?" and posted in the "College and University Discussion" forum. This is another in an almost endless series of race-obsessed college threads. The original poster, noting that race and ethnicity information on college applications is self-reported, wonders how often applicants lie about their race. The poster could collect just as accurate data by throwing a dart at a dart board. There is really no way to trust the responses posted in the thread, many of which appear to be agenda-driven or are second-hand and likely to be more of urban myths than fact. Many posters who clearly have no idea what the answer to the original poster's question might be, simply urge others to lie or warn against doing so. Justifications for lying include the posters' opinions that the current system is broken and that posters believe that lying on an application is not illegal. Those warning against lying suggest that doing so is fraud and that admissions could be rescinded. Some posters claim that lying is common while others point out that, if this were true, the reported number of minorities on campuses would be higher. I don't know whether topics such as this bring out the worst in people or simply bring out the worst people. Either way, these threads almost always end up reflecting poorly on our website.

The most active thread yesterday was titled, "Chinese balloon flying" and posted in the "Political Discussion" forum. Obviously this thread is about the Chinese surveillance balloon that has been flying over the US the past couple of days. The most revealing aspect of this thread is the large number of Chinese surveillance balloon experts that post on DCUM. The thread is literally full of them. Every single one of these "experts" blames the Biden administration for not immediately shooting down the balloon. The Biden administration's explanation that the military has disabled the balloon's ability to transmit any information of value and that shooting it down would present dangers to people and property on the ground is far from satisfactory to this group. China would not allow a US balloon to float unmolested over its territory they argue. Probably true. China does not share the US's concerns about the safety of its citizens and would likely be willing to sacrifice a few in order to make a political gesture. For many posters, this was simply further evidence that President Joe Biden is in the pocket of Chinese communists. For others it provided evidence for their latest conspiracy theory. For all the hyperventilating going on in this thread, the balloon didn't elicit much more than a shoulder shrug from actual experts — some of whom are quoted in the thread. Those experts were mostly  confused given that China could obtain equally good intelligence from its satellites. One salient topic that did come up in the thread was the amount of US farmland China has been purchasing. A number of posters found this to be much more concerning than the balloon.