Complaint Free World? No Thanks

Okay, I haven’t done a rant in a while (or at least I haven’t bothered to check and see if I have…same dif) so here we go.

I read online about some movement encouraging people to go without complaining for like three weeks. My reaction: sweet lord, NO. What would I tweet about? The only things I do on Twitter are complain and tell people when I’m going to bed so they don’t expect a response from me. Which would be another complaint. Cutting out complaining would basically kill me on social media.

I’m a pessimist. I admit it. I also don’t think this is a bad thing. Being a pessimist doesn’t mean I’m constantly ragging on everything that goes wrong or warning that when things go right it’s only because they’re getting ready to go wrong. It means I tend to see the negative outcomes first and the positive second. The worst thing it does is make me more indecisive. It doesn’t make me a whiner.

I understand that the idea behind the movement is to stop complaining and get out trying to change things, or and don’t whine about the things you can’t, but come on. Yes, doing something is better than saying you want to do something, but sometimes things seem cruddy and you rail against it because you just want to feel heard, even if it’s only by the universe. To me, acknowledging something is the only way to move past it. It’s not giving it power over me. It’s not me moaning and groaning instead of acting (usually it’s me moaning and groaning while I’m acting : ). It’s me voicing something. Unless I’m at it constantly, I don’t see how it hurts anyone or anything.

I’m going to complain if someone stops at the flashing yellow light even though no one is in the crosswalk. Because it’s not a big deal what I do alone when I’m driving. I’m going to complain if I wait a half hour in a restaurant for my meal because they forgot my order. Because I should get the food I order. I’m going to complain if I read a story about a girl getting shot for knocking on someone’s door while she was looking for help. Because I want to remember how awful that is.

If you don’t like it, go complain about it.

Top Ten Reasons Why…

…People Have Got to Stop Bitching About Newspaper Comics.

10. Just because you think a comic is “sick sick sick” (actual quote from a letter to the editor), doesn’t mean it is. It means youdon’t like it.

9. We all know that the only way to get in the funny pages is to have gotten in there fifty years ago. It’s not going to change.

8. There’s this thing called “the internet” that has more comics than you could read in your lifetime. And most are free. Why don’t you go support one of those struggling cartoonists instead of someone with a fifty year contract in place?

7. Even with the hundreds of comics out there, there is not one single assortment of them that will satisfy more than one person.

6. You’re not going to enjoy something now like you did when you were five. It’s not that the quality has declined. It’s always been like that. But you still have that memory of laughing at Garfield or Popeye or whatever so you insist that it must have gotten worse. You couldn’t have changed or something.

5. Maybe it’s only the newspaper I read, but the comics very rarely change. Unless they’re doing an announced test run of a strip, it’s going to be there for a while. More than half have been there since I can remember, so over twenty years and only six, maybe eight have been dropped, and at least three of those were from the strips ending. So complain all you want. They aren’t going to listen.

4. If you read the Comics Curmudgeon regularly, you’ll start to see sinister undertones in everything, not just the comics you despise. So maybe it’s not the funnies that’s the problem. Hint.

3. You can just not read them. Is it really that hard? I ignore plenty of comics that bore me. You know what I do instead? Complain about them on my blog Read something else.

2. They’re freaking comics. Get over it.

1. Seriously. One more word and I’m coming after you.

Post inspired by recent letters to the editor. Because if I read another one whining about how every newfangled comic is pure evil and OMG they’re letting children read this filth? my scream will shatter the planet. Seriously, comics need to go up there with politics and religion as topics people can never discuss in a civil manner.

Blogging and Platforming

You’ve read Janet Reid’s post about the dangers of talking about rejections online, correct? Just making sure.

She suggests keeping your querying off your blog completely and I understand her reasoning. She says it sounds like complaining. Well, yeah, it is. Posting about rejection or waiting is cathartic. Unfortunately, if you’re using your blog to build your platform, then venting is not what it’s for. It’s for building connections in the blogosphere and publishing industry.

You know, this isn’t my only blog. I have another one where I complain about everything. It would be nice to get sympathy from friends about the process, but that’s not what this is for. It’s for inflicting etymology on you. My other blog, however, is just for complaining. It’s also just for me because I don’t think it’s very fun to read groaning and moaning about how everything is everyone else’s fault. Hey, it’s my blog and I’m not using it to make connections.

That isn’t to say it’s completely wrong to voice a complaint on your blog. Just do it with sensitivity to the blog’s purpose. Remember that there are a lot of agents out here with us and they might not like seeing criticisms of their policies. Say you worked in advertising and you had a blog to connect with other industry professionals. You wouldn’t start bashing their companies when a deal fell through, would you? No. Because it would be professional suicide. As awesome as writing and blogging is, it is a profession, too. Unless you want to stay at amateur status, you can’t rip on people. A legitimate complaint is different, but even then it could turn companies off from working with you. That may not seem fair, but everyone is uneasy with working with someone who might go to the internet and complain about them.

Look at this situation that Paul Joseph brought up (and especially read the two articles he links to). A teacher’s personal blog was found by her students and her venting did not go over well with the parents. On one hand, it’s her blog, she didn’t post details and the people are really being oversensitive. On the other hand, it upset--and I can’t blame them for this--the students she’s supposed to be teaching.

I’m all for freedom of speech, but with that comes with a legitimate factor: you have to be prepared to deal with the consequences. Freedom of speech does not mean freedom from repercussions. It means freedom from interference. I don’t like that the teacher may be fired but that’s the thing about the digital age. Anything you post is really hard to eradicate. That’s why people suggest you don’t post drunken pictures of yourself on Facebook. Perspective employers can access them. 

In the end, all of this is a murky issue. The answer to "how much is too much?" is not easy to get to and requires constant thought, reevaluation, and sensitivity. It’s possible that in ten years, people will be far more accepting of annoyed blog posts. It’s also possible they’ll put in a "no blogging" clause in employee contracts. 

Blog with care. The internet is not as consequence free as it seems.