I will post the second "desire" installment today, but I wanted to alert everyone to someone I found on BBC news.
The story is that somebody broke into a park in Manchester and beheaded eighteen birds, speared a frog, poisoned all the fish in a lake, and smashed a load of windows. It's pretty sickening the kind of disregard these people apparently had for non-human life. But that's not what I'm going to angstily blog about.
I'm angstily blogging because if you scroll down to the external links bit in the story, you will find that the headline from the Manchester Evening News reads "yobs behead birds (etc)". Similarly, the Metro declares the crime was committed by "thugs". As if the police have already found evidence that the crime was committed by late teenage/young adult males.
What makes journalists think they can accuse a particular demographic group of a crime without even any suspects whatsoever? Is this how society is now; that any act of vandalism or casual cruelty is instantly put down to teenage males?
You probably think I'm overreacting. And to be honest, you're probably right. It just frustrates me that we are this judgmental, and that media consumers are willing to let presumptiousness like this slide. Something to work on, I feel...
The story is that somebody broke into a park in Manchester and beheaded eighteen birds, speared a frog, poisoned all the fish in a lake, and smashed a load of windows. It's pretty sickening the kind of disregard these people apparently had for non-human life. But that's not what I'm going to angstily blog about.
I'm angstily blogging because if you scroll down to the external links bit in the story, you will find that the headline from the Manchester Evening News reads "yobs behead birds (etc)". Similarly, the Metro declares the crime was committed by "thugs". As if the police have already found evidence that the crime was committed by late teenage/young adult males.
What makes journalists think they can accuse a particular demographic group of a crime without even any suspects whatsoever? Is this how society is now; that any act of vandalism or casual cruelty is instantly put down to teenage males?
You probably think I'm overreacting. And to be honest, you're probably right. It just frustrates me that we are this judgmental, and that media consumers are willing to let presumptiousness like this slide. Something to work on, I feel...
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