1. Black Rainbow

[viagra]

Tuesday, March 11th-10:43 a.m.

1,392 words. Approximate reading time: 6 minutes, 56 seconds.

“You can’t be serious with this,” Elaina said as she walked into her editor-in-chief’s office, holding up a few sheets of paper covered in text. Howard, the editor-in-chief, looked up from his computer at Elaina with an exasperated facial expression, and

Comments

[drippedonpaper]

I like your quote about ‘A person is smart; people are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals and you know it.’ It is true that, too often, other viewpoints can bring out the worst in us. I guess the best we can do is try to be mindful to see to bring a more solution based perspective when we are part of groups ourselves

[viagra]

Thank you! The quote is from "Men In Black" so I can't take credit for it, but I do love that quote. :-)

This is going to be part of an overall world that I'm planning on playing with for the duration of the mini-season. I also don't think that what's happening in my story is going to necessarily happen in real life (or at least, I certainly hope not, because that's awful), but I'm always thinking about a lot of divisive rhetoric that's going on lately where it often feels like people have forgotten the humanity of other people, and it led me to thinking about how far things possibly could go if enough people just went along with those ideas.

[baxaphobia]

As much as I'm in support of the vaccine I'm scared to think there are many who would support people not having basic rights because they think differently. Very thought provoking. Great entry!

[viagra]

It's strange to me how easily something can get politicized, and with politics being very much like team sports, especially here in the US, it seems like it's very easy to dehumanize "the other side," especially if you're caught in a social media echo chamber (I think we're all guilty of creating echo chambers in life to some degree, but I think it's much easier on social media and with the relatively anonymity of the internet to think that actual real human beings are little more than letters on a screen).

Thank you for your kind words! Hopefully I'm able to continue fleshing out this world in an interesting and exciting way. :)

[baxaphobia]

I've backed off social media a great deal over the past couple of years. I only post puppy pictures and have trimmed my "friends" list significantly. It's just not worth the stress and unproductive use of time. I don't want relationships to just be text on the screen (or in my case the synthesized voice in my ears). Good luck this season and I look forward to more entries from you!

[adoptedwriter]

Very timely and makes ya think! Nice commentary on the TV media.

[viagra]

Thank you! When I was writing this, I wanted to try and make things morally ambiguous. To be clear, I'm not in favor of censorship in any form, but what's happening in the story isn't so much censorship as it is softening a blow. Is Howard right? Would the general public flip out and start food riots if the media explicitly told them, "Hey you should be worried about this?" Maybe, maybe not. I think we all remember how difficult it was to find toilet paper for a while because a few people went overboard and then created a snowball effect. If people hear, "Grocery stores are low on food," they might think rationally to themselves that they should go ahead and stock up before everyone else gets there... but lots of people are thinking the same thing

[bleodswean]

VERY well written, S! It's uncomfortable and really far too relatable today. Why are we so so so intent on marginalizing one another?

Have you seen Don't Look Up?!

[viagra]

Thank you :)

It is easier than ever, I think, to marginalize other people and I think the media can play a big role in that. It's almost worse when there's a halfway decent justification to point to.

I haven't seen that yet, no - I don't have Netflix anymore but there's a lot of stuff on there I'd like to watch so I may have to sign back up for a month! :)

[beautyofgrey]

A nice dark take, I love that you told it from a journalist's perspective.

As relates to current events - I'm someone who is mandated to be inoculated. I was already pro-inoculation, so it didn't phase me much, but getting the email "anyone not vaccinated or with an approved exemption after this date could be terminated" was still kind of a weird moment. On the alternative side, I was listening to a podcast about the success of China's aggressive "Zero Case Policy" and all of the testing, contact tracing, vaccine requirements, etc. that have led them to keep cases low and people having, uh, "normal" lives, and felt some kind of way about that as opposed to what has played out in the U.S. Of course, we distrust authority so much here, I'm not sure anything would have been successful at convincing the populace beyond a more deadly and even more contagious virus.

[viagra]

Thank you! :)

And yes, I think that distrust of authority is a big thing here - and not necessarily for no good reason, given some of the stuff our government has done. There's also that almost uniquely American love of freedom and personal autonomy at all costs. I don't know that things would ever have been able to really play out differently at all here!