The Blame Game

I've been avidly reading blogs for a number of years.

At first those blogs were to be found outside conventional journalism. Now all but the most traditional news-sheets appear in an alternate online or an online-only form where the option to comment is standard. This replicates the blogging practice of subscribers responding to what they read without the brutal sieve of Letters to the Editor. Online newspaper 'Comments' are getting more lively as more and more readers realize that, when a piece they see gets their goat or tickles their fancy, if they take fingers-to-keyboard what they write will get published. Where there's an option for other readers to comment on those comments, things can get especially interesting.

My preference is to get most of my daily diet of news-and-views from text, both print and online. Print when at breakfast since spilled coffee or dripped marmalade is a frequent outcome of aging fingers. Online when later in the day I'm at a keyboard. Online my journey through 'Comments' and 'Replies' can be an unexpectedly chilling ride, and today proves such. Underneath a dish of muesli (how else would you expect an 60-something to start his day?) I read about: "ReGeneration: A rallying cry for apathetic teens" and later at my computer I travel down its comment tree.

This newspaper article is about a US documentary showing at a kids film festival in Toronto. In it the commentator sees hope for today's youth. In contrast the long tail of comments-and-replies get straight into who's really to blame for youthful feelings of hopelessness. I groan as we Boomers are an obvious target. Our first abuser is a self-declared '70 plus' (hiding his identity as 'tsunami11'!). As it's usually Gen X that gives us stick, I'm intrigued and read on: "..the(ir) parents are from the 60's and clueless about most things except dancing with the stars and other crap". Ouch!