Tyler Boydston
Managing Editor
Toronto Mayor Rob Ford has caused a firestorm of hilarious and stupid situations over the past few weeks.
After he was first caught smoking crack, many allegations came out: from solicitation to rampant alcoholism to sexual harassment, Ford has given the late night talk show hosts a million and one things to talk about. So now, here are my two cents: why should we all be talking about it?
How many good politicians are there in the world? There are probably quite a few, but in the news we rarely ever focus on them. What we like to focus on instead are the negatives. Rob Ford is to politics what Charlie Sheen is to Hollywood, so all of us in North America are sitting on the edge of our seats to see just what he will do next.’
We as a society love train wrecks. After all, why is Miley Cyrus so popular now? How many of her songs can I name? I can tell you about “Wrecking Ball” because she was naked in the music video, but that’s pretty much the only reason I remember it. I remember her performance at the VMAs this year because, well…reasons. However, her musical prowess has not been a factor in any of the reasons for me remembering her at this point.
Why in the world are we like this?
Like I said, we love train wrecks. We like to look at what’s the most entertaining rather than what’s the most educational and informative. Think about how many people watch the first few episodes of “American Idol” to see the competitors who are awful singers and then stop watching once the talented musicians are all that’s left.
This, in my opinion, is what is wrong with my generation.
Let’s look real quickly at what the top stories are on Google News.
The top story is the stabbing of Virginia senator Creigh Deeds. This story is important to know.
Just below is a story with the headline: “New allegation made against Zimmerman in court,” regarding George Zimmerman. This story is not so important for us to know as a society.
The 150th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address is the third story. Sadly, just below that is a story about Kim Kardashian and Kanye West in a music video where they “get hot and heavy,” according to the headline that Google provided.
So, there are our top stories for the day of Nov. 19, 2013.
Let’s forget about Iran’s embassy in Beirut being attacked, because apparently not as many people want to read about that. No, let’s talk about stuff that really matters, because Rob Ford tackled someone at a city council meeting, and that’s just hilarious to watch.
People used to be informed. The bright people of our world still are, and they make sure they read about serious news, but what saddens me is that we’re all so immersed in gossip columns and funny clips of people’s stupid actions that we’ve lost our intelligence; we’ve lost our sense of decency.
We don’t focus on what is important; society as a whole can be better.
Do as I say and not as I do, because I just watched a lot of silly cat videos. I, too, am trying to get better about being informed, but we all have to start somewhere. I start by writing this.