Magic Valley Rants and Raves is as Useful as Warts and Pimples

The guys I work with regularly mine the rants and raves pages on social media for stories.  I occasionally see gripes in my Facebook feed.  First, it can be very entertaining.  Many people are knowledgeable about what they don’t know, and unfortunately, they often pay a price.  The usual Internet abuse always crosses the line when it comes to polite and civil behavior.  Most people wouldn’t talk that way to other people in the produce aisle at the grocery store.  It’s like the people who rage behind the wheel of a car, but at the store, they’re gracious when someone with another cart cuts them off.

I Believe They Call it Schadenfreude

But there are times when I enjoy seeing someone on a rant get shut down.  Online chatter is an extension of café conversation.  I used to visit my mom when she was still among the living, and would sometimes join her for breakfast with her friends.  A couple of memories are solid.  One morning, they were chattering away about a story that had happened 150 miles away, and they had all the facts wrong.  Finally, I had had enough.  They didn’t like it when I offered a correction, even when I told them I had been there.  That I had been one of the reporters on scene, witnessed much of the event, and then spent the next two days talking about it on live TV.  It didn’t matter to them.  They weren’t going to let eyewitness testimony get in the way.

Nothing Like Getting the Facts from the Uninformed

If Mabel heard it from Irma, who heard it from Dottie, that was the truth.  Rants and Raves is a lot like that, and I guess there’s some appeal if you’re below a 4th-grade reading level.  But you shouldn’t accept it as gospel.  I liken it to the Coast to Coast radio program.  Fun, but not much else.