Bear with me, and I promise to keep this short and sweet:
1. It's really not important to the site. I know there are people who were affected in real life, and for the two or three people this affects, you can ignore the rest of this statement. But for the rest of us, it only has as much power over you as you give it.
2. Not every mystery is going to be solved, no matter how much time and energy people devote to it. It will devour you, if you let it.
3. There have been, are, and will continue to be fake posters on this site. This is the consequence of a pseudonymous blog, and it's the price of protecting your own identity. We have the full range of total hoaxes, people with one toe in fact and a lot of hyperbole, people who are mostly who they say they are but semi-fictionalize some of the details, etc. This includes users you like and trust already.
4. The only thing that matters is how you choose to interact with other users here. Be judicious, not cynical. You're going to fall for fictions from time to time, and that's okay. But you can only fall as hard as you allow yourself, so refer back to point 1 about "power".
5. The comments in last night's diary proved that, far from learning anything from the Nephew debacle, we'll continue to make the same mistakes. Again: be judicious, and give other users space to exercise their judiciousness, too.
6. Dragging it out just feeds the fire, and that includes this diary... So I'm going to talk about a few other things that are more important, like...
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Hey, remember that guy I told you about last week, "The most important coming out story of the year"? The big question was how and whether his statement about same-sex experiences was going to hurt his career. And the preliminary results are in.... Ocean has sold out his entire upcoming tour, will likely debut at #2 on the Billboard Charts, has garnered ridiculously good reviews (like 1, 2, and especially 3) and accolades from his peers (like 1, 2, 3, 4).
It's clear from social media that many people have rejected Ocean in disgust because of his sexuality... It's also clear that Ocean won the week without them, and is on his way to becoming artist of the year. If you haven't seen it yet, check out his television debut on Fallon, where he sings about thwarted same-sex love, with backing from The Roots: for my money, the most breathtaking performance you're likely to see this year. Just... wow.
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You know what else I love? Action diaries. Talk is cheap, and with so much potential for action in this community, I'd love to focus more on what we can do rather than just what we can say.
gerard w has a solid action diary that slipped by earlier today. Not content with beating up on its LGBT community in every corner that's legally permissible (and some that aren't), Louisiana politicians are not turning their focus to higher education, because public universities actually teach things about LGBT families to people who might find this relevant, like students in education, sociology, and public health. They're pressuring the University of Louisiana, Lafayette to drop this program entirely. You know what to do, just remember to be polite and supportive to the university president, because they're on our side.
Are you on board with Darcy Burner in WA-1? If so, teacherken's trying to whip up support in response to an insinuating article by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Burner's campaign lives on small donations, and if you are or want to be a supporter, this would be a good time to jump in.
Sometimes action is just about spreading the word, and Lefty Coaster posted a good reminder that the data in this video speaks for itself. Pass it on. It needs to be seen.
update: dizzydean adds another below:
Among the "more important" things, Kathleen Kane is the Democrat running for PA AG...she's gone public about wanting to investigate Gov. Corbett's handling of the Sandusky mess. Her very strong argument is that he dragged his feet because he did not want to stir the pot while making plans to run for gov.
Her campaign website:
http://www.kathleengkane.com/
This will be an exceptionally important race, given the nonsense in PA over a host of GOP positions voter ID, medicaid rolls being purged, etc.).
update 2: courtesy of Cedwyn,
another set of good, recent action diaries:
Join a Senate battle in FL, IN, NM, MA, MO, MT, NE, NV, ND, OH, VA, WI...
Wisconsin Assembly 2012: More and Better Democrats
Damn the Meta! Full Speed Ahead to November
update 3:
and another from FogCityJohn:
Help anotherdemocrat meet her fundraising goal for AIDS Walk Austin.
http://www.dailykos.com/... ("AIDS Walk Austin: my first 2012 diary")
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This is still a heckuva community. Can we focus on the things that make it a great community, and try to move past the things that bring out the ugly side from time to time?