Not “Care-In” to Change my Name
Johnny-on-the-Spot … by John Foster …
Social media has empowered an awful lot of people to believe their opinions more than matter.
Toss in a reading audience where facts or truth aren’t important and you have the perfect scenario for daily “brush fires” that sweep the modern media landscape.
There’s no such thing as “fire prevention” on-line.
It’s just a whole lot of pieces of lint and paper that a dropped match sets ablaze constantly.
I only monitor today’s internet for the clever and funny stuff.
I do a whole lot of head-shaking when I see folks trying to conduct meaningful discussions there.
I think it’s sorta like raking leaves in a hurricane.
This actually started with Email.
Folks who normally wouldn’t say “Crap!” to your face, will have a full-blown “vowel movement” on-line.
Plus, these types seem to be hyper-sensitive to anything remotely critical of their opinions.
Even jokingly.
Some of the world’s best comedians would starve to death today because “society” would never stand for than “un-woke” stuff.
This is when I like to defer to my all-time famous quote.
“Humor plays close to the big hot fire which is truth”.
E.B. White’s full quote reads, “Humor plays close to the big hot fire which is truth, and the reader feels the heat.”
Lest you think Elwin Brooks White was some sort of fierce radical, he penned “Stuart Little” and “Charlotte’s Web”.
But Mr. White’s quote, to me, points to the real problem in America.
We’ve lost our sense of humor.
As soon as I say that, some will chime in with, “It’s all so mean-spirited today.”
I grew up with Don Rickles, Jack E. Leonard,. Redd Foxx, George Carlin and so many others who made us laugh at the absurdities of our beliefs and feelings.
Heck, “Blazing Saddles” is one of my favorite movies!
Mean-spirited?
Perhaps.
Maybe satirical?
Satire is a genre in which exaggeration, irony, humor or ridicule are used to criticize and expose flaws in human nature and behavior.
That’s why I chuckled at the recent story of an Ohio women who is going to court to legally change or name from “Karen” to “Kat”.
Of course “Karen” has become synonymous on social sites with “entitled white privilege and racism”.
According to TikToc, Snapchat and Facebook, a “a selfish woman, prone to rants who demands others behave as she sees fit” is a “Karen”, “more often to be a middle-aged white woman, mean, borderline evil and the butt of many jokes”.
The Urban Dictionary defines a “Karen” as a “blonde woman who strives to make the lives of others miserable, especially minimum wage workers, and only feels anger and will not rest until her wrtath is felt across the entire Big Lots, Walmart, Target, etc.”
There are currently about one and one-half million women named Karen in the U.S.
As recently as 1965, birth records said Karen was the 3rd most-popular name for girls.
By 2021, Karen fell out of the top 1,000 names for the first time in almost a century.
In 2022, only one baby girl born in the U>K> was named Karen.
Why?
Because we allowed a humorless bunch of Cheeto-eating basement dwellers to do so.
Women named Karen have been changing their name while a sociology professor says “names are a key part of our identity”.
It’s the first thing your parents give you.
Women changing their names is nothing new.
When it’s done for the right reason.
Someone thought Norma Jean would be a better name foir Marilyn Monroe./
Audrey Hepburn used to be Edda.
Another “Audrey” took her middle name “Faith”.
Ever hear of Faith Hill?
Heck, even Reece Witherspoon used to be Laura.
Did I consider a name change when folks used to say “john” in reference to the bathroom, no./
I’d remember I was the 3rd in a line of “Johns” in our family.
I was proud of that name even if some thought I belonged in the bathroom.
So if someone wants to come after me on social media because of my name, trust me.
It will take more than you making fun of my name to make me change it.
Karen’s.
Keep your name.
When you hear or read something on social media, just flush it.
Down the john if you’d like.