When I was a younger woman, I did some astonishingly silly things at times. At age twenty, I streaked at a party (it wasn't just me; it was a kind of a group streak). I have performed karaoke. Why is that silly, you might ask. My answer is this: have you ever heard me sing? It's pretty bad. The good thing about being the age I am now is that I did my silly things prior to the commonplace practise of filming and uploading to social media of the asinine things people do. So many of my contemporaries would be breathing a sigh of relief. But people my age and older still do the stupidest things imagineable, and then find their ill-considered antics have become a viral Internet hit (or miss). And yes, I'm talking about that woman who sprayed forth racist bile and filth on the Sydney to Central Coast train, mocking an Asian woman's appearance, calling her 'gook', saying the Caucasian gentleman could only score a 'gook'. Yes, I know you were pissed off about something. Is this any reason to carry on like an utter she-tool? Where in your twisted mind did you think it was Wildean repartee to spew this unadulerated, vile lunacy? Truly, who the fuck uses words like 'gook' these days? Except maybe for the writers on 'Til Death Us Do Part', which is a show sadly no more and brilliantly satirised racist and bigoted preconceptions in its anti-hero, Alf Garnett. If you haven't already, check out the movie version of the series, and the scene where his daughter Rita is having her wedding reception, and he drunkenly pats a coloured woman on the shoulder. She jokingly tells him her skin colour will rub off. When he realises she's pulling his leg, he celebrates his new-found broadmindedness by staggering around the party, telling everyone, 'The coon's got a sense of 'umour!' It's deliciously cringe-worthy.
But acting like a vicious troll will do you know favours. Good luck to this woman with any future job hunting. I think someone I kind of 'know' is having such trouble. I've seen on a local site a guy complaining how hard it is to find a job when aged over fifty. His bleat is not without merit. However, I have seen how this guy acts in the local FB thread, and his behaviour is beyond obnoxious. He fires off vicious, illiterate missives at people whether he knows them or not (I have been on the receiving end of one of his useless, misinformed sprays). Now, even had I not received his online abuse, I would still not hire him on the basis of his behaviour to others in the community forums. Either this guy is a tool to the max, or he is a cowardly piece of dung hiding behind a keyboard. Neither of which I would like to add to the personnel of any company for which I was recruiting.
In a few weeks, I am to give a talk to some mature age students about the noble art of the written word. My notes all went sailing in the Anzac Day flood, so I will take myself to the library tomorrow and get some new ones prepared.
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