The Ranting Room

Following a suggestion on the social media platform known as Facebook to "Meet the woman whose photo is making liberal heads explode all across the Internet, and enjoy all the wonderful reasons they hate it so", I was disappointed to find that as a "liberal" my head not only failed to explode, my ire was not piqued and my blood refused to boil. I also find that I harbour no ill-feelings towards this person, Holly Fisher (who now goes by the moniker of Holly Hobby Lobby), nor do I hate her or have any desire to shower her in verbal abuse or condemnation. Also any resulting notion that I was perhaps not as "liberal" as I thought I was was notably missing from my reaction too and as such it did not cause me to question my own beliefs and opinions or change my view of those that hold opposing beliefs or opinions. That both Chick-Fill-A and Hobby Lobby is for all practical purposes unknown outside of the insular world of the Untied States is immaterial, those of us in the rest of the World (ie "All Across The Internet") do know the back-story here and the while distance from which we view this may not afford us the same perspective as those who invited us to meet Mrs Fisher, or of those whose heads did metaphorically explode (or implode), it does mean we understand the underlying issue and can have an opinion on it.

Of course the photograph was taken and disseminated purposely to provoke a reaction, (the glee in the accompanying tag for supporters to "enjoy all the wonderful reasons" is evidence of that), it was trolling for all those negative reactions and it duly got them: 'Quelle surprise' - or more accurately - 'Quelle désappointement'. Any indignation from either side is a tad hollow and disingenuous.

What the photograph and the viral reaction/counter-reaction it has created demonstrates is not the intended message, but the stupidity of those that use The Internet, regardless of their politics, religion or philosophy. Not just in those who felt the overwhelming need to vent their spleen and post a stream of bile in reaction to it or in support of it, but in those who felt the equally overwhelming need share it All Across The Internet. 

It is Social Network Emotional Blackmail. At its lowest level it's insidious and it's not nice. 

It has been criticised as an up-market wet T-Shirt contest but frankly from what I've seen that's more wishful thinking than any reality. If watching over-weight men running around a lawn squealing like teenage girls who've seen spider gets you off then go for it.

The ALSA funds stem-cell research - I make no moral judgement on that but some people do. If the message had been "pour a bucket of ice water over your head to raise money for stem-cell research" I suspect considerably fewer people would have participated and certainly none of the c-list celebrities eager for free publicity would have associated themselves with it quite so eagerly. 

The research the ALSA funds inevitably involves vivisection, animal experimentation and animal testing, again I make no moral judgement here, it is impossible to research motor neuron diseases without having a functioning nervous system to experiment on. It is an unpleasant reality for some people but a reality just the same. Pamela Anderson has famously declined the challenge on these grounds and good for her. Animal rights supporter Ricky Gervais was criticised for not taking the challenge, then criticised again when he did - damned if you do and damned if you don't.

The ALSA has countered both these claims by stating that donors can stipulate that their money is not to be used for either of these areas of research but that is an empty promise, if you pay money into a central fund that spends 10% of that on stem-cell research and animal experimentation then 10% of every donation is used for that purpose, it is impossible for it not to. By the same logic it is impossible to donate money to a large charity without paying for the administration costs involved in running it, this includes the salaries of the directors and CEOs of these charities some of whom are paid comparable salaries to the directors and CEOs of any large corporation. However, the major portion of the funds raised go to the care of people suffering from this horrible disease, the importance of this cannot be stressed enough.

Professor Stephen Hawking has suffered with ALS/MND for the past 51 years, I doubt that any able-bodied person can fully comprehend the challenges facing ALS/MND sufferers and the challenges their carers face every day. He supports the Ice Bucket Challenge, he was unable to partake of the challenge because of his health so his children took the challenge for him.