The Massive Attack of Shabbiness

You may be wondering why I have taken up space on this blog to address the issue of Ellen DeGeneres and Iggy. Firstly, because I am an animal parent. I have 6 animals in my home that are loved, cared for, and respected. It pisses me off when anybody abuses, mistreats, or otherwise disrespects animals, or the people who work with them. This is especially so when the offender is a rich, spoiled, out of touch celebrity who lies and destroys lives without regard or remorse. Secondly I mention her because this incident is yet another skirmish in what I refer to as The Massive Attack of Shabbiness.

Our world is full of crap. It's manufactured in China. It's broadcast on TV, radio, the internet. Our world is run by crap leaders passing crap laws to make our lives filled with more crap, while people around the world are exploited and live in crap. It's a major crap cycle. It's shabby.

Let's look at manufactured goods. The majority of crap you find in stores isn't made in this country. It's made in China, or Bangladesh, or Indonesia, or Mexico, or somewhere and somefuck. Now I don't begrudge the workers in these countries trying to make a living. We all need to eat. Of course in a lot of these places the wages a lot of these people earn doesn't allow them to eat anyway. What bothers me is that, aside from the fact that most of these workers are making shit for wages, the quality of the products is so fucking lame. Let's take China for instance. Shit coming out of China is so shabby that they executed their Head Dude in Charge of the Stuff that We Make (don't quote me on the title, I'm not really good at translating Chinese). Not that anything's changed at all. China still makes the best shabby crap available on the open market today.

But even shit that's not made in China blows ass. How about that amazing LCD television you just bought. Here's two words your sales rep probably didn't utter while he/she sold you on it: pixel burnout. Know what that is? It's when the little dots that help create your picture stop functioning and you have little black dots all over your screen. My sales rep at Big Electronics Store mentioned it to me and blew a sale (not that I could really have afforded the television, but I wasn't going to tell him that). I think they sent him to work their Easter Island branch after that.

So much of our world is shabby that you may as well say that it's all shabby. That way, when you find something that's not shabby you'll feel like you just won the lottery.

So when Hollywood stars who tout themselves as animal lovers turn out to be discarding animals because the little beasties don't cut the mustard, and then destroy the lives of the people who saved the animal's life in the first place because said stars have turned into spoiled little babies who are completely walled off from the real world by their entourage, or an organization like PETA euthanizes dogs and cats because they think they're better off dead than living in a loving home with people, am I surprised? Am I shocked and stunned? No. Why? Because this is just another wave in the Massive Attack of Shabbiness.

So now you must decide on whose side will you fight. It's easy to be shabby. But how do you fight The Massive Attack of Shabbiness, if this is the side you choose? It's easy. Be Unshabby. Don't compromise your morals. Be fair. Don't rip people off. Don't sell people things they don't need. Tip generously when you can. Help an old lady cross the street, and if you try and she jams an umbrella up your a-hole then just smile though the pain and say, "Thanks crazy old lady." Don't lie to your kids. If you're a teacher don't lie to your students (that's how I ended up needing a fucking blog to vent my negative energy in the first place). And if someone tries to be shabby to you don't take it. Demand unshabbiness. Make the concessionaire at the movie theatre wash their hands before they sneeze on your popcorn. Call people out on their lies and bullshit.  

Only you can prevent forest fires. Only you.