It absolutely blows my mind that people will consider stop listening to a show, watching a TV, show or reading a journal because they so earnestly disagree with something.
Let me be very clear about this.
Bad Voltage is four dudes talking into a microphone. We don’t tell people what to think, we don’t pretend to be experts, and we don’t advocate our listeners pursue particular courses of action. We have never presented ourselves as an authority…quite the opposite…in many cases emphasise we don’t know all that much about a topic.
We are four guys with four different opinions and the fun in Bad Voltage is the cocktail of this different perspectives and how they intermingle.
So Bryan has a viewpoint you radically disagree with. So what? What is actually going to change with him sharing it on a podcast? Do you think that some impressionable person is going to listen to the incoherent ramblings of Bryan Lunduke and then suddenly stop vaccinating their children?
Maybe some people will do that, but if they are stupid enough to only listen to one person’s view on a podcast and then act on it without performing their own research and forming their own opinion…well, I suspect we have survival of the fittest and these people ain’t gonna survive that long. They will eventually turn into this person eating a block of cheese:
People, stop taking Bad Voltage so bloody seriously.
We are an entertainment podcast about things we are interested in. We relish discussing topics that involve us disagreeing with each other.
Just because we say it, doesn’t mean it is fact, fiction, or anywhere in-between. It means that it is our personal opinions and perspectives.
Personal opinions. Personal opinions. PERSONAL opinions.
I rabidly disagree with @bryanlunduke, and I know that @sil disagrees with him even more-so. Irrespective though, we are united in that Bryan has the right to share any view he has on the show, so long as it is presented respectfully. He did precisely that on the show. I think his reasoning is total bollocks, but I also think that anyone with half a brain will see that his reasoning is bollocks and subsequently brand his views as bobbins.
When we switch off to stop hearing things we don’t like, that gets us into a dangerous place. We should encourage a world and an environment where we can talk about anything and have a conversation with the right to think whatever we think at the end of it.
As an example, I fucking hate guns, but I love hearing gun nuts rationalizing why they think guns are good and important. I can’t stand religious zealotry, but I love to hear deeply religious people try to explain their views to me. While after these conversations I invariably come away thinking my original view, in all of those cases I always learn something from those conversations…it may be more material to bolster my view…but I always learn something.
It is good to have our views and perspectives challenged. To threaten to switch off because you were challenged is…frankly…in my personal opinion…lame.
Where it gets dangerous is that @Flamekebab may stop listening to Bad Voltage because of vaccines. Other people may threaten to stop listening if we discuss Mir (as it is seen as fragmenting and destroying the Linux world). Some people may threaten to stop listening when I talk about how I use the evil proprietary Cubase to mix the show. Some may threaten to stop listening if we talk about software patents. Everyone draws their line in a different place, and one person’s vaccinations is another person’s proprietary software.
We are not going to stop covering complex or controversial viewpoints because of this risk. If we did, it would neuter the show, it would compromise our perspectives, and the overall product would suffer.
If that means that some of you stop listening, well, I am sorry to hear that. I would suggest instead though that you just reject the viewpoints you disagree with, or, if you prefer, skip a segment.
Sorry for the rant, but come on people, let’s get a hold of ourselves.