Craigslist hoax: Moral decay at it’s finest.
craigslist
While checking my email this morning I came across a news article that explained that someone had gone onto craigslist.org, placed a classified indicating that he had to quickly leave the country and that all of the stuff on his property was up for grabs; whoever wants it could go and get it. The classified went off like gang busters and everyone was out taking what they could, the only problem is that the classified wasn’t put out by the owner of the property. It was a hoax, and the true owner had no idea until he was coming home and seeing people driving down the road with his property, and then seeing even more people actually on his property taking stuff. Sounds too crazy to be true, eh?
Well, here is the actual news story to this tasty little nugget of moral putrefaction.
It is astounding the level of moral decay that humans can allow themselves to get to, and then to come up with twisted and ridiculous logic to convince themselves that it isn’t a bad thing either. In this situation the real owner of the property had started to stop people and tell them that what they are doing is wrong, that he never placed the classified, and therefore they are stealing his property. And what are the responses he gets: “They showed me the Craigslist printout and told me they had the right to do what they did…They honestly thought that because it appeared on the Internet it was true.”
Classic! As soon as I read that I automatically thought of a great Milhouse quote: “Jeez…if it’s in a book, it’s gotta be true!” (Episode 2F07).
It’s a perfect match because that is exactly how these troglodytes were thinking: “I don’t care if you are the actual owner of the property that I have in my hand, and I don’t care if you are telling me that I am not allowed to steal it from you, the fact that it was posted on the internet trumps every logically solid and firmly grounded proof of reality and existence staring right at me and speaking to me at this moment…..this piece of paper with the craigslist classified printed on it is all the proof that I need that you my friend are not the true owner of this property…..now please get out of the way as I have a weed whacker that I need to load into the back of my pickup truck. Actually, make yourself useful bud and grab the other end of this thing and help me lift into the back.” (Sorry, got a bit carried away there).
Now, I realize there may be a great deal more to this story than what is on the surface. Perhaps the owner really is a bad guy whose done horrible things to people which has brought on this whole sordid situation. Who knows? My concern is the simple fact that when people were confronted by the true owner of the property, explained of the situation, and yet still continued to engage in theft without any concerns or worries in the world. “I don’t care if you are telling me to stop, I’m going to keep doing it because I want to!” That to me is a problem.
Empathy: Identification with and understanding of another’s situation, feelings, and motives. (Dictionary.com)
Empathy was clearly something lacking in this entire fiasco. Sad, sad, sad.
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March 25, 2008 by Jonesy in Musings | No Comments »
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craigslist
While checking my email this morning I came across a news article that explained that someone had gone onto craigslist.org, placed a classified indicating that he had to quickly leave the country and that all of the stuff on his property was up for grabs; whoever wants it could go and get it. The classified went off like gang busters and everyone was out taking what they could, the only problem is that the classified wasn’t put out by the owner of the property. It was a hoax, and the true owner had no idea until he was coming home and seeing people driving down the road with his property, and then seeing even more people actually on his property taking stuff. Sounds too crazy to be true, eh?
Well, here is the actual news story to this tasty little nugget of moral putrefaction.
It is astounding the level of moral decay that humans can allow themselves to get to, and then to come up with twisted and ridiculous logic to convince themselves that it isn’t a bad thing either. In this situation the real owner of the property had started to stop people and tell them that what they are doing is wrong, that he never placed the classified, and therefore they are stealing his property. And what are the responses he gets: “They showed me the Craigslist printout and told me they had the right to do what they did…They honestly thought that because it appeared on the Internet it was true.”
Classic! As soon as I read that I automatically thought of a great Milhouse quote: “Jeez…if it’s in a book, it’s gotta be true!” (Episode 2F07).
It’s a perfect match because that is exactly how these troglodytes were thinking: “I don’t care if you are the actual owner of the property that I have in my hand, and I don’t care if you are telling me that I am not allowed to steal it from you, the fact that it was posted on the internet trumps every logically solid and firmly grounded proof of reality and existence staring right at me and speaking to me at this moment…..this piece of paper with the craigslist classified printed on it is all the proof that I need that you my friend are not the true owner of this property…..now please get out of the way as I have a weed whacker that I need to load into the back of my pickup truck. Actually, make yourself useful bud and grab the other end of this thing and help me lift into the back.” (Sorry, got a bit carried away there).
Now, I realize there may be a great deal more to this story than what is on the surface. Perhaps the owner really is a bad guy whose done horrible things to people which has brought on this whole sordid situation. Who knows? My concern is the simple fact that when people were confronted by the true owner of the property, explained of the situation, and yet still continued to engage in theft without any concerns or worries in the world. “I don’t care if you are telling me to stop, I’m going to keep doing it because I want to!” That to me is a problem.
Empathy: Identification with and understanding of another’s situation, feelings, and motives. (Dictionary.com)
Empathy was clearly something lacking in this entire fiasco. Sad, sad, sad.
No related posts.
March 25, 2008 by Jonesy in Musings | No Comments »
