Same blog, different class, different content. This is a class-based blog that is utilized for examining content that is very much a theoretical exploration of social media, pop culture, all the ‘ism’s’, and the how's and why's of all of this interconnectedness in the way of exploring what makes our communication what it is. This transition in blog content is thanks to COMM 378 Advanced Vocational Speaking which acts as a pre-senior thesis prep course. We all must die eventually, this may just be how I go; via theoretical exhaustion. So let us begin.
Twitter for me has become a source of intellectual stimulation in a more user-friendly, relaxed setting with the occasional troll or fascist nazi...well there actually seems to be a lot of those lately. It is a space where I go to find the latest news, whether that be local or global, and am most interested in how this content is being dealt with by those that I follow, and the response that they receive from others due to their opinions and explanations.
This is not so much a matter of attempted mimicry in how to go about processing social media and being able to respond to it in a way that is progressive and just, but a chance to watch this immense amount of movement shrink and swell by the second from your usually sedentary position behind a screen. It is fascinating on that level at least. This is also a nod to the increase need for appropriate and effective rhetoric use via social media in the era of a social media President who cannot seem to keep his hands off of the keyboard at those most horrific of times, in the most skin curling of ways. Thats my lesson for today, I guess, but we all already knew this. I digress.
So the point of this first blog post starts on Twitter for me. One of the intellectual voices that I follow on Twitter is Tauriq Moosa. He does not have a Wikipedia page that I could find in order to give you the following info, which is interesting to me, but you can find all you need to know on his blog or bio for the blogging organization he now works for, Big Think. He is based in Cape Town, South Africa, has a degree in Applied Ethics, and he debated religion with Archbishop Desmond Tutu in the BBC documentary, the Tutu Talks, which is cool, and has been featured on local radio shows. He also is a comic book reader and writer. It seems fitting. For this assignment we were asked to analyze the content of a blogger whose presence is relevant to the field we would like to enter into. I think the words and criticisms of an ethicist are relevant regardless of the field I enter into. The more broad topics that he represents as as writer is practical ethics, which goes on to focus on subjects like free expression, killing, sex, and religion in public life.
Moosa is automatically an intriguing presence for me because he offers a lot of contradiction in what he writes and purposefully delves into topics that are controversial with the intent to theorize and explore. Most obviously, his focus is on ethics and atheism when you reach his blog.
The cliche view of atheism is that those who practice or identify with this stance are without moral code and are lost sheep who have fallen to the tailed and horned one dancing in hell. What may not be understood is that an atheist can still be a human being with a functioning brain that is able to discern between ‘right’ and ‘wrong’, if those binaries even exist to begin with, and may be more efficient in doling out ethical treatment to others than those who condemn them.
He is ultra critical of religion and how it relates to social and cultural life, with an overt presence of atheist lensed criticism, in how it socially grooms and dehumanizes in regards to gender and sexuality identity, race, ethnicity, social class, etc.
His personal blog is called The Indelible Stamp and has been in existence since 2009. He has taken a hiatus from this page since February, for he is now writing for Big Think, and has made a transition in blog presence. By reading some of his last posts on his personal blog and then some on his Big Think blogging area, one can see he has become more selective of what he has to deal with in regard to the backlash he gets and his reasoning for being thus. But regardless of this change, one can tell what mark Tauriq Moosa is making in the world by the content that he shares, regardless of the platform.
The Indelible Stamp focuses on social freedoms and progressions that may come into conflict with religion and the give and take relationship between the two with references to noteworthy individuals in our society who have enough broad recognition to serve asa point of reference for his analysis and exploration. Gender, race, sexuality, economic systems and theories, law, and pop culture are connected with this question of ethics and inherently religion. This seems to be a moving point of focus in which the rest of Moosa’s content revolves around. It is not so much repetitive, but there is a clear pattern as to what he focuses on to create, and he becomes a forefront member in these discussions in a way that feels reliable and consistent. I do not think that this is something that he did not have in mind when beginning this blogging journey, for we do not create without the slightest, most hidden desire to become recognized for what we produce and share.
