sometimes people are stupid

had an argument with people at the local watering hole tonight. People there were discussing gas prices and things to "fix" the situation. I know I shouldn't have butted in but I couldn't help myself.

One of them had a brilliant idea that everyone should just not go to work for a week so that they wouldn't be spending money on gas and then the prices would go down. ummmm yea sure.

I explained there would be people willing to go to that job anyway and perhaps in place of whomever isn't going. They called me a scab worker (even tho we weren't talking about union jobs at all) and the barmaid said that if i crossed a picket line I should be prepared to die.

seriously wtf!?!

so anyway, the topic then went to the "gas out" days that they have. You know, you get the emails every once in awhile about how you shouldn't buy gas on "this certain day" to make the gas companies feel the sting. again, great in theory i suppose. But it never works. People buy gas the day before or the day after if they participate in the gas out at all.

Of course the barmaid is all "well i knew 50 people that didn't buy gas on that day this year" well that's all well and good but 50 people isn't gonna make an impact. I mean, I'm all for organizing and protesting and all, but let's be realistic. These "gas out"s are NOT the answer.

So I tried to explain exactly what I just said ... that people buy before or after the gas out date and therefore there isn't any change in what places are selling in the grand scheme of things. Another thing they didn't want to hear.

(Just now in researching the "gas out" (which started in 1999) i found it amusing that people this year weren't even agreeing on the actual day it should happen. The barmaid said it was on May 2nd, but I read a thread that it was scheduled for May 15th and there's a video up on youtube that says it's supposed to be sometime in June 2008. How are you supposed to make a palpable impact if you don't do it on the same damn day?)

So then the barmaid says "well it's not about the sales, it's about organizing people and showing them that we can organize and try to make a change"

what?

seriously the whole point of organizing is to facilitate change, at least I always thought so. So what if you show that 50 people got the email and didn't buy gas on a certain day. If the fact that they did this doesn't result in a lowering of prices or something else along those lines, what good is it?

The whole "gas out" idea annoys me anyway. Like I said people will just buy the same amount on a different day. Hell I get phone calls from my mom "remember you're not supposed to buy gas tomorrow so make sure you haved enough tonight" which imho defeats the purpose.

(i hate those spammy emails anyway. "if you fwd this email Microsoft will give you $25" ... "kid is dying of cancer and the red cross will donate $1 for every person that reads this email" ... "send this sappy story to 500 people and a genie will appear and give you 3 wishes" ... you know the kind. And I'm the asshole person that will google it and send out the link to snopes that tells you it isn't true. And yet somehow I keep getting the same damn emails year after year)

So anyway, after saying my piece, I finally shut up and I know people are hating me right about then. And I really don't care at that point. Those people prolly already hated me I just finally gave them reason.