Goodness in mankind. Right?

Magnet #1176 - Malist

Another one of my Nicola and the Newfoundlander magnets that I got last year at the Union Square Holiday Market. You know I love 'em!

Except that I'm mad at myself for buying this particular word magnet. While I love the image, I hate the word. Malist means someone who believes the worst in the world, that it's evil.

While I do believe the world is ending and quite frequently say so, I don't believe that the world or mankind at its core is evil. I just don't.

The definition that Nic & the Newfie give - presumably an older definition of the word (it being "reclaimed," and all) - is that it's "one who thinks this is a terrible world, but not the worst of all possible worlds." Which is a slightly more hopeful definition, I guess.

I hope it's that second definition that drew me to this magnet in the first place. Because the alternative would make me a sad sack of a soul, and I reject that, too.

Although, one thing that's made me think of the first definition lately is the plethora of articles, blogposts and Tweets I've been reading about the Facebook/Google snafu this week. Like watching a train wreck, I can't stop myself from clicking on the Twitter links - on my search column, for most of this evening, it's been at least a Tweet a minute. (It's Friday night, how are people still so engaged over this story?)

No, I won't go on about it - it's a magnetblog, after all - but I think what scares me most out of the whole embarrassing and quite disappointing fiasco, is the thought that this isn't the first (or the last) whisper campaign ever to be mounted. This one just has high-profile players who managed to get caught, is all.

Which only makes me wonder with a sick, icky feeling, what other negative "news" content out there in mainstream or social media was ruthlessly whispered into someone's ear.

Or emailed, as the case may be.