Dr. Phil, for instance. Have you heard about the tweet? Here it is (was -- he took it down):
"If a girl is drunk, is it OK to have sex with her? Reply yes or no to @drphil #teensaccused "
People flipped out over this. Twitter users attacked him. I even just looked at a TIME magazine article that called it the "disappearing rape tweet" and that says: "Outrage after TV therapist asks if date rape is justified."
Seriously?
I'm no Dr. Phil fanatic, but the guy does a TV show and he discusses sometimes controversial interpersonal topics about which he expresses his opinions. The tweet, above, looks like a pretty straight-forward.
(Maybe we English teachers are to blame, for teaching people how to "interpret" things -- to read below the written word. Maybe more English teachers should make a point of doing what I do with young readers of poetry: teach them to grasp the literal concepts before they start jumping to messages about life, love and death.)
