It’s that time again! Yes, it’s just more than a year until the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election! Even this early in the game, the candidates have made this one a doozy to watch. It also helps that with even more people on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Vine, Snapchat, Google+, whatever social thing that Bing has, and Tinder, we now have political experts everywhere that are more than willing to share their political expertise!
I’m sorry, did I say experts, I meant annoying individuals who find ridiculous articles or quotes and post them. Then I get notified of their political beliefs and then come to the realization that they have no idea what they found, or what they are talking about. They just posted something with a title that they agreed with, without actually reading the article in its entirety. What a well educated and insightful group of citizens we are! I had no idea that you supported Ted Cruz, Nancy. Please, tell me more about how you “Totally want Sen. Cruz to be Prez!” because he is “going to ship out all those dirty Liberals in Congress!”. Please, just go back to your cats, they miss you.
Not a single post, or tag, or tweet, or message has convinced me that we as a society have become well-informed citizens of what policies and issues are important to us as a country. We are so stuck in Democrat vs. Republican that you cannot have a productive conversation with anyone who disagrees with you on any political issue. It’s flat out embarrassing to see that the country that has been the role model for Democracy is now sucked into an apparently never-ending vortex of contempt and vitriol. Plus, we’re not even a full Democracy, we’re a Republic! I can’t go into the details, just Google the damn thing and find out for yourself. They’re different.
We perpetuate these divisions! All the time! We call people out for having a different opinion from our own from the comfort of our own homes through a tiny glowing screen that has access to unlimited information. Someone will post something and then someone who disagrees with them will post a rebuttal, or say something offensive. It is just a virtual reality poop throwing fight. I would actually prefer these arguments to be settled via poop duel, because at least it would be entertaining to watch someone take a massive log to the face. Unfortunately, we get a never ending news feed of back and forth name calling that has no basis on the original topic. Politics is so much fun with online friends.
I am not saying I have all of the answers. I don’t. The only thing I understand is that people are entitled to their own point of view, and that sometimes, just sometimes, there may be a small nugget of new knowledge in their way of thinking that I have never thought of before. What I am offering to all of you is what I see as the major mistakes people are making today regarding the deadly combination of social media and political commentary.
1.) What’s This? Obama Is At Fault For 9/11! POST IT!
Bringing up 9/11, W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan, or Barack Obama does not earn you points. It makes you look like the old miser who sits on his porch with a shotgun scaring the neighborhood kids away from his crab-grass infested lawn. Stop dwelling on the past and try to talk about the issues that are important today.
Some current issues that you may want to ponder include, but are not limited to: ISIS, Russia, Syria, Tax Reform, Citizens United, Super PACs, Immigration Reform, Health Care, Education, Fracking, Keystone XL Pipeline, Pacific Trade Agreement, Iraq and Afghanistan Today and Our Plans For the Future, Climate Change, the Wealth Gap, Clean Energy and Energy Independence, Gerrymandering, the Influence of Corporate Money at State and Local Governments, and Why Does Donald Trump Always Yell?
That is just a small list of the topics you should be talking about that would contribute to the political conversation in the country, and those were just the ones I had in my own noggin. If you are thinking of posting things that do not relate to the above topics, just stop, erase your post, and find something that people actually want to know about. Like cat videos. People can’t get enough of them.
2.) The Title Is Something I Agree With! POST IT NOW WITHOUT READING THE ARTICLE!
Let’s say you find an article that talks about how a certain piece of legislation will bypass the Constitution of the United States. Do you post it right away? NOPE! You need to read the entire thing, not just the title or summary, and then dig a bit more to see if what you found is actually true. If you didn’t know, some titles may be misleading and simply want you to click on them. For when you read that particular article, you may find out it was written by a conspiracy theorists who is known for their fight against the Islamization of ‘Merica, and they are asking for donations to help support the spread of “truth.” In this instance, you turn and run in the other direction to get as much distance between you and the cray-cray that you stumbled upon. If you were to post this article it would be like taking fashion advice from someone who just broke into your house and is trying to give you fashion advise.
You: “Can I help you?”
Random Dude: “I’m here to help you with your fashion sense! Then you can share my ideas with all of your friends!
You Again: “Why are you naked?”
Naked Random Dude: “It’s the new summer trend! Everyone is going to be rocking this look once you let them know about it!”
Idiot You: “My GOD! You’re right! Thank you random naked guy in my house! I can’t wait to share this with all my friends!”
Naked Fashion Guru Dude: “You’re going to change so many live by showing them! Now, take off your pants and get ready to be a trend setter!”
Naked Idiot You: “YES! Where’s my phone!”
Don’t do this. Ever! As tempting as it maybe, if you post that random article, you are laying yourself bare and exposed for people’s rational arguments what will dismantle your “ideas.” There is no need to post an article just for the title. Even if you latched onto it because it says exactly what you think. Trust me, the entire article may not even be close to what you think it is, THAT’S WHY YOU NEED TO READ THE DAMN THING!
There is no reason to barrage us with this type of fear mongering gobbledygook. I know it may be hard, but you need to read what you find online first. If you can’t spare the time to read, or lack a basic understanding of how to put letters together to form words, find the nearest adult to help you. You may even learn something! Or you may find out that that article is not something you should post! Which would be good for all of us.
3.) My Friends Are Wrong And This Article Will Piss Them Off!
This is the biggest offense I have found while on the Facebook. I have Liberal friends, I have Conservative friends, I have friends that don’t care one way or the other. What I have learned over the past few weeks is that if friend A sees a post from friend B that does not align with their way of thinking, friend A will go out of their way to post something just to infuriate friend B. The cycle of posting “fact filled” articles then commences, and then I get mad because my news feed fills up with articles that have nothing relevant to say, and are totally unrelated to what they are actually arguing. Which ties in with #2 perfectly as well because most of the time they don’t read the entire article.
If you truly believe in something whole-heartedly (gun-control or taxes for example) and you find an article that is able to articulate your thoughts exactly and is backed up with facts that are grounded in reliable research, then you are posting articles the way you should. I enjoy reading those types of articles because I like to explore different opinions from my own. Those opinions, as stated earlier, have to be grounded in facts, however. I welcome those posts with open arms and an open mind, and I grow a little bit as a person every time I finish one of those articles. Queue wind chimes and “The More You Know” star graphics in your mind.
The problems arise when you, or your friends, just start firing off passive aggressive salvos of rage-bait articles. Yes, you’re not saying those things, but you want to have your friends see them because you want to prove so badly that they are wrong. Your friends see that article and now you have a posting war at your hands which will never stop because both of you turds need to have the last word. This is just a middle school fight between two girls because they kissed the same boy, with about the same maturity level. Actually less because this is done over the internet, while the middle school girl fight will be done using a variety of mediums to convey their hatred for each other in a more subtle, passive-aggressive style. It’s an art-form, really.
There’s no end to these articles either. They pop up by the hundreds each day, and none of them have anything constructive to add to the political discussion because they are intended to rile up the base and make the other side infuriated. Way to go, now we are just in a swirling cycle of sad middle school level bickering that will never end, and no one ends up happy.
The sad part, for me, is that this whole thing can end instantly if we all stop posting stupid articles. This whole us vs. them mentality would all just fade away. We will still have division and disagreement, sure, but the horrid level of hatred between each side would subside. We, even as insignificant in the political process as we are, stoke the fires of division between us everyday because we cannot help ourselves to post this garbage. There appears to be something very self-satisfying in posting these types of articles, otherwise, no one would do it!
Just take a step back, breathe in, breathe out, and clear your mind. We all have a vision of what is best for this country politically. The only way those visions can come to fruition is if we engage in civil dialogue with people from the other side. Name calling does nothing, but finding common ground and then building a plan together does work. No one gets exactly what they want, but it’s a starting point and you can improve upon that plan as it is implemented. This can only happen if both sides are willing to talk, and you posting your damn idiotic articles on social media makes everyone hate each other and unwilling to converse! STOP CREATING THE CYCLE OF PARTISAN NON COOPERATION! MY GOD WE ARE STUPID!
We are so far lost in the necessity to constantly be on the “right” side with all the correct ideas that we forget that we need to find solutions together to make this country work as the Republic it was intended to be. Stop demonizing the other side and take a moment to listen to what they have to say. If we keep this middle school attitude up, with posting articles that are only intended to make the other side mad, we will lose everything and stop being “One nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all,” and become a “Fractured nation, under God, divisible, with liberty and justice for those who only agree with my ideals.”
Set an example and grow up.
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