How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Social Media
This article was going to be about the screenshot of the social media post appearing with this article. It was going to talk about how petty it is for someone to play the victim card when 50 people were butchered, and more than that injured. It was going to be about political messaging and ego versus principle… then I searched the name of the original poster.
The public posts made by this individual are full of hate and anger against Republicans, Christians, and basically anyone that does not agree with their view of the world.
Both Josh and Charlotte are what is wrong with Facebook and Social Media when it comes to personal interaction. They both use social media as an echo chamber that bolsters their preconceived notions of each other and play the victim all at the same time. They are two sides of the same rusty coin.
But, this is what social media has “helped” us evolve into. It is easier to spew hate and drivel to an audience we know will echo back our emotions, rather than create sensible dialog on subjects that affect all of us.
Could Josh have decided against posting something that no one else could see on his wall… sure, but how could he get the encouragement that he craves if he didn’t.
Could Charlotte have taken a breath and realized that RFRA didn’t have anything to do with a radicalized muslim who found a soft target… sure, but why not use a tragedy as a stepping stone for your own agenda.
There is very little that can be changed about these interactions, because they are interchangeable between conservatives and liberals. Until we get social media back to pictures of food, videos of cats, and questionable friend requests we are stuck with the never ending drivel of the “oppressed”, the “victims”, and the mentally unstable that show up here and there.
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TheDeepDark
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With apologies to Allison Krauss, et al, sometimes “you say it best when you say nothing at all”.
For those of us whose only knowledge of social media is that it’s what too many people do instead of driving their car, who is Charlotte Henry?
That’s the problem… Josh chose to acknowledge some random person. Not a policy maker, a DPG operative, nothing like that. Just some random person who found his page and decided they didn’t agree with what he said. Mountains out of mole hills.
Yes, DD. Your article is spot on. But look further at McKoon’s reply, he added a derogatory group label instead of responding to the issue one on one. Playing the “them” card seems to work in diffusing any political banter.
i also did not see any blame- necessarily- being cast by the first post. there is a possible implication, but not necessarily. it could just be an attempt to leverage the event into sympathy/empathy/compassion. i think the response inferring blame demonstrates not only the nature of Mr. McKoon’s concerns, but again, a huge pitfall in all of social media– that 140 characters or a handful of quickly typewritten words can not convey the nuance of emotions and meaning that a conversation based on listening would. words without emojis are just too easy to misinterpret.
I think it is absurd that people blame any politician for the acts of a lunatic, whatever the identity or motivation. That is what I was drawing attention to — the fact that within hours of the news of this tragedy that others were using it to advance their own agenda.
What a laugh that you would turn around and try to say that I am at fault for the ravings of others. That takes some amazing mental gymnastics.
I’m sorry, where did I state you were at fault for what someone else had said… I’ll wait.
“It was going to talk about how petty it is for someone to play the victim card when 50 people were butchered, and more than that injured.”
All I did was point to how personal and vindictive political discourse has become. Why would anyone’s first thought after a tragedy like this be — “I can use this to advance my political agenda”?
I have consistently called out the increasingly personal, nasty invective that characterizes our political process — whether it is directed at me, or Senator Vincent Fort (as it was by Rep. Tommy Benton) or others.
So for you to claim this is me playing the victim card is hilarious. All I was doing was pointing out how ludicrous and wrong it is to try to link the political positions of those with whom one disagrees with violent tragedy.
You didn’t point it out. You made a statement about “me”. Instead of making a statement like:
This is what happens when emotions and misguided rage take over an individual. Insteading of waiting for the true (or closest thing to it) cause of the situation people feel that they need to express their anger by posting uniformed drivel. This type of discourse does no one any good in the light of a tragedy that has killed 50, injured more, and has affected millions. My thoughts and prayers are with the family, friends, and companions of those most affected by the senseless violence that Orlando has witnessed.
Instead of something like that, taking you out of the equation, you decided to point out that you were being blamed unjustly. Obviously you were not to blame, and no rationally minded person would believe that, yet you fell into the trap of victimhood and ran with it.
+1