Featured image by David Lytle. Follow the link for more of this artist’s work.
I’ve tried getting away from social media. It’s like watching a car crash in NASCAR, or driving by a crash on the freeway. Something inherently alluring and horrifying all at the same time. And yet I can’t seem to look away from it.
The election results have gone about as I expected them to. Biden, backed by overwhelming support from academia, the media, big tech, Hollywood, Wall Street, and so on, all buying into the “anti-racism” narrative and abandoning individualism for a collective stab at utopianism, have garnered enough support to win the White House and retain control of the House. It still looks as if the Senate is bound to stay in Republican hands, which to me is a relief. The talk of packing the Supreme Court, adding states, and eliminating the filibuster can die down. We’ll see if that changes in two years as mid-terms come up.
Progressives seem to miss their hypocrisy when it comes to social media, often claiming themselves to be caring, compassionate people full of love and empathy. I see so many posts about dogs and sunsets, about life and the beauty of people, it is somewhat heartening. But then I often see the same people post their political positions and call their rivals all sorts of hateful, vile, and evil things. They clamor and scream about how evil their opponents are, and often wish death, destruction, physical harm, sickness, or other misfortune upon them. And yet, they reel at the slightest rebuke, becoming enraged at the mere mention of them being hypocrites.
I posted recently following the election that if your side won, then be magnanimous. This advice is of course, soundly ignored. Gloating, insulting, and demeaning the “losers” of the election all commonplace as I scroll through the toxic environment that is social media. Of course, this is not only tolerated, but actively encouraged by the algorithms, meant to feed you a steady diet of rage, anger, and intolerance all designed to keep you scrolling. Looking at the reported profits, it certainly is working.
I used to not like social media because it was a highlight reel of people’s best moments, and that it portrayed other people’s lives as unobtainable and idyllic. Now I don’t like social media because it magnifies every flaw and imperfection, creating a perpetual cycle of malice and rage, enabling people to scour through your past to find that one piece of information that will drag you into purgatory forevermore. In both respects, it demanded perfection, an unobtainable goal. And in both respects, it has no room for forgiveness.
So I post here in the small hope that someone may actually take my advice to heart. Be magnanimous in victory and humble in defeat. Learn the lessons and come back with better candidates and arguments. Recognize where you fell short and aspire to be better so that when the opportunity arises, you are prepared to meet it face to face.
A Place 4Politics 