Hate online
Published March 14, 2015
by Gary Pearce, Talking About Politics, March 13, 2015.
The Internet, social media and cable TV may make us more informed, but they also make us more inflamed. And more apt to go down in flames.
Frat boys sing a racist song, it goes viral and they are expelled, their parents humiliated and their reputations irreparably ruined. A corporate executive posts a racist joke before she boards a plane, and by the time she lands she is out of a job and the target of online and cable outrage.
The angry virus infects politics, too. It inflames our divisions and disagreements. No, there is nothing new about hateful, divisive and racist statements in politics. Joe McCarthy called people communists. JFK, LBJ and Nixon had their share of haters. The nation was bitterly divided over Vietnam and civil rights.
The difference today is how much of all that is constantly in our faces and at our fingertips.
Your Facebook friends and those you follow on Twitter make sure you see the latest outrageous statement or action by a deranged right-winger or bitter left-winger or degenerate racist or professional big-mouth or fool politician. Your blood pressure soars, your bile rises and you fire off your own angry rant. You feed the fire.
Unfortunately, what we say when we have no filter doesn’t always reflect our better selves.
Here is some advice from a wise gentleman we call Yoda, given to a friend who had just watched something online that disturbed his Force:
“I want you to take 10 deep breaths. Breathe in, breathe out, 10 times. Then I want you to go out to a meadow somewhere. And I want you to say ‘dammit,’ or something even stronger, 10 times. ‘Dammit, dammit, dammit,’ 10 times. Then I want you to drink a Fat Tire beer. Or maybe two. Then I want you to get seven and a half or eight hours sleep, a good night’s sleep. You will feel better in the morning.”
Works like a charm.
March 14, 2015 at 11:24 am
Frank Burns says:
What I've seen from the left is hatred and contempt for anyone who disagrees with their point of view. Their reflex is to blame that person of being a racist, anti woman, anti gay, etc. Many of the left wing bloggers will block those who don't toe their company lines. Not to name names, but isn't that very similar to the way the communists used to do things?
