– in which Dorn asks, how did we come to this?
Rated P for preachy.
A friend of mine announced today that he was tired of all the political vitriol he was getting every day on Facebook, and was cutting loose those of his FBFs (Face Book Friends) from whom he was getting it. I was glad to hear that I was not one of the to-be-unfriended, even though our political beliefs are pretty much opposite, but still it made me a bit sad.
One of our country’s problems today is this huge rift that’s developed between people who identify as ‘red’, and people who identify as ‘blue’ (there are plenty of other group names that people call themselves, and even more that they call those who don’t agree with them). There’s always been a distance between them, of course, or they wouldn’t have identified into two groups in the first place.
But lately it seems to have gotten so bad that our country’s social, political, and emergency response systems can’t even work right any more. This is partly due, I’m sure, to the stakes involved: whether you think the other side is malevolently playing down the danger of the coronavirus for political gains, or you think they are malevolently playing up its danger for the same reason, the results could still literally be fatal to you or a loved one.
And Facebook can show us at our worst. The phenomenon where people who are normally polite and thoughtful transform into attack dogs when on FB reminds me of nothing so much as road rage, and perhaps stems from the same reasons in human psychology. Here’s a bit of a 1950 Disney short about mild-mannered Mr. Walker, who transforms into a demon when behind the wheel:
The dysfunctional way political discussions play out on Facebook (and don’t even get me started on trolls, bots, info-mongers and foreign interference!) has become so bad that I’ve been tempted several times to drop out of it myself, even though it’s my most effective communication line to far-flung friends and family, as well as being the pretty much the only way I publicize this blog.
Still, I’m sad that my friend is taking his step, because it means that he will lose a means of communication with those of his friends that differ from him politically, and it seems that could widen the rift even further.
Public health announcements have started to replace the phrase “social distancing” with “physical distancing”. That’s more accurate, of course; it’s the physical separation that reduces the risk of coronavirus transfer.
Social distancing is a better description of what’s happening in our country and the world, both in person and online, when we dismiss those who disagree with us as not worthy of our attention and respect.
And this kind of social distancing a Bad Thing, I believe, not just for our country, but for each of us to have those corrosive feelings running rampant inside. So stop it! And if you don’t agree with me, I hate you and you should eat worms and die. (Just a little political extremist humor there to lighten the mood.)
Thanks for listening, I just had to get that off my chest.
Dorn
3/29/2020