Lately, this blog seems to have turned into a blog where I mostly discuss my opinions on social issues. But I'm okay with that really because social issues are important to me. I used to not care so much about them and if they were being discussed, I would generally just agree with the majority or stick to the lessons of my childhood. I only recently started looking at things for myself and doing independent research and I realized how much I actually care.
These social issues, though most are stupid, are effecting our society in very real ways and that's why I write about them. People are being fired, put on trial and viciously harassed for things they are not guilty of because society screams at those in charge to do so.
Society, as a whole, ignores facts. We don't look at evidence, we don't look at reports or statistics, we listen to the celebrities on twitter and read headlines. What happened to research? To not believing everything you read? People today read a CNN headline and take it as indisputable fact and this is hurting our country. From trigger warnings to safe places, we, as a society, have become a bunch of pathetic cry babies.
So, let me tell you about a recent experience of mine.
First, I want to say that I don't really have a problem getting engaged in online arguments. I find them amusing at times, but that's not the main reason. I don't really go looking for them but they happen sometimes, you know? If I say something, I don't mind being challenged on it. I like being challenged. It helps reinforce my position and forces me to research what I say. I take these situations as an opportunity to educate myself. I don't expect to change some random youtube commenter or twitter user's mind, but I do hope that by opening a dialogue,that by being challenged and challenging others, helps people to be able to defend their position and be aware of the facts. So, generally, if I get involved in one of these scenarios, I try and remain level headed and don't say anything I can't or am not willing to support. I don't type in all caps or call people names. That's not to say I've never been hot headed or got a little too passionate, but generally, I remain calm and stick to an attitude of debate rather than argument. Mostly for my own benefit, as I already mentioned.
The problem is, the people who generally pick fights with me or who I challenge are not on the same page. They are aggressive and insulting, calling me every name in the book, dismissing anything presented that is supported by evidence. And the problem here is that people are like that because no one wants to be disagreed with. We feel threatened by an opposing viewpoint and then the only way we can think to feel better about our own beliefs is to criticize and attack the other person. And I find that really sad.
To illustrate this, here is an online exchange I was recently involved in on Twitter.
I don't know if you've ever heard of MTV Decoded (youtube channel) but I strongly suggest no one watch it. It's a very racist woman trying to preach to people about racism. She presents her prejudiced opinions as fact and has been right about very little. Her videos are unresearched and she has been blatantly wrong about historical events that aren't open to interpretation.
So, after having seen a couple of these videos, I was appalled and in a state of disgust. So I tweeted the lady responsible for the videos. Knowing she has thousands of followers, I wasn't expecting her to see or respond to my tweet, but fully aware of what might happen if she did.
And as luck would have it, she did. She saw it and responded to it. Now, since only her followers would see it, I was well aware if she retweeted it or responded, I would have to deal with her army of supporters and that's exactly what happened. But if I hadn't been willing to accept the consequences, I wouldn't have sent the tweet.
I was immediately attacked. Aggressively. Name after name, insult after insult. And while the goal of these attackers was to make me feel stupid and ashamed for daring to have a different opinion, that's not what it did (and, frankly, if someone yelling "meany" at me was enough to scare me away, I would never open my mouth). When people attack in such a way, the result is that I'm more likely to think poorly of them rather than of myself. There are times, in such exchanges where I have thought poorly of myself, though. Not because someone called me an idiot or mocked me, but because, afterwards, I felt that maybe I came on too strong or didn't present my position as well as I could have.
Anyway, while the goal of these people was to make me hate myself, what it actually did was illustrate, in a very real way, how scared people are of being challenged and how unprepared they are to deal with someone who doesn't share their views.
This woman has thousands of followers. So among all these thousands of supporters, one little contrary tweet was enough to make them feel threatened and like they had to go on the immediate attack. Wow.
Even though this went on for a while and consisted of a lot of people demanding I answer their questions and give specific reasons for my opinion (which I willingly did), every time I answered or gave any reasons as to why I thought the way I did I was unfailingly met with retorts such as "oh well you're just stupid." And that was their entire argument. They demand I back up and support my position but feel they don't need to do the same and that is unacceptable. No one should be able to demand someone back up their position if they aren't willing to do the same. And if this person provides you with information and you refuse to make your argument anything other than "you're stupid and I'm right because I say so" you absolutely do not get to dismiss their evidence. If you're not willing to defend your position, you can't mock someone's else's legitimate attempt to do so.
Keeping that in mind, I want to draw your attention to a specific exchange with one user that really opened my eyes to how much of a problem this is.
Now, right off the bat she was aggressive and in attack mode just after my initial tweet. She tweeted some random string of words that was meant to be rude but made no coherent sense. I still don't know what in the world she was trying to say. So I just said "that doesn't make any sense." And her reply that what I had said didn't make any sense either, blah, blah, blah. I was pretty sure I had made sense though because I seemed to have flipped a switch with a lot of people. If I hadn't made any sense, it shouldn't have had such a reaction. So my guess was that I had mad sense, she just didn't approve of my opinion. If I hadn't made sense, there was no reason for her to be so angry. To which her response was that people like me could never make her angry. But that response contradicted everything she had previously said. It did something to her because she felt the need to viciously attack me for it. I still say she was angry.
So, after more tweets, she said she was only rude "to people like me" as if that justified anything. And all I had done at this point was present an opinion that she did not like. So she literally said she was only rude to people who did not think like her.
Well, what I'm getting to with all this was eventually, it got to the point where instead of blasting random insults, she started asking me questions and one question she asked was if I tweeted about people who were killed for being black. I did not know what people she was referring to, so I asked her to specify. Her response was Michael Brown and Trayvon Martin. Two cases where it has been proven that they were not killed because they were black. This is not the popular thing to think if you're a liberal progressive however. But facts are facts and the facts dictate that these two were not shot because of their skin color, they were shot in self defense.
My response was: Mike Brown was not shot because he was black. The evidence from the scene and autopsy report proved that.
And do you know what she responded? Do you KnOw?
"Ohhhhh you're one of those people"??????? "Those" people? What people is she talking about? People who don't disregard facts because they don't correspond to what I want to believe? One of those people who let's facts dictate their opinion and not the other way around? One of those people who will believe the evidence and the autopsy (a completely unbiased procedure) over social opinions? One of those people who does research before I assume everything is about race? She failed to give any further explanation other than that. But I have to say, I am proud to be one of "those" people.
And this ridiculous from that girl is really why I wanted to write this post. This is what it has come down to. People who look into things by themselves without taking at face value what the liberal media tells them, people who accept the facts of a situation even when they don't support their own opinions, people who don't let the majority tell them what to think are looked down on. We are now called one of "those" people.
It's meant to be derogatory, but what it really means is you are one of those people who look at situations objectively and use facts and logic to back up your assertions so there's no way I can debate you because I just use insults and emotions and I feel intimated.
Because I don't believe BLM and CNN when they say "oh an innocent, unarmed black child was killed by a racist white cop when his hands were up just because he was black" when the eyewitnesses, autopsy and physical evidence from the scene prove that statement to be false, I am one of "those" people.
Well, all I can say I am proud to be one of "those" people.
So once she saw that I actually knew what I was talking about and believes that evidence is evidence whether you're black or white and not a brainwashed social justice warrior, she disappeared. I am just so baffled why believing facts now makes you a ridiculous person.
But, either way, I did get a laugh out of it.
Shortly after this, she deleted the tweet.
Maybe she realized how dumb it was. But the truth is it can never be unsaid. And I have it here forever now. She may have deleted it but it can still be seen.
And, folks, this is what it has come to. People are afraid of facts. We are not teaching people to defend what they believe, we are teaching them to attack when someone challenges their belief. We are teaching them they are right even when they are wrong. Even when the facts contradict them. And that girl is evidence of it.
Before I end this post, I want to add that every single person who attacked me and demanded I provide reasons for what I said and suggested I do research, when asked to the same, every single one replied "google it" and disappeared.
Are you kidding me? What is going on here? We have to teach people that if THEY make a claim, it is THEIR responsibility to provide evidence and support for that claim. If you are trying to convince me of something, it is not my job to research it for you. I already don't believe it and I know why I don't believe it. But if you can't tell me why you believe it, I'm not going to do research to support your opinion. I'm just going to assume you have no argument and no ground to stand on and leave feeling even more than before that I'm correct because not one of you provided a counterargument other than that I was stupid. And it's sad that we are at an age where google, a search engine, is the ultimate authority. It can be helpful in many cases, but telling someone to google your opinion in order to convince them that you're right is pathetic. You can find anything you want on google. It's the internet. You are only going to find what you look for. Typing in a generic phrase and getting a result doesn't prove you are right.
It's so sad to me that this is what we have come to as a society. Facts are irrelevant and google is God.
