I have noticed something over the last several months.
When I, or others, publish a post, someone will disagree with it. This is not new, but it is increasing.
- I have no problem with people disagreeing with a post.
- I have no problem with people raising questions about a post.
But here's what happens...
- They start labelling (often in a very negative way) people who support a view different from theirs.... "woke", globalist" (often without understanding what those words mean)
- They say, "What about..."
- They shift the meaning of the post to something else entirely
A few examples:
- On a post that is a quote from Martin Luther King, Jr., someone will bring up the allegations of adultery, as if that nullifies everything that King said and did. This is true for any person you quote who is not on that person's "acceptable" list.
- A post about personal financial responsibility will get shifted to blaming the government or the previous government for their failures.
- A post about caring for the poor or the disenfranchised will get shifted to an attack on whoever is out of favour at the moment.
- Posts about protests in Los Angeles when Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) entered several city locations to arrest illegal immigrants with the intent of deporting them were hijacked by pictures of cars burning - often it is the same 1 or 2 cars burning, in a very small section of LA.
- Posts about the ongoing bombing and blocking of aid to Gaza get redirected to what about the actions of Hamas on 7 October 2024.
- A post about how hatred never builds up, gets hi-jacked to "what about" those terrible people over there, with a side comment about how mentioning Trump stirs up hate.
It is no wonder that many are frustrated with social media... it is not very social. It becomes an avenue for people to spout their views, often (usually) without much in the way of documentation for their views (that's part of the way social media sites work). It has become a way for people to dismiss those with whom they disagree.
The theologian Martin Buber, wrote in "Genuine Dialogue and the Possibilities of Peace"
“That peoples can no longer carry on authentic dialogue with one another is not only the most acute symptom of the pathology of our time, it is also that which most urgently makes a demand of us. I believe, despite all, that the peoples in this hour can enter into dialogue, into a genuine dialogue with one another. In a genuine dialogue each of the partners, even when he stands in opposition to the other, heeds, affirms, and confirms his opponent as an existing other. Only so can conflict certainly not be eliminated from the world, but be humanly arbitrated and led towards its overcoming.”
I am slowly learning, but I will try not to respond to comments on social media that are full of anger, blanket statements, re-directions and nonsense (I'm trying to be polite).
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