In case you haven't noticed, we're living in a very contentious political season right now, with each side trying to outdo the other in terms of who's the loudest voice in the room. I would imagine that, if you know me or at least have "known" me online for a while now, you can tell where I stand on the debate between Clinton and Trump. I'm not here to argue with you about that (I can't, anyway; you would have to leave a comment, and I would have to respond, and then you'd have to respond to my response to your comment, and so on and so forth until one or both of us is referred to as "that asshole" and mutual blocking of friendship begins). No, I don't think I'll change your mind about this any more than you'll change mine. But I wonder if we couldn't stand to be a little nicer about it.
Social media is fantastic, but it's also infantilizing. Trading insults once was the low-hanging fruit of internet trolls. Now one of those trolls is running for president (harsh, I know, but true). When it's at its best, social media can open our eyes to a side of the world or side of an issue that we may never have considered before; at its worst, it can create an echo chamber of well-meaning but ultimately unrewarding and unchallenging sycophantic comments traded back and forth. The feedback loop we all enter into (your humble blogger included) can blind us to the other side of the issue (and there is always another side, even if it's ultimately not the right side after all). It's far easier to stay in our lane. It's also fun as hell to insult those who disagree with us.
I'm not about to give up speaking my mind when it comes to short-fingered megalomaniacs who have no business running a used-car dealership, much less a country. But I would hope that we all take a minute to acknowledge that "freedom of speech" and "freedom to be an asshole" don't mean the same things.
But perhaps my jabs at the Once and Future Internet Troll have already alienated you, if you're still reading. My bad.
Kurt Vonnegut has a line from Mother Night, which concerns an American spy living in Berlin during the Second World War who, in order to get information for the Allied war effort, has to pose as a rabble-rousing Nazi sympathizer (like "Tokyo Rose" or "Lord Haw-Haw"). Not to give anything away, but everyone who knew this character was a spy is either dead or not talking when the Israelis finally come for him. The line that I think bears repeating is "we must be careful about the things we pretend to be."
In a political season, it's easy to shout and bellow and yell. It's fun, really, and the feedback loop of likeminded people agreeing with you can be intoxicating. But I have a hard time believing that many of my conservative friends, people who seem to have deeply held beliefs that I may disagree with and fight against but which I do not doubt they believe in wholeheartedly, would embrace a man who doesn't have anything in common with the sainted "Ronnie" that many of them seem to think is just about to walk through that doorway all over again. I think they're pretending, talking themselves into being on the Trump train. Similarly, I'm talking myself into supporting Hillary. It's becoming easier to do when I consider that the other candidate is someone I would never vote for, but I'm not a Clinton booster. This election, both sides have been handed a candidate that maybe isn't all that great. Only one of them, I believe, would be a disaster as president, and it sure ain't the one who's had actual experience in government.
But again, I'm guessing if you don't agree with me, you've stopped reading by now.
It's easy to get behind a keyboard, to risk nothing by saying something that everyone in your circle will approve. But how many of you will actually get out from behind that monitor or put away that phone and risk yourselves, your beings?
In April, some friends of mine helped organize and stage a sit-in rally here at Clemson, demanding that more minority voices be heard and responded to in the wake of a racial incident which angered them and all right-thinking people on campus (you'd be surprised how many people didn't think it was such a big deal). They risked being kicked out of school. They risked arrest. Some of them were arrested. You don't have to agree with what they were protesting for, but you have to respect them. I respect them. It's easy to be brave, to pretend to be brave anyway, when you've got some distance between the words you use and the people they affect. Social media is a wonderful tool for enlightenment, but it can be used to build up barriers and refuse to see the common humanity shared with even our most fervent enemies. Don't be an internet troll, content to throw jabs that will get you multiple likes from the usual suspects. Be willing to admit when you're wrong (because news flash, you often will be), and be willing to learn from your mistakes (because you will make them).
Let me end with another Vonnegut quote: goddam it, babies, you've got to be kind.
