Twitter And Me
D. S. Mitchell
I love Twitter. I hate Twitter. I love Twitter. I hate Twi….I know. I sound a bit confused in my base emotions surrounding this global social sparring arena, and I am. My relationship with the Twitter platform, reminds me of a couple bad relationships I’ve had in my life. I hate you, I love you, I apparently, “love to hate you”. There is something to be said about high adrenaline, at times, however it is usually like placing a pile of papers on a table and turning on a fan. I forgot who said that, but I think it is applicable.
To all of the clear thinking, intelligent, brilliant folks that hope for a more tolerant and inclusive world, I love tossing tweets back and forth, and I love you all. So many caring and committed individuals wanting to do everything they can do, to advance the Progressive agenda.
The ‘I hate’ side of me, comes out when somebody in the audience decides to suddenly join in, by launching a vile attack. Why would someone chose to do that? Hmmm. Good question. Not all vicious attacks come from paid Russian trolls, I have decided. Is it because the offender didn’t get any nookie last night, or did Mom yell at him, did he get a bad grade, was he passed over for a promotion, did he have a fender bender?
Who, the Hell knows? The angry emotions propelling those rapid little finger hits on the phone keys subvert the medium itself, “I can’t see you. You can’t see me. So, I will say something disgusting and revolting because there are no consequences for my actions”. That excuse makes no sense if you are a person with a moral compass. Each of us are the words we speak, our words are our legacy.
It’s easier to be thoughtless and insulting, when an individual doesn’t have to look an opponent in the eye. I can tell by the tone of the tweets that many of the folks in the cyber world are red faced, white knuckled, jaw grinding angry.
So, all I’m saying is that, if someone is mad, they should be able to find enough self control, to re-channel that anger, turn it to energy and go run a couple miles, go for a swim, clean out the garage, wax the floors, do the laundry, walk the dog, VOLUNTEER. Get that unhealthy anger out, through exercise and accomplishment, rather than attacking someone 5,000 miles away that you will never see.
Being a bully, whether at work, on the playground, or on the web, is just ugly. It’s inexcusable. It is disgusting and it needs to stop.
If you are angry and you want to increase the value of your argument, be intelligent, and thoughtful in your comments. People will listen. People are ready for fresh and inspirational ideas and solutions.
Anyone can put a string of four letter words together, even me. But, I’m asking that we aim to be better than that. We are all, in the end, just human beings trying to do the best we can in an uncertain world.
As such, we don’t always attain the level of goodness that we aspire to, but if there is no aspiration then there is no gain. There is no improvement or advancement. If we are going to resort to base instincts, then I suggest we are still cavemen, but now we have technology as our club.
I listen to conservatives, all the time. I don’t need to agree with them, but I try to listen until they begin attacking, or trying to spin their arguments BACK TWO DECADES to the actions of Bill Clinton’s scandal plagued presidency.
I find it truly offensive that someone who doesn’t even know me, resorts to calling me such vile names as, bi—, sl–, cu–, wh—, as—–. I feel, that only people who really know me and have evidence to support those epithets, should be allowed to use them. You know, what I mean. Save those really nasty words for someone you know that can live up to them.
Twitter should be respected as a great social platform, where people can safely exchange ideas in a civilized manner. A good fight is one thing, but using an outhouse of vile, foul language to shut down the exchange of ideas is really inappropriate. I understand passion. Passion comes from understanding your goals and developing a sensible plan to reach those goals. As such, it is not achieved through angry vile rants to someone that has volunteered an opinion on a topic you oppose.
Some people are blaming the impulsive, out of control behavior displayed by the Trump White House, as the cause. The theory is that “if Trump can do it, so can I” has taken over social media thinking, and on-street hostile behaviors. I’m not sure I’m ready to jump on the back of that hypothesis.
I am however, ready to ask folks on social media to respect a couple of the basic original Twitter platform objectives of idea sharing and participation in live events, in a safe, albeit, abbreviated manner. In my mind, it is almost like the old telegraph communications translated to cyber space.
I think sometimes 140 characters is too limiting, and maybe that fact leads to misunderstandings. I don’t know, I just know that today I felt, I needed more than those 140 characters to express my feelings on this issue.
So, follow me on Twitter, and talk nice.
Calamity Politics prides itself in addressing relevant topics and hopefully opening a dialog for political discussion. The commentary usually consists of a daily, mildly caustic post. The viewpoint is definitely progressive in nature. Calamity Politics focuses primarily on the United States political scene.
Remember, if you are against the Republican agenda, or just against the Trump regime; step up and take action. The action does not need to be earthshaking, but it needs to be done consistently. Write a letter, join a protest march, put a “resist” bumper sticker on your car, call the White House, run for office. Take some action. It is the collection of many actions that brings success to a movement.
Dar
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