I never thought that given the past four years, I’d be wishing the media – and more importantly those of us who critique it – were still focused on Trump. For the past couple of years I bemoaned the constant barrage of ‘Orange Man Bad’ rhetoric out there, but now? Given what’s replaced it, I almost wish for the good old days when everyone all hated the same thing.
I’m reminded of an episode of Dinosaurs (Nuts to War 2), when the world had its first war. Robbie, the teenage son of the main family had been drafted into the army and was sent to the front lines to engage in a spit and stick fight with the four-legged dinos over some land. Eventually the war ended but he was still jazzed from the thrill of it all and the show ended with his family trying to detox him of all his hate.
Hate’s an interesting thing…it’s a malignance that is like a drug. Even after the object of your hatred has been vanquished, you’re never satisfied. You start looking for the next target…the next fix. Hate feels so good and you’re so caught up in it that you don’t realize what kind of monster you’re becoming. All you become is hate.
Now that Trump’s star is fading for the next couple of years, I’m seeing a lot of the old tropes that split the ‘skeptic’ community before 2016 come back to the surface. The undertones of racism, sexism, and all those have always been around, but now we’re getting back to ‘rape culture’ and ‘intersectionality.’ I’m wondering when we’re going to start seeing the resurgence of ‘educate yourself’ and ‘strong feminist argument’ again. My money’s on before year-end once the COVID vaccination blitz winds down.
You might think that I’m some kind of anti-SJW or some old far too damned set in his ways to embrace change. Well, you’re right on the first two, but not on the third. I was around before the Internet was a thing, so I recognize it as a tool, not a life-support system. I’ve marveled at what it’s done to help bring the world together, but also abhor how it’s torn parts of the world apart. I can access knowledge of the world from anywhere in the world. I can also watch ‘journalists’ who’re little more than barely literate bloggers spew out vitriol for clicks and take home a paycheck. You think sex sells? Try hate…it’s even more lucrative.
In the universe of Judge Dredd, crime is so rampant because the 800 million people in Mega City One are largely…well…bored. Massive unemployment, no real escape from the city since anything outside the wall is fucked, and no real way to decompress. Of course, in that world they didn’t really have things like Tumblr, Facebook, and Twitter to keep everyone occupied with hate communities did they? Hell, if they did you wouldn’t need the Judges. Everyone would be too busy blogging about how they hate something that they’d never have to go outside.
The internet has also spawned an age of the ‘armchair activist.’ I’m not throwing shade since I’m one of those people, but at least I keep my opinions largely to myself. These days people think that they’re changing the world by spitting out a 200-character screed on social media, and the more likes they get the more power they have. Cancel culture is the result of these armchair activists getting a taste of power and craving more. Somewhere in all this, someone bent the knee to social media and the addiction began. People now realized that if you scream loud enough, you can affect businesses that don’t necessarily agree with your opinions. Moreover, you can destroy people without ever leaving your home. Just tweet about them long enough and let the power of cancel culture do the rest.
Personally, I’m waiting for the ultimate consequence…kinda rooting for it actually. What is it? When someone is cancelled and they find out who did it. I mean either through their own detective work or some underground dark web doxxing service (Oh come on, you KNOW they’re out there). Find out who they are, and just handle the business directly. I mean hell, you’re already cancelled. You have no job prospects or hope to ever rebuild your life, so why not let the system take care of you after you take that little punk out?
I wonder if the hate would cool off after that. It’s usually the case that this is all fun and games until someone dies from it. I thought that point would have been the first death from the riots, but who’re we kidding? Ever since Rodney King, rioting is as much an American pass time as fucking baseball. No; I think someone needs to be uber cancelled via bullet or blade, and then maybe people will realize just how vulnerable they really are.
I’m kidding myself with these thoughts though. Some say the best revenge is to have a good life. That may work in some cases but not always. I mean really, if all you do every day is find stuff to hate or complain about, what real use are you to society? Are you contributing to anything except the continuation of tension between folks? Are you benefitting society at all…actually doing something for your fellow human beings? Probably not.
So why should you stick around? What makes you so important that you can just bitch about your country while it feeds you, clothes you, and keeps you healthy? I wish I was just talking about kids but let’s face it, the entire fucking state of California is acting like this. One of the largest economic and agricultural centers of the country, and they know it. The self entitlement they exude is nauseating. Hollywood, LA, and San Fran are just three oozing pustules where the disease is most visible, but rest assured the infection there runs deep. Money, power, and now a sociopathic lack of restraint…that’s California.
So what can we do? Education is the big thing, I think. Remember, the Internet is more than social media. It was originally designed as a way for intellectuals to share information. Millions of online courses exist…ways to train yourself to pursue your passions and make money off them. Sure, not everyone’s wired for that kind of thing, but you won’t know until you try.
Maybe if we could focus less on the world and more on ourselves…expand our own knowledge base into something practical…maybe then we could finally let go of the hate and get back to being decent fucking human beings.