I consider myself a liberal and a progressive. I consider being liberal my philosophy on life, and being progressive the practical approach to making that happen. Perhaps I'm too patient, or too pragmatic, or value nuance, but I am becoming more and more disillusioned and disappointed with similarly-winged Americans.
It seems we (as collective mindset) seem to be getting more absolutist as we go along, more prone to knee-jerk reactivism (is that a word?), and more prone to apply a litmus test to anyone who dares to bring shades of gray into an apparent black & white set of "rules". This is naturally most prevalent on social media (i.e.: the Book of Faces), where it seems some people don't even bother to read the articles anymore. They see the clickbait title, and comment "That's it - no more
for me!" or "BOYCOTT!!".
Forget doing a little research to see if the article is even true, or if there's more to the story (or the person) than meets they eye. It's 0-to-60 instant outrage. Read previous comments to see if someone has offered some subtlety or evidence to the contrary? Who has time for that?
Let me provide a couple examples...
Continue reading...
12 comments )
