The Weaver's Web

It’s Facebook’s fault

That is what is known as a soundbite. Short, sweet and meant to grab your attention. Doesn’t matter if you agree or disagree with the point the soundbite is trying to make. You paused, you took a split second out of your busy day to form an opinion based on it. It served its purpose.

My son has ask an interesting question: why are liberals constantly preaching tolerance when it comes to gay rights etc, but when someone doesn’t agree with their view they show absolutely no tolerance? He feels that liberals try to portray anyone who doesn’t agree with their views as evil idiots.

You won’t be surprised that I don’t agree with that assessment, but I think I do have an inkling about why he feels the way he does—why both “sides” feel that they are being portrayed as “the demonic enemy”. And yes, liberals feel that’s the way conservatives try to portray them as well.  

There is such a glut of “information” out there. 24 hour news channels, internet blogs, tweets, talk radio—all vying for our attention. We can’t possibly take it all in and stay sane so we scan for the “eye catching” title, the “controversial” tidbits. And because we are human we’re most likely going to focus on said tidbits that agree with our particular point of view on any given subject and/or the “news” that makes us feel, well let’s be honest, just a little superior.

It’s a fast paced world, we are fast paced people—busy, busy doo-bees—we just don’t have time to check the back story of that headline “news”, or to see if the claims made in that email we received are true or false, we have to get on with life. There’s no time to evaluate every single thing, right? And then election time roles around and there’s even more stuff “out there” that we don’t have time to evaluate so we just pass things along without thinking sometimes.

Shockingly, once in a while an attention grabbing sound bite will actually foster a discussion. (yes, even occasionaly on Facebook) You know, the kind where people talk WITH each other rather than AT each other. That’s when we find the chance to teach, and learn, that those who disagree with us are mostly just—well—human. That quite often we have a whole lot in common even though we may vehemently disagree on some things.

Do liberals believe there are some “idiot” conservatives out there? Yes. Just like there are conservatives who believe there are some liberal “idiots” in the world. In my estimation they’re both right. Idocy comes in all shapes, sizes and social/political stripes.

Unfortunately, (again, in my estimation) too many of those idiots have been given access to the biggest megaphones and, well intentioned or not, they foster our seemingly ever growing distrust of and disgust with each other.

And that, to me, is a pretty good definition of evil.