What happened to thinking in this country and when did the loudest shouter become the winner of the debate? When did people become fearful of expressing an opinion unless solely in the company of total agreearators? When did it become fashionable to just be nasty? When were news sources allocated so that half the population gets all their news from Rachel Maddow and the other half Glenn Beck? Why are those on the right completely unable to see any positive on the left? And why are “conservatives” vilified by the left?
When did dialogue die? When did thinking cease? All day on Facebook I see bitter, vitriolic and ill-informed posts by….friends. One thinks Nixon used to censor movies that made conservatives look bad. Another thinks President Obama won’t protect the country even in the face of a nuclear attack. Some don’t even believe our freely elected President, unlike the last one (gotcha!), isn’t even a citizen.
Name calling, yelling, screaming like children competing for attention and most without knowing any of the facts of the issue du jour dominate, again like children, every ‘discussion’.
God, I’ve lived long enough to see the words of Rodney King as wise with his famous, “can’t we all get along?” line!
Guess what folks. Doing some research won’t get you kicked out of your ideology club. If you’re a flaming liberal and you sneak a peek at Glenn Beck, they won’t take your membership card. And those whacky tea baggers probably, I can’t say for sure, will probably still be permitted to attend tea bag pep rallies if caught listening to NPR. Or maybe these groups do report on each other? Eh, comrade? Is that a Christian Science Monitor in your bag? You can tell me. It will stay our secret.
But better yet, try this. Go to the source. When you see headlines like “Republicans Kill Bill to Save Starving Babies” read the actual bill. When you see “Obama Advocates Total U.S. Surrender in Afghanistan” read the speech.
We live in the age of information and people are dumber than ever before. And with I-Phones delivering 24 hour news, cable TV and the internet, I wonder why people are so ill-informed? Stupid is a better word.
Well, that classifies as a rant.
I expect to have only two friends on Facebook by tomorrow. I know I’ll have two. I’ll create them. I’ll make a lefty and a righty and I’ll have them bicker in between posting pictures of their meals. It will be just like having real Facebook friends.
In the meantime, I thought this picture, credit the Onion was hilarious.
Are we still allowed to laugh?
If the picture offends you, un-friend me. If you can’t laugh, we’re never going to get along anyway.