I find myself needing to leave social
media. The question is not why; it’s a waste of time if you don’t have an
undying need for people to like you. If there’s any question about leaving
social media, it would be why not? What do any of us get out of social media?
Yes, there’s the dopamine boost we get from people ‘liking’ something we post –
that undying need again – but this simply amounts to one of the many drugs we
could all do without. Among its other uses, social media is used to announce the
ongoings of our businesses, which really is just 21st century
panhandling. (Worst among this trend is GoFundMe, in which everyone begs for
money because somehow their situation is unique and deserving of the rest of us
throwing our money at it. On a rare occasion, special circumstances do arise or
an actually useful invention come along, but spare me your need to raise money
for your classroom.) Perhaps social media gives us a chance to congregate with
other like minds, albeit in the most superficial way because really, who has
time for an entire phone call, an entire conversation? I know I don’t because
I’m too busy working, working all the time, with people, and when I’m done with
that I don’t want to deal with more people. This is not to say I don’t like my
family and friends; I’m just exhausted. And I’m more exhausted by what I see on
the internet. We look at posts from family and friends and it’s never too long
before something – some kind of train wreck often political in nature – catches
our eye. Noooooo, I often say to myself
of some headline before being forced by curiosity, amazement, or (usually) disgust
to delve deeper. This cannot be the world
we are living in. It just can’t.
The internet is without question one of
the worst things to ever happen to mankind. Yes, it has allowed us to connect
on an unprecedented level with people far and wide. And yes, it has allowed us
access to an unprecedented amount of information. Both of these things is what
has kept the world from turning away from the insanity it has always known,
instead using the internet to strengthen beliefs and tribal ties. Instead of
using the access to information to study different cultures and perhaps change
archaic ways of thinking, people dove headfirst into the concrete pool of
confirmation bias to strengthen their ties to whatever community it is they
consider themselves a part of. The internet gave people access to others of
like mind and hence we have been given a world that instead of getting any
better* has given new rise to authoritative governments around the globe.
Militant Islam would not have nearly as many members as they do now if not for
the internet. Vladmir Putin controls the internet and all other media in Russia
to keep himself in power. China and North Korea likewise control what can be
accessed through the internet. And you simply cannot go on the internet in
America without catching a glimpse of the alt-right and the regressive left
frothing at you and each other. Even if you somehow avoid that, there is sure
to be someone who has something nasty to say about something no matter how
innocuous the post.
Given an unfettered path to confirming
one’s bias,’ philosophy became roadkill along the way. The last thing you’ll
ever read on the internet is someone beginning their post with, “I may be
wrong, but…” There is simply no reflection of thought, no self-analysis of
ideas or one’s beliefs. Social media has become nothing more than a game of
saying how right one thinks they are about whatever bullshit they want to
believe. And surely if one uses ALL CAPS to say it, it becomes all the more
true. There is simply no reasoning with anyone who uses the internet on a
regular basis. Try to think of the last time you actually changed someone’s mind
– difficult isn’t it? I don’t think I’ve done it myself since 2010 when I
showed a college freshman the data on CFC’s and how it affected the ozone
layer, thus convincing him that human activity can have an effect on the
environment. This was a rare and exceptional case perhaps because the young
man’s mind was open to new ideas. But this is not the case for most people of
any age. Entrenched belief is difficult to dislodge because people hate to be
wrong; most people see being wrong as a defect instead of a virtue, something
to learn from.
Philosopher’s themselves are also to
blame for the death of philosophy. Physicist Stephen Hawking declared that
philosophy was dead back in 2011, making note that today’s philosophers have
not kept up with or have failed to take into account the data emerging from the
sciences. And why would they when most philosophers’ views can be ‘confirmed’
by others of similar thinking on the internet? You can search the ‘pros’ of
communism with at-the-ready counter-arguments against its detractors within
seconds, nevermind any lack of objectivity. Unfortunately philosophers are
people, too, and like most people are typically not above confirmation bias. Despite
real-world evidence that communism simply doesn’t work in practice, many young
idealists still think it can. (Ah, ah, ah –Like every other attempt at
communism, China is only communist on paper.)
The failure of philosophers to ‘keep up’
combined with the effect the internet has had on people has given Americans a
country hijacked by the regressive left and the alt-reich. You read these
people’s comment’s on the internet every day, whose typical comment is usually
rife with some false assertion and/or unblinking hypocrisy. False assertions
are one thing – we don’t typically have time to fact-check everything – but the
hypocrisy is breathtaking. For example, Putin and Russia were basically enemies
during President Obama’s tenure but because Trump is friends with Putin, Russia
was somehow never our enemy after Trump’s election. Or take Sarah Huckabee
Sander’s attack on a business owner for booting her out of a restaurant while
agreeing that a bakery had the right to refuse gay people service. But the
regressive left is no prize either, who can’t see its own policy of denying anyone
with a difference of opinion to speak at college campuses as fascist. You also
cannot bring up the atrocities of any other race throughout history as only
white people have committed crimes against humanity. Anyone who dares think is either
dead or is dying in the middle.
All of this is why I’m a misanthrope. We
can’t have discussions anymore, as if we ever could. For fuck sake, female
scientists have had a historically rough time being taken seriously even though
data should speak for itself. If scientists can’t be rational, what hope is
there for everyone else? There is no hope. We’ll die by our own hand having never
learned from the Roman Empire even though their collapse was well-documented. And
if any philosopher hasn’t given up yet, they will eventually be hunted down and
murdered by whichever side ultimately wins the culture war. That is what
authoritative regimes do, after all. The U.S. is dealing with two right now
that are engaged in an ideological war that will ironical kill nothing but
ideas.
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| Depends on their PR person. |
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