January 14, 2013
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As many of you no doubtedly know, we are a nation that is heavily divided when it comes to, well, just about everything. And it is not even that we are so divided, it is just that we are so HATEFULLY divided. Technology is great in many ways and in this day and age we have the ability to read an article online and instantly comment on it for the entire world to see and also respond to our comment. Well that certainly is a great thing, it also allows for people to say whatever the fuck they want regardless of how mean or nasty it might be. And I want to preface that I STRONGLY agree that people should be able to say whatever they want on these comments. Fortunately we live in a country with freedom of speech which is a great way to live. In China they don’t have freedom of speech and therefore much of what is posted out there is censored and never sees the light of day. Or worse yet, if a journalist writes an article that the government doesn’t agree with they can then soon find themselves in prison.
But back to the good ol’ U.S. and the comments that people leave on articles. First of all, there are losers out there who turn every single article they read into a political argument. They read an article about potatoes and they leave a comment ripping the president for something totally unrelated to potatoes. Or they read article about a movie and here comes a comment about how Obama is a terrorist. And then there are the comments on the news of the day. Holy shit, talk about nasty. As if disagreeing with somebody’s politics was not far enough, people need to find a way to not just go over the line, but leap as far as they possibly can and almost compete with others to see who can say the most vile thing, most of the time, against Obama. During the election, I read an article about the race between Obama and Romney and somebody posted a comment saying “I wonder how long it will take for Romney to get the @#$$%^ stench out of the White House after he wins.” Wow. What fucking year is this, 1863?
While people including myself were pretty mean to George W Bush while he was president and although liberals and Democrats are nasty to Republicans even now, it pales in comparison to the level of vile hatred that is coming from the Republicans and the Obama haters. Case in point, the above comment. A few years ago Jon Stewart grew fed up with the vile rhetoric being spewed and held a rally in Washington called the Rally To Restore Sanity, which, for all it’s good intentions, did not result in much restoring of any sanity. People still go to the extreme and instantly compare their political enemies to Hitler or Stalin or other evil leaders of the past. I remember seeing a sign at that rally that read “Hitler was Hitler” which sums things up perfectly: there was only one Hitler and nobody else is on that level. As much hate as people have for Obama, can you honestly say that he is Hitler? Seriously. Fucking Hitler? The same can be said of George W Bush. Not Hitler. Neither one of them even close. And not even close to becoming close to being even a sliver of Hitler. They fail to realize that just the mere freedom they have to compare Obama with Hitler and not wind up in jail for such comparisons automatically means that Obama is not as bad as Hitler.
And not everything is about politics. When I read an article about sports, I should not expect to find a comment about politics. I just read an article on Yahoo Sports about former MLB loser Milton Bradley beating his wife. And what was one of the comments? “No steroids involved, or mental illness, please step away. THE GUNS ARE TO BLAME!” This had nothing to do with the hot topic gun debate going on in this country, yet some rabid pro gun person just had inject a gun comment. I follow sports in part to get away from garbage like this and every day life; can’t we just stick to the topic at hand? And I should have known I would be in for a shitstorm of asshole comments when I clicked on the article about Obama welcoming BCS champs Alabama to the White House. Several comments referred to him as Obummer which isn’t all that bad especially in comparison to the one that referred to him as Obamatard. And more comments of people arguing over how they are not true Americans because they don’t have the same opinions as themselves. Give me a fucking break, this is just a simple article about how the national champs were welcomed to the White House, just like every other team that wins a championship regardless of which party is in the White House.
Look I’ve got no delusions about how the country used to be. America has always been divided. People have always disagreed and said vile things to each other. I just don’t understand why EVERYTHING has to turn political. And I refuse to accept that we need to be as vile and as nasty as we can possibly be all the time. I will leave you with a sentiment that John McCain said years ago (sorry but I don’t recall the exact quote) “Why do our opponents have to be our enemies instead of just being our opponents?” Just because we disagree with somebody, doesn’t mean we have to hate them or that they are as evil as Hitler. They still might be a good person but they just have different beliefs.
Comments (3)
Very thoughtful and I agree. I think that the Internet just makes it so easy for people to be nasty without showing their face, that they just let all their nastiness hang out. Whenever I see these petitions online, I wonder if anyone actually thinks that they mean anything? Some people will put their electronic name on whatever appeals to their sense of self righteousness.
@whyzat - That is an interesting point, but I have still encounterd people in person who say nasty and vile things. I just think we have become a country of extremism in how we share our opinion.
@heckels - I’m not around people much, so I haven’t run into many who say nasty things out loud. Most of the people I know and talk to, don’t discuss hot button issues with me–maybe they’ve heard something about me!