Best tweet ever, from Jason Whitlock. Link. *
- Thread starter op2
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Let me answer that with a tweet of his answering a response similar to yours. ETA: IOW, you responded to something completely different than what he said, which is evidence of his point.
Why do you people engage with Coop? He's not very bright and definitely not worth the effort. Just make fun of him, LOL him, or ignore him.
lol
Exhibit A the tweet is nothing but scared, populist ********. The most scared populist on the board likes it. It's silly **** like this that binds Bernie Bros and Trumpers together. That's all I need to know.
Okay, how about this. It's basically the same thing.
"It's better for humans to interact in person because that kind of communication is more genuine, as opposed to interacting in a manner that promotes misunderstanding and malice, which in turn just snowballs. And unfortunately, the latter is becoming more and more common."
"It's better for humans to interact in person because that kind of communication is more genuine, as opposed to interacting in a manner that promotes misunderstanding and malice, which in turn just snowballs. And unfortunately, the latter is becoming more and more common."
The responses to this thread partly illustrate the problem. We are so tribal that we instantly jump on the other side of an issue that someone we don't like takes a side on. The tweet in the OP is not tribal or partisan in the slightest and yet this thread has become that way because someone took a side and then instantly all the other dominoes fell.
Humans are tribal, it's baked into the cake. We are no longer a nation with a single culture to bind us together and we are seeing the tensions rise as a result. It's a completely predictable process that will have a completely predictable result, the eventual dissolution of the United States into something other that what it was. The results of this process are still up for debate but the eventuality of it is not.
First, this isn't really relevant to the OP. Not that it matter, but I'm just sayin', in case someone thinks otherwise.
Secondly, I agree completely with your first sentence but not necessarily with your conclusions. If it was that simple the US wouldn't have made it this far. The US hasn't been homogeneous up until now and now is becoming heterogeneous. Instead, although it's been heterogeneous for a long time, it did have overarching principles to unite people, like freedom of expression, democracy, yadda, yadda.
Basically, the overarching principles trumped (no pun intended) the specifics of the people in the country because the principles didn't have anything to do with a persons color or sex or anything else. As long as the principles don't systematically exclude people on characteristics they don't have control over, then everyone can be united. (Cavaet: Yes, I know that earlier on some people were excluded by characteristics they had no control over, but I'm talking more generally about the direction the country has moved in as history has progressed.)
We can't just let everyone in that wants to come in because it's not practical. But OTOH, it doesn't matter specifically who we let in as long as we assimilate them to our overall values like democracy and free expression, etc.. There is nothing about our values that excludes anyone.
I'm skeptical that there is enough commonality between the left and the right to ever find a happy medium again. We have multiple generations that have grown up with a distorted view of reality and now they are trying to force everyone into their delusion. We are to far along in the process to reverse it without unwanted consequences. This weekend was a perfect example, you had a disillusioned youth in Texas murder a bunch of people and you had an Antifa nutjob murder a bunch of people in Ohio. The left and the right, especially the nihilistic youth, are only going to get more and more violent. The left bears responsibility for forcing there ideology on us and the right bears responsibility for not stopping them. This has been going on since at least the 60s, so everyone you know has been affected and is either complicit with the situation or is a victim of circumstance. Either way it is the reality we are going to have to deal with.
The overwhelming majority of the left and right completely reject their crazy person that killed people over the weekend. But unfortunately, the loudest voices on the left and right are the ones that are pretty far out there, giving the illusion that things are more divided than they are.
That said, I bet a thing the two crazies had in common was being way into the internet and social media, etc. I know the one on the left was and I bet the one on the right was too.
ETA: It's actually a thing now when a crazy shooter kills a bunch of people that partisan people HOPE it's a crazy from the other side so that they can say "See, it's your side doing the killing." People don't want the killings to happen, rather they just want to win the political war.
Some might say that social media and guns occupy a similar position, in one respect. Are the companies that make them (Twitter, Facebook, gun manufacturers) at fault, or is it the people who misuse those products?
Personally, i have despised social media from the get-go because of the lack of sensory input (tone of voice, inflection, sarcasm, etc.). I have drilled into my kids that the best way to communicate and form and foster relationships is by speaking face-to-face and looking people square in the eye. Storytelling (i.e., around a campfire) is a primal attribute that we are abandoning in favor of impersonal messages, for which we are paying a price.
Personally, i have despised social media from the get-go because of the lack of sensory input (tone of voice, inflection, sarcasm, etc.). I have drilled into my kids that the best way to communicate and form and foster relationships is by speaking face-to-face and looking people square in the eye. Storytelling (i.e., around a campfire) is a primal attribute that we are abandoning in favor of impersonal messages, for which we are paying a price.
It’s the people, it’s not the product.
I agree, it’s amusing to me to watch some of our younger generation behave in a social setting.
For one, they’re never actually present, they’re always on their phone sending pictures of whatever it is they’re doing to their friends trying to give the impression that they’re living their best life. It’s all a facade. I’ve professionally coached some of the kids on my team about it. They’re getting better.
They all abide by the twittersphere groupthink. Forcing them to participate in conversations while at Happy Hours has been fun to watch as well. They literally aren’t able to effectively contribute when you take their phone away and when they have their phone, they’re checked out. I had to explain to one of them that I literally could not give a damn about whatever it is they wanted to show me on their phone.
I’ve even had to get onto my wife about the damn picture taking. Just enjoy the moment for yourself. It doesn’t have to be documented or shared. It can be just for us.
I’m not on FB, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, or the like. This is about the only social networking I do and I feel completely connected with those I need to connect with, which are living breathing people, called friends, in person, I can see and hear and trust with a secret or story.
I agree with that generally but especially with this part:
"For one, they’re never actually present, they’re always on their phone sending pictures of whatever it is they’re doing to their friends trying to give the impression that they’re living their best life. It’s all a facade."
We have a very shallow culture that emphasizes appearance over substance. Everyone wants to look good, and I don't just mean physically. For many people, how you ARE doesn't matter nearly as much as how you APPEAR. People are constantly putting on a show. Attacking a person that says something imprecisely or a bit non-PC is part of the show. Saying how much you care when a tragedy occurs is part of the show. They call it the "virtue economy" and you score points and gain power by displaying virtue...not by BEING virtuous but by DISPLAYING it.
Here is a really good two minute joke by Anthony Jeselnik about people that go on Twitter when a tragedy occurs and says "Thoughts and prayers" or something similar. Be aware, there's some profanity. Unfortunately the first part of the joke gets cut off but it's still good. The set up is how, when a tragedy happens people run to twitter to say how much they care, although of course none of the victims of a tragedy are reading twttier when they're dealing with a tragedy.
I hadn't heard of Anthony Jeselnik until about a year ago. He's got lots of good stuff. If you haven't heard him check him out.
Maybe two. I don't know, not too long ago. Yes, I know he's been around awhile but I wasn't up on the comedians.
I actually found Jeselnik somehow, can't remember how, before I got Netflix and checked out a lot of comedy specials. There were lots of comedians I haven't heard of on there, some I liked and some I disliked. I can't remember the names now but one I liked was a woman named Ali Wong.
I watched Ellen on Netflix and it was painful. She used to be funny but her comedy is so plain and drab now. I guess having a daytime talk show will do that to you.
Jeselnik, BTW, is from Pittsburgh and graduated high school from Upper St. Clair, in case any of you are from that region.
Written medium may be used to tell a story well but written medium doesn't allow for conversation due to loss of vocal inflections and tone. It is left to the listener to decide the meaning of the message received...
I've been in Jackson NJ for the last 6 months & internet signals suck at best , & im so happy...for about a year now i have been backing away from carrying my phone & just enjoying people around me....
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