This is @ you

By: Noah Gecelovsky

Everyone with thumbs and a social media account has the ability to share his or her opinion freely and with very few rules. 

What was once academics arguing over drinks in the smoke-filled saloons and bars of the early 1900s is now online arguments for the world to see, with the thumbs of the youth and themes of highschool drama.  

If you go through the feed of a well-intentioned political debate on Facebook or Twitter, somewhere along the line you will notice that the conversation takes a turn from relying on facts and diplomacy to insults and name-calling.  

It begins with two people debating and escalates to pointing fingers and calling each other Nazis or ignorant racists in an attempt to convince the other person their views and morals are wrong. 

Growing up in North America, we quickly become familiar with “Twitter beef” and “Facebook wars,” especially in high school: Timmy and Jenny were dating but then Timmy decided he wanted to date Miranda instead. Let’s go on Twitter and call him a Nazi!  

What the new generation calls diplomacy and debating, as well as free speech, past generations would call immaturity and — for lack of a better word — ignorance. 

People type insults in caps because if screaming face to face does not guarantee a win during debates, then screaming through your fingers into a computer will. 

“It’s very easy to scream at people you don’t like. It’s more serious to try to understand what they’re doing and take constructive actions to prevent it.” ~Noam Chomsky 

We have lost the ability to absorb and analyze information to form an educated opinion and then share it. On the other end, the receiver also needs to be able to listen without using their lips or fingers and understand what is being said to form their own opinion and continue the circle. 

It makes you think: 

What will the presidential and vice–presidential debates look like in 20 years when Facebook trolls are running for office? 

Now, I understand racism is still an ever-present problem along with many other civil rights issues. However, when two people of any colour, race or ethnicity are fighting on Twitter and one decides to call the other a racist, a fascist or even a Nazi, this is not only an obvious example of ignorance, but shows the person does not have enough information or intelligence to form a rebuttal. 

To call someone a Nazi — or one of the other insults above — arbitrarily is the equivalent of throwing in the metaphorical kitchen sink. 

Too many people try to play activist and think shouting their opinions or wearing their Che Guevara t-shirts validate them and shows they are of able mind. In reality, those people are the ones who missed the activism bus; they do not even understand that spending money on Che Guevara merchandise is the exact opposite of which the revolutionary represented.  

Groups like The Black Panthers, The White Panthers and Vietnam Protest Marchers educated themselves and made sure to educate followers on the morals of their groups and what they stood for. If uneducated copycats tried to represent the groups or speak on their behalf, the groups would denounce those individuals with facts and civil discussion — unlike nowadays where people just call them the “alternative-left or right.” 

With the rise of social media in the last 10 to 15 years, many people have been given a voice. Social media did what so many groups and folk legends had done before — it has given a voice to the voiceless.  

Unfortunately, not everyone can handle freedom without losing their minds and chastising every person who opposes their thoughts. 

All this persecution and hostility from the pretentious “free thinkers,” gives some educated activists an existential look on life and makes them question if fighting against oppression is worth it if no one will listen. If these “free thinkers” are so easily set off by a flippant reply on Twitter or comment on Facebook, what would they be like protesting on the streets? 

Was activism an easier idea before social media? Was change an easier thing to influence? 

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., John A. Macdonald, Emmeline Pankhurst and George Washington would not have let some Facebook trolls and Twitter beef reduce their campaigns for better lives to a few ignorant and insulting posts.  

In 1517, Martin Luther nailed what was later known as the 95 Theses to the door of Wittenberg Castle Church. This event sparked a revolution against the Catholic Church and later founded Lutheranism, one of the oldest sects of Christianity. If Martin Luther had created a Facebook note titled Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences, would anyone have read it? 

Do not blame millennials for their use of the Internet as a setting for debate or communication of similar ideas. Do not blame leftists or rightists, no matter how alternative or centred they identify. Do not blame older generations for their lack of social media etiquette and do not blame younger generations for being ill or quick-tempered. Blame every person who has ever logged on to any form of social media and used the Internet as a platform to debate or express their opinion and resorted to simple name calling and petty-fighting.