Change My Mind

Silly me…I keep thinking there’s some hope for us.  I have remained optimistic that there will come a day when common sense and decency will win out over personal feelings, petty hatreds, and overall idiocy.  It seems every day brings me closer to losing that hope, that ember of optimism.  Today, my needle ticks a little closer to red because this week brought the murder of Charlie Kirk.

Charlie Kirk was an advocate for free speech.  He welcomed opposing viewpoints, though he was quick to debate them.  In fact, the catchphrase that turned him into a viral meme was, “Change my mind.”  I suppose his murder was someone’s sick way of attempting to do just that.  Funny, I feel certain that wherever he is now (although I’m not sure he is “anywhere” now), he would still maintain it was a person that killed him, not a gun.

Apparently, judging by some of the comments on social media, he was hated by a large group of people who did not agree with his opinions (and certainly by one person in particular).  They seem happy, or callous, or apathetic about Kirk’s murder.  Many of those comments reference something he said about gun violence, abortion, trans-genders, and DEI.  Many of them call him “fascist,” “bigot,” and “white supremacist.”  They say he spread hate.  One comment I read said, “The world and his children are better off without him.”

The other side of the aisle praised him as a saint, a savior of our country.  President Trump called him “legendary” while offering condolences to his wife and children (who were present to witness his gruesome murder).  Many expressed disgust and horror.

I, as a moderate, have mixed feelings about Charlie Kirk’s politics and opinions.  That doesn’t really matter, though.  I’ve only ever wished death on one person in my fifty-four years…a guy who I’d felt had personally wronged me, a supervisor at a manufacturing plant where I worked in my twenties.  I don’t regret feeling that way…I never killed him, I got over it, and he didn’t die by any unnatural means…that I know of.  He may still be alive for all I know.

But I really kinda liked Charlie Kirk.  He seemed like a genuinely nice person.  He did what so many others don’t…he gave you the option of trying to change his mind…about anything.  I doubt if anyone ever did, but he gave anyone the opportunity.  He’d even give them the microphone to make their voices louder. 

I’ve seen many instances when people with an opposing viewpoint refuse to hear you.  They’ll shout over you to prevent you from speaking, they’ll deny you, block you, refuse to acknowledge you without any regard to how articulate or thoughtful your message is.  They will maintain themselves in their echo chambers to their dying day.

And why should anyone step outside those chambers?  They’re so certain they’re in the right.  Why bother with another opinion?  What good is humility when you have all the power of your convictions?  When you have genuine empathy for everyone but for someone who thinks differently than you…there’s only so much you can spare.

For about fifteen years now, I’ve held a deep mistrust for social media.  I’ve felt it would lead our civilization to ruin somehow.  I think I’ve discovered the “somehow.”  The infamous and mysterious Algorithm.  It shows you only what you want to see.  It keeps you in your echo chamber, hearing only what you need to keep you engaged, to keep you interested in hearing more of the same bullshit you’ve already been fed. 

The Algorithm…it’s a trap!  It’s the pitcher plant of the digital age.  It’s sweet nectar of empathy and understanding draws you closer to your mental safe space.  Once you’re there, your safe space becomes your tomb.  Try to crawl out, but tiny filaments pointing backward prevent you.  You slide back into that sweetness where your mind is slowly digested.  The echo chamber nourishes itself with your biased, regurgitated opinions. 

That sweet nectar, in most cases, is hate.  Don’t you hate someone each day?  Isn’t that what draws you to social media?  Don’t you need to see the ones you hate get what they deserve?  Oh, it’s so sweet!  Nothing better really.  All the cat videos and funny memes…none of it compares to seeing your enemies get shot in the neck before he can explain why your opinion is wrong.  What in the digital world can make your day better?

This.  This is how social media will destroy our civilization.  This is how you add to the darkness.  This is the apocalypse in real time. 

I’d say there was a way out of that sweet nectar, but most of you can’t/won’t avoid it.  Try turning your phone off for a couple of hours…watch the power come back on as though by some black magic.  Try taking your teens’ phone away…watch the demons come out of them.  You can’t.  If you’re reading this, chances are you’re already trapped.  Chances are, half the people who started reading this never made it past, “I really kinda liked Charlie Kirk.” Hell, that’s if the Algorithm let you see it at all.

Or just try giving a Heart emoji to some random positive post…a thousand times.  That post that simply wishes you “Good Morning!”  Those aforementioned cat videos and funny memes, give those a Like. 

Better yet, post something positive every day…I don’t mean something celebrating someone who died…something truly positive.  This won’t be easy at first.  The Algorithm knows you and knows you crave the bullshit.  You may have to actively search for something positive to share with the digital world.  Hell, make something up if you can…”I found my lost alpaca in the neighbor’s backyard eating M&Ms.”  It doesn’t need to make sense.  Just make someone smile today.  Every day.

Here’s mine…

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that” -Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Do this if you can.  I still hold on to that sliver of optimism, but somehow, I doubt we can turn this thing around.  Please, change my mind.

-Big Steve