Member-only story
Making Nice in Cruel Times
Social media doesn’t make it easy
Okay, we’ve come out of our dens, we’ve opened our eyes, we’ve sniffed the air, and damn…how did this happen? I mean, seriously — how did this happen? We’re living through times so crazy, so cruel, so insecure it’s getting harder and harder to remember those days when our hearts weren’t pounding and our heads weren’t threatening to explode.
I may be remembering it all wrong — that’s what political PTSD does to a person — but before Donald Trump crashed through seemingly impenetrable barriers to get to the White House, before he went to work turning our society upside down to suit his own corrupt agenda, before the people he lured into his lair caved, kowtowed, and destroyed their reputations (if not their souls) by standing by their man, we were nicer. Or at least we pretended we were.
Now even the best of us have become loud-mouthed name-callers. We use F-bombs and C-words as safety valves. We look to settle arguments by twisting knives in already gaping wounds. We work hard at it, to the point of neglecting real issues.
We spend hours online savoring the need to turn the air blue. We can’t get through the day without using CAPS and exclamations (!!!!!!), posting links and memes intended to satisfy our rage — as if that’s even possible.
