Friday, February 23, 2024

Stop Giving Them Air

     Just because some highly mockable edgelord type says something mockably antithetical to the norms of a free society, or looks like an idiot, or -- as is so often the case -- both, this does not oblige you to make a big deal of mocking it, with a link back to their original brain-dropping.

     If it's something that has to be seen to be believed -- and snickered at for awfulness -- then do a quick screen capture, share it, laugh and move on.  Don't feed 'em links.  Don't feed their quiveringly-needy egos.  Not even if they send you a nice statue for your city park.

     P.S.: "Psyop?"  If you haven't read Sefton Delmer's accounts of his WW II propaganda-war efforts (accounts sadly limited by the Official Secrets Act), then don't try to tell me what is and isn't a "psyop."  But here's a hint: all those TV and online news/opinion hosts don't know, either.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

These HMEs feed on and need the attention. Watching these news/opinion pieces that are so devoted to refuting or “taking down” HMEs giving them the attention needed to stay relevant is frustrating.

Joe in PNG said...

I don't know what all the Rage Clickbait and Look At This Idiot! stories are doing to our culture & public discourse, but it can't be good.
The quest to find real news and real commentary that isn't partisan copeium & hopeium is a difficult one.

Anonymous said...

Joe -

I think the rage clickbait is driving the negative view of Those Other Guys, as seen here:

https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2022/08/09/as-partisan-hostility-grows-signs-of-frustration-with-the-two-party-system/

Those trend lines scare me. Those are our fellow citizens.

I remember when who you voted for only mattered on election day. It didn't define your whole personality, or worldview, or life.