No, I can't begin to make sense of today's news. I refuse to get sucked into the racial, gun culture, anti Semitic, anti Muslim, freshly re-frozen cold war crap.
One of the worst things about social media is the "Lord of the Flies" democracy. Mob rule, groupthink, lowest-common-denominator willingness to "like" and thus give tacit approval and support to the most insidious behaviors because they are on the post of someone with whom you usually agree. I am outraged and disgusted by the bulk of what I've seen.
I have to admit that I do credit social media for one thing. I never really understood just how ugly and vulgar a huge number of people really are, when you scratch beneath their pleasant, superficial veneer. I didn't understand how vulnerable many perceptively strong people are. And don't even get me started on how people in their 40's, 50's 60's and beyond never let go of teenage angst, juvenile drama and catty feuds.
The reverse side of the coin, I have learned the inner strength of the timid, quiet and shy. I have learned the sacred serenity of those I perceived as aloof and agnostic. I've gotten to know the truth about "dear friends" who never really were, and distant acquaintances who were much closer to me than I ever knew. I have come to love members of my own family in a deeper way than I ever knew I could. I've met people who are "just facebook friends" who have become some of the dearest, closest people I know. I have people I can confide in that I've never been in the same zip code with, while simultaneously learning that people I've trusted and confided in for years, weren't trustworthy.
I have come to question all I think I knew about what is real, and what is superficial. I have learned that nothing you think you know is exactly real. Every data set is biased, and can be refuted by another angle. There is always more to any story than you will ever know. Everyone has secrets. Nobody is better than you - you are better than no one, either. Sanity and insanity are a sliding scale, and no one has a clean report card.
Every time I give in to knee jerk reactions, mob mentality and succomb to buying into things at face value simply because the source agrees with me on most things - when I seek out sources of information that reinforce my current beliefs and avoid sources that provide rational disagreement, I become a weaker, less informed and more vulnerable person.
Also, anytime I question myself, question authority, question sacred cows, question reality, question the sources who agree with me, I become a stronger, more rounded and informed person.
DD
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