A Deep Breath and Caution
It’s not surprising given our divided political culture and the immediacy—and inaccuracy—of social media. The least little comment can quickly be blown up into a breathless, breaking news report that does nothing but continue to inflame all sides and frankly make us dumber as a citizenry.
Let’s face it, a platform that specializes in limited characters and short videos is not the place for nuanced conversation.
That’s why even those who have contributed to the endless noise over time, on all sides of the political spectrum, are now saying it’s time to take a breath before either believing at face value what was posted…or even better…before hitting like, repost, or reply.
In that same vein, folks on the right had better hold off on claiming to have converted folks like Zuckerberg, Bezos, and even Musk to their way of thinking. Musk is brilliant but mercurial, and could switch away from MAGA Land just as quickly as he switched toward it. Zuckerberg and Bezos are each giving huge sums of money to the incoming president’s inauguration fund, and are pledging to atone for the sins they committed even a short time ago…the latest being Zuckerberg’s announcement yesterday that human fact checking would end on Meta platforms.
Without using specific people as examples, if someone jumps to the majority and says they were fooled before, or forced to do things they wouldn’t otherwise because those were the folks in power…what’s to say that’s not just cover because their side lost and they want to curry favor with the ones coming into power? Are these truly held political conversions, or ones of convenience.
Lots of business people contribute to opposing candidates, just to make sure they wind up on the winning side. That has nothing to do with principles, only business.
So when you hear that these power brokers are now cozying up to the incoming administration and its key officials…again, take a breath, on both sides. Because 24-hour news cycle and social media or not, things rarely are what they seem at first glance—or first post.
