Hi everyone. I thought I’d share a reply to one of the posts I made recently.
“I believe Mike is a victim of reflexive control and has locked himself into supporting a position to the point where he continues to look for alternative ways to continue doing so. This is a sign of insecurity.”
To be honest, I don’t even remember the “friend” who wrote that. So it’s possible that he has a degree in clinical psychology and is, indeed, qualified to diagnose me. But I doubt that’s the case. As for insecurity? I have a lot of faults but insecurity clearly isn’t one of them. Ask anyone who knows me. The really hilarious thing is that this guy was actually explaining what makes me tick to my brother. What an idiot.
There’s a point that can be made here though. Whenever I see someone attacking the speaker and not just the speaker’s message, I believe that there’s a good chance that the message is something worth pondering.
Let me take a minute to explain why I’ve started posting more. But first, a brief story:
A few years ago, I was in Minnesota at a Menard’s store (think a mid-western Home Depot) at the register checking out. My dad mentioned to the woman scanning our purchases that I was from California. She said she’s glad she doesn’t live there. I made some comment about the weather always being great in CA and she would love it there. Her reply? “Jerry Brown is going to ban/remove all of the bibles in hotel rooms and I couldn’t live someplace where that would happen.”
I told her that first, Jerry Brown couldn’t actually do that and second, it didn’t sound like anything he’d want to do anyway. Her reply was “But I saw it on Facebook!”. I explained that not everything she reads on Facebook is actually true. She replied, “Why would someone lie?”
And there you go. People are being trained to react to Twitter-sized sound bites that are designed to spread misinformation. You can’t get enough useful information in a few lines of text to actually consider what is being presented to you. The only thing that can be accomplished with an image or a few words is to evoke an emotional reaction from someone. This is a great approach if your position can’t be backed up by facts. It’s also a great method if you have to rely on the ignorance of the population to further your cause.
Sound bites and simple graphics are poor tools for educating people and encouraging independent thinking. The reason I started this blog is because I felt someone had to help balance the information being presented in my little corner of social media. The reason my posts are so long is because I’m not trying to tell you what to think, I’m trying to help you think for yourself.
