I love America. Where else in the world can so many people have so many differing ideas, and yet at the same time live in harmony? It’s a beautiful thing and it’s what makes our democracy great. As much as I respect the opinions of others, I do get agitated from time to time when people start talking and have no idea what they’re talking about. What’s worse is these people gain followers. The mindless following the clueless. One of the quirks of democracy.
I’m a bit of Facebook addict, meaning I have a profile and visit it a few times each day. Facebook has really entered center stage when it comes to people spreading ideas ranging from the philanthropic to the insane. Groups pop up and can grow to mind boggling sizes nearly overnight if the right message is conveyed and the right connections established. It is no longer uncommon to see groups that have hundreds of thousands of members and some groups have reached out to nearly 1 million or even 2 million of Facebook’s estimated 80 million users.
Unfortunately, you get groups that pop up with people perpetuating false ideas and they invariably grow, with hundreds of thousands of people buying in to the bull. One such group that I recently encountered was spreading all of the common place rumors about Barack Obama. I won’t include any excerpts, but its essentially along the lines of him being a Communist Muslim who wants to tax the rich and give to the poor and that giving speeches in Europe somehow makes him un-American. Of course said in a way that anything good coming from his direction is a bad thing (including giving to the poor.)
I normally try to steer clear of this kind of bull (which is what it amounts to.) Not only is it usually false, it can also be contradictory to what the person even believes. For instance, the person who made this group makes several references to Obama’s name sounding like ”Osama” and that he must be a Muslim because of that, but then in the exact same paragraph says he doesn’t have anything against his name or religion.
I guess everyone is entitled to their own view of the world, but it unfortunately comes at the expense of the mental health of those who try to digest it. If I hear it on the radio, I want to cut off my ears, if I see it on the Internet or TV, I want to gouge out my eyes with a blunt object. It’s no wonder that America is so sought after for its freedom of ideas, and yet despised for the same reason.
In short, people have too much power to be clueless and control the mindless, and what makes this all so funny in the end, is that I’m as guilty as anyone!
