Fabulous. I laughed all the way through.
Minor point of disagreement, which I mention only because I’m curious. It’s a line in the song and I’ve seen plenty of others make it- that nobody ever changed their minds about anything because of stuff they read on FB or Twitter debates. But I have, several times. I don’t get it, why is it taken for granted that this never happens?
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I think that’s how people who know they should have changed their minds because of convincing arguments engage the genetic fallacy to protect themselves from the fact. It came from the internet, so I don’t have to change my mind. Nobody ever does. Also, shut up, because nobody is listening anyway. I HATE when people say that thing about opinions and flatulence. It’s just a way of closing the door on thought.
A lot of time people are so abrasive & obnoxious in their language in social media post commenting that I tend to just dismiss their thoughts. I am always interested in people’s well-thought out comments & opinions. It’s just that many times the comments go straight for the emotional hit, followed by name-calling if you don’t agree. It is hard to take their thoughts seriously.
PS: I don’t think I change my mind much based on social media posts. But I am interested in hearing from people whose opinions are different than mine if they are polite in their approach and can give thought-out reasons for their beliefs.
There is a lot of egregious rudeness and dishonest insults swapped around on social media and it doesn create more heat than light, especially where there’s more insults and rudeness and practically no actual points.
But there’s a halfway part, too, I tend to be an idea person, so I’m looking for the ideas more than the packaging. I wouldn’t say I change my opinions often bsed on social media posts, but it’s happened enough that I wouldn’t call it rare or never, either. Just recently there was a big argument in a smallish circle on Twitter, about the wisdom and effectiveness of conservatives calling the Democratic party the plantation, as in telling blacks to leave the Democrat plantation. I think I’ve probably used that term myself. I certainly haven’t seen any problem with it, and I know it’s usually motivated by good intentions from people who mean well.
I was predisposed to be dismissive to those who said it wasn’t helpful, it was insulting, and it needed to stop. Several of them were insulting in their arguements and made bad faith assumptions about the motivations of those who use the phraseology. But they also made good points about why it was unlikely to effectively communicate the desired message to the intended audience, and I changed my mind. The insults and assumptions about others motivations still rankle, but I changed my mind because the insults were irrelevant to the point about it not being an effective method to achieve the desired goal.