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Impressed by all the people saying “Be Kind†on Twitter in the wake of the Caroline Flack tragedy and then immediately posting what a knobhead Piers Morgan is whilst @ing him in. It’s hard to argue that they are not half right, but a month ago the same people would have claimed it was justified being rude to Flack due to what she was alleged to have done. Spermi Organ seems to revel in the opprobrium and court it, but as we keep on discovering people are often not as happy as they seem. What if tomorrow, God forbid, he decided to end it all, would the people blaming tabloid journalists for the latest tragedy accept that they were to blame for this one? Would I have to accept that my clever anagram (only created in response to him doing a similar thing to someone else) had been the last straw?
If you’re going to say “Be Kind†(it’s a lovely sentiment) then you have to be kind to the people you you disagree with and don’t like. Even if they aren’t kind. Being kind to people you like isn’t any effort and should surely be happening automatically. I think making an effort to consider other people’s feelings and not be presumptuous on social media would be a big help. Having experienced Twitter storms from all kinds of directions, mainly weirdly when I have made reasonable statements like, “think a bit about whether it’s worth using disablist language†or “it’s probably polite to call people by the words or pronouns that they’d like you to call them byâ€, rather than the many awful and contentious things I have said in jest, I can attest to the emotional impact that a day or two of constant insults can have.
I think realistically we’re not going to be kind to everyone, but we can be a bit more considerate about the impact of sending messages directly to a person and a bit less ready to condemn people for acting like human beings or making mistakes. We can express opinions without lighting up the torches when someone doesn’t precisely agree with ours. I saw Jon Ronson being criticised for still following someone who a lot of people on Twitter have taken against. Ronson agreed that he was against what the person stood for, but didn’t agree that following someone was a sign of approval. He was still being attacked for daring to disagree with the dictate that unfollowing was the only course of action. By people who agreed with his take. Who were still furious with him.
Perhaps tabloids are to blame for the latest tragedy, maybe relentless social media attacks or maybe it was to do with the court case or some other personal reason or something else entirely. Possibly a combination of all these factors, maybe nothing to do with any of them. No one knows, but again social media weighs straight in with definitive answers, just as it did when it decided it knew what had happened a few months ago.
These presumptions and the vehemence with which they are embraced and believed as unquestionable are also part of the problem.
The tabloids, whilst certainly awful, are responding to what its audience want. They would stop printing the stuff if we stopped buying it and clicking on it. Maybe, given the damage caused the government could do more to curb the excesses, but ultimately we are passing the buck if we don’t acknowledge our own part in all this. Oh and RTing the terrible opinions of others in order to criticise them just helps spread the terrible opinions. Ignore them. I know it's impossible and things woll never change. And we'll never acknowledge our own hypocrisy at daring to judge 99% of people’s behaviour when our own actions are just as bad or worse.
Ah fuck it, what’s the point? You’re all dicks. Just do your best to be less of a one. You fucking dicks.
