I really do love election season for a number of reasons. I like the dialogue it can inspire about sacred cows and oft-ignored but ill-intentioned civic happenings and discourse. I like the excitement and passion it can inspire for our role as citizens. I like the promise elections hold for reinvention, reform and review.
What I don't like is the vitriol and pettiness that those same things can engender, especially with the advent of social media. I watch with some delight about the amount of unfriending and hiding on facebook that happens in these months (and occasionally do it myself). As a general rule, I don't get too political online; for me, facebook is for joking with friends, finding funny cat videos, and peeping at pictures of friends' vacations and kids.
But I did post today, something a little pointed, because it mattered to me. The fallout was at once dispiriting and enlivening. I haven't seen that much action on my wall in a long time. The first responders disagreed with me, and then lots of friends weighed in, referring by name and position to those who preceded them. While their points were clear, and their stances clearly in opposition, most of their rhetoric was civil. It was kind of exciting.
Still, one friend who'd taken the time to post immediately got her hackles up when someone asked a direct question following her post, and she retreated to her own page to whine about "being burned" by posting. I couldn't help but ask why she felt that way. In my mind, if you respond at all, you're inviting another response; being upset by one suggests that you're not arguing or engaging, but ranting, and well, there's enough of that on the talk shows.
Nonetheless, what I appreciated about the whole thing is that I had friends on both sides of the issue who registered their agreement and disagreement. No one changed my mind about anything, but it occurred to me that too often, when we post anything with any substance at all, we're preaching to a choir of the like-minded. We're seeking validation, or cheers, or kudos for a witty articulation. A friend convinced me not long ago that a lot of the divisiveness we're plagued with these days, especially in politics, is the result of the fact that people with divergent thoughts, attitudes and worldviews don't actually speak to each other; they speak to those who share their ideals, shrugging their shoulders, rolling their eyes, and raising their fists at those who hold others. I'm not above that myself; I'll own that I am bewildered by some seeming untenable positions and have begun sentences "How can they possibly..." or "Why can't they see..." among friends from whom I didn't really expect an answer. At the same time, I lost some respect for a former colleague when she posted that all those who supported one candidate should get half the country, and those who liked the other should get the other half, and we should just call it a day.
I don't really know where that leaves me. A hypocrite? A lurker? What I'm thinking about right now is whether or not being somewhat more political on facebook and the like will open my eyes and provide more of these answers (even if they're unconvincing) or start a more serious friend-purging. We'll see...
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