You’re not allowed to be upset!
A lazy hit piece on lazy hit pieces.
If we’re being honest here, I’m really trying not to get too entirely heated or into some sort of gigantic debate-style fuckary that could potentially spiral out of control and take us all places that we never knew that we didn’t want to go.
It’s alright though. I vented and left an angry comment on someone elses article before writing this, so everything should be good on my end.
Which may make me look like a complete hypocrite by the end of this, but I’m committed so I’m sticking with it.
I think that most people reading this would agree that starting shit on the interwebs is not something they would particularly enjoy being a part of. Which is a really awesome segue into what the majority of this article is all about.
It’s about the few who would very much enjoy gigantic debate-style fuckary and taking us places we don’t want to go.
Yet somehow we feel compelled to stand our ground and fight the good fight. Land of the Free. Home of the Brave. Shack of the Sharp-Tongued Shit Starters.
Boy, am I glad I wrote that one down. Say that five times fast. That is some solid witty writing right there. I’ve got to stop doing that now. Moving on!
Why is it that we as a species can’t come to some sort of common ground or understanding that both parties involved in a dispute are capable of a logical and rational assessment of information? Why is it that someone at the end of any mundane argument (I’m sorry, debate.) has to be absolutely f****** right about whatever it is that started the debacle in the first place?
I will be one of the first to admit that what comes out of my face from time to time is not always entirely correct. Although I know it to be true at the time. I will, however, adjust accordingly when new information has been presented and found to be factual.
Now by factual I don’t mean “yes that’s true,” because judging by today’s news, blogs, posts, podcasts, and articles that doesn’t necessarily mean a damn thing.
Stick with me here for a second. I promise this will all make sense. Hopefully.
With today’s access to information it is easier than ever for someone take a topic and twist it into any kind of pro or anti-propaganda they feel would best suit whatever their needs may be.
Most of the times you will see this in things like clickbaity titles (See: You’re not allowed to be upset!) designed to spark some sort of emotion or trigger an immediate response. Which, in marketing terms, is essentially just a call to action. (I.E. Sign Up Here!)
I’m going to break this down even farther to kind of help show what sort of impact is in just the title of any piece of content.
I already touched on the aspect of why people use these tactics to trigger certain emotions that are the most likely to facilitate a response. (Anger, Sadness, and Fear for anyone taking notes.)
This in turn leads to people clicking on the link or going to the page. Which then generates more traffic, and by the design of the content, people are far more likely to comment to complain, rather than comment to praise.
The more interaction that you have on a site, a page, or even a social media account, ( you’re welcome) the more likely you are to be ranked higher up in search engines and/or picked to be featured on the front page of any major publication or media outlet.
All of those things that I just said — The traffic, engagement, search engine ranking — all of that equates to profit. Both for the individual and/or the company who created or hosted that piece of content.
Yeah that’s right. You can pay your bills by pissing people off. You can also help pay the people’s bills who you’re pissed off at at the very same time. I could probably make my own “50 ways to Make Money Online” course at this point, but I’m stubborn and just refuse.
Which if you’re still here, leads us all the way back to why simply being factual isn’t the defining aspect of being correct.
I can sit here and tell you why lettuce is good for you until I’m blue in the face. Meanwhile, go ahead and Google this if you want, somebody else is screaming “public health experts said the frequency of food-borne illness outbreaks points to the need for bolder action by both the industry and federal government, especially when it comes to tracing contaminated produce” because 32 people in 11 states got e-coli from contaminated lettuce.
I’d wager there’s 32 people in 11 different states right this very moment with f****** e-coli and it’s most likely not even due to lettuce.
You see, here’s where the standoff happens.
I’m not wrong, and neither is the person debating against it. So no amount of facts or validation is going to do either side any good. Yet we will sit here and argue about dumb shit like that for literal days on end.
Instead of Simply going, “You know what? I’m going to doing my thing and you can do your thing, but I appreciate you giving me the heads up.”
Again, we are all humans capable of logical and rational thinking.
So how about we all make some sort of pact to stop being this massive silent majority and stop letting the very few, very loud, and very annoying make all the noise and ruin all the fun for the cool kids?
Sound good? Awesome.
