When people are outraged at the outrage.

Matt Hames
Aug 25, 2017 · 4 min read

This week I lurked on a couple of Facebook threads where friends of mine were attacked and called bullies. They were attacked for attacking Trump.

Canadian friends, attacked by other Canadians, for calling Trump names.

Weird times.

We seem to get more of our news from people who tell us why “they” are awful. They are mostly responsible for many of the ills, evils, political correctness, and lack of common sensey things that happen in this ever growing multicultural world.

That results in some confusion, and anger. White people are confused by “their” perceptions of “their” whiteness, of black lives — and why it is important that we agree they matter, affirmative action, the renaming of schools, the taking down of statues, the political correctness, the lack of damn common sense…

Things are clearly heating up in real life, and on Facebook, where the sides are mapped by an algorithm. See, we tend to be friends with people who share our views, and amplify our ideas (though we’re still friends with people we shared the same geography with when young.)

The algorithm gives us content from the people we engage with the most. So if I “like” a lot of Pepe memes, I get more of the same. If I like a post that says “Blue Lives Matter” — the algirithm feeds me more of the same. If I like a post that says “Trump is an idiot” — I’ll get more of the same.

But sometimes, the algorithm throws up your grade nine locker partner with a post from left field. Something outside of your bubble. And someone enters the bubble with an idea you don’t like, and the way Facebook works amplifies your rage. Two sides of the divide go to metaphorical war in a Facebook thread.

I’ve seen threads where people seem to be outraged that someone is outraged. I see people attacking other people in a way they wouldn’t dream of in real life. Apologizing, reaccusing. Vowing to quit this thread.

See, when someone has an idea you don’t like — for xample saying Sir John A MacDonald started the residential school system, or George Washington also had a set of false teeth he bought from slaves at well-below market price, the reaction is fight or flight.

Since we are often in the comforts of our homes, there is never a reason for flight.

So, we fight.

Chances are, you’re already seething at rage with my political correctness and lack of common sense in attacking the founding fathers of TWO countries. I hope you clicked the links and checked the sources to ensure I’m not shitting you. Hopefully you did that before you got outraged at me.

Then, though, after you check the links, you might write:

“What do you want next cuckhole, the removal of these founding fathers from the money? Where will they stop? When white people are removed from the country?”

See how easy it is? I added “they” because in this instance, I would be added to “they,” even though I’m a white male, and my cohort holds almost all the wealth and power in both Canada and the US.

So my advice. Take a deep breath. Let the fight or flight urge go away.

Then remember this: one person’s heroes might be someone else’s villains because people are complicated. Hundreds of years ago, people thought diseases were god’s wrath, and they also launched countires. We think they are smart, even though we can point to things that did that were dumb, in hindsight.

But, and this is important, indigenous people in Canada are still dealing with the effects of Residential schools. Black people in America are still dealing with the effects of slavery.

That doesn’t mean you’re at fault, or to blame. But it does mean there is truth to the complaint. For most of the last century in America, black people were not able to buy a house because of government policy. Generations of wealth wasn’t being passed down in black communities until just recently. Same goes for Indiginous people in Canada (and in the US, where indigenous people are still called Indians and can’t even get Cleveland and Washington to quit it.)

So what does that mean? Should you pull down the statue? Rename Sir john A. MacDonald school? If you’re a Canadian, and your grandfather was taken in the residential schools program, you might agree you should rename them. If you happen to be a black person in the US, and you are aware that the statue or Robert E Lee was put up after the Jim Crow laws came off the books, but around the time of the The National Housing Act of 1934, you might want that bit of history erased.

It also means we should listen more and use all caps less. None of this is a conspiracy to whitewash history, or an attack on the past. It isn’t a guilty plea, or an agreement of wrongdoing in any way. It is an ackowledgement that people in the past were flawed.

I’m flawed. You’re flawed. Facebook, sadly, is amplifying our flaws.

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Matt Hames

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I think about the web presence #highered and how to make a good second impression. I love my life, being a dad and @curling.

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