Leap day is here. Pretty neat indeed, but I think I'd like to leap to the next one please. Normally I'm not the kind of person to want to fast-forward to the future, but this particular leap day, America seems to be relishing in the politics of hate. So if I could I would fast forward to four years from now when it's all over.
Funny, the last time we had a leap year it was also an election year. I think the extra day has done something to peoples brains. It's not surprising to find the usual suspects in an election... opposing ideas, plans, and debate. It's when you toss the media in the mix that things start to really boil, which is expected. However this year I think someone turned the heat to high and it's turning everyone's noggins to mush.
The vitriol is at levels I have not seen in my lifetime. Maybe it's that social media is playing a part in this election like never before. Access for everyday people to sit behind a computer screen and type whatever they like without regard to whether it is actually true or not. The rise of the "new media" has produced a multitude of blogs, and pundits popping up out of the woodwork. Suddenly everyone is a "political expert". People can now hide behind a computer screen and cut, paste, twist, splice, dice, and concoct articles and videos that are used like bullets to wound those they view as needing to be taken down. I find it frightening because often these efforts are not promoting the truth, but instead deepening the divide.
The high and holy conservative pundits sit on their thrones telling people essentially: "You must support thus and such or you cannot possibly be a real conservative or Christian". The same bodes true for the opposite side of the political isle... liberal pundits pushing their guy or gal as the case may be. It's like some of them are literally having a temper tantrum from atop their media perch: "How could you evangelicals choose Trump, oh the humanity."
Many of us have seen it; a "friend" announces on their Facebook something to the effect of:
"If you support thus and such candidate for President then you can just delete me now. In fact I'll even save you the trouble, if you post or like anything by said candidate I will delete and block you myself."
These kind of posts always give me a giggle. I'm not sure the people who post them even see the irony of making such a statement. See we have a word for this in the Greek language it's called hypocrisy. Let's see according to the Merriam Webster dictionary the word means the following:
Hypocrisy: the behavior of people who do things that they tell other people not to do: behavior that does not agree with what someone claims to believe or feel.
What a silly thing for a person to post. Stating that one is so staunch in their belief of freedom that they can not possibly tolerate anyone in their "safe space" (in this case personal Facebook world) who does not agree with their deeply held convictions of personal responsibility, liberty, independent thinking, and most importantly freedom of speech that they have to ban anyone who does not think exactly like they do. Doing so is completely and totally hypocritical. Actually I find it pretty funny, and seem to be having more and more laughs about people doing this very thing, as we get farther along in the election cycle.
Which leads me to just a little bit wish I could hit the switch and jump onto the next leap year when all of this is behind us. To that magical place in time when people will have woken up to the fact that this is the real world, and there are no "safe spaces". When people will have put on their big boy and big girl pants and finally figured out that we are all free to think and choose our own thoughts. What we like, dislike, and even whom we choose to support for President. That even if we "agree" on some things, even most things, there will always be something for we the people to disagree about, and it does not make us bad people. My wish is that this practice of character assignation of people who do not 100% agree with each other is a fad that dies, and quickly.
Happy Leap Day and Super Tuesday!
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