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11 tweets,
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Assuming he's guilty, which it now appears he *may* be, there's a lesson in the Jussie Smollett case for all of Twitter and America.
The news cycle, like life, is it getting more complicated every day. Responding rapidly and aggressively to every story with our … 1/7
The news cycle, like life, is it getting more complicated every day. Responding rapidly and aggressively to every story with our … 1/7
collective hair on fire does nothing to clarify dramatic and unusual stories, combat racism, or right social wrongs. It often just convolutes them and makes it easier for the enemies of social justice to point to such drama and claim they invalidate—or at least … 2/7
cast big doubts about—most legitimate cases of racism or other injustice. I tend to wait 24 hours before reacting at all in most cases, but in ones this complicated or sensational, I can wait weeks (as I just said I was doing the other day). And this latest turn in … 3/7
this case is why.
Just because we can react to everything doesn't mean we should react to everything. I don't know how society learns this lesson, but somehow we'd better try. It has gotten very difficult deal with issues like this on Twitter. Even in private DM … 4/7
Just because we can react to everything doesn't mean we should react to everything. I don't know how society learns this lesson, but somehow we'd better try. It has gotten very difficult deal with issues like this on Twitter. Even in private DM … 4/7
groups, people have become so fearful of triggering others and unleashing scorn upon themselves for having opinions that run counter to the popular narrative, they just won't even talk about these matters anymore. I was not just hesitant to come to conclusions … 5/7
about Smollett, I was hesitant to even discuss it AT ALL. And that fear does not bode well for our culture. Not everything is always as it appears, nor how social activists want it to appear. If we don't remind ourselves of this before going off any target of … 6/7
opportunity, we will often set back our collective causes and concerns when they matter most. There's nothing wrong with saying "I don't know what this is about. I'll await more information." Anyone arguing that logic is probably selling something. Don't buy it. 7/7
Postscript:
As bad as these mob reactions are for celebrities, they are even more traumatic for ordinary folks. Unless you have been tag teamed by the ruthlessly selfish and unethical Twitter brigades who just see great fun to be had to piling on any story that … 1/4
As bad as these mob reactions are for celebrities, they are even more traumatic for ordinary folks. Unless you have been tag teamed by the ruthlessly selfish and unethical Twitter brigades who just see great fun to be had to piling on any story that … 1/4
comes before them, regardless of facts or evidence, you just cannot appreciate the distortions, fabulism, and outright lying such people are capable of. It's particularly stressful watching the ringleaders prance around, leading their mobs, and enjoying every … 2/4
moment of their in-the-moment celebrity, and the pain and anguish their viciousness causes to real human beings. Someday, perhaps we'll have social media courts to convict and punish such loathsome opportunists. For now, all we can do is remember they exist, and … 3/4
that they thrive on any misery they can bring to whomever is in their barrel this day. Trust me on this: as one who has been tumbled in the barrel of some truly manipulative social media fame-whores and assorted scoundrels, you don't want it to ever be you. 4/4
