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This concern has been bubbling up within me for some time now, but I especially feel it during this ‘freedom rally’.


Our world society is breaking and is setting us up for some terrible times ahead – physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, politically, financially – pretty much in every way that can be imagined. Our divisions are becoming wider, our acceptance of others narrower, our trust in anything we see, hear and understand is less and less.


There have always been differences between humans, and we have evolved to protect our own group, our own beliefs, the lives of people like us. This has created an Us vs Them humanity where it’s okay to hate someone that is different from us and ours. I don’t know for how long, but while I’ve been alive, there have been people who are striving to grow past this, to become more inclusive, less sexist, racist, homophobic, marginalizing, exclusionary. And there are those who reject this goal because they see it as losing their advantage, of things not being as good or as easy for them.


I’m sure you’ve already picked up my bias, as I’ve seen one group as striving to grow and one group as worrying about themselves. It is hard not to have opinions and to see opposing opinions as wrong; it’s how we are. I realize that everyone’s life has always been a dichotomy of opinions about pet peeves, outrages, consequences and whether we like coffee or tea or pineapple on our pizza.


What has been happening in the last several years, though, has taken our human differences, our individuality, and created such a big divide, such outrage, such anger that I can’t see how we will ever heal from it. What changed? What magnified our differences and minimized our common bonds? As much as I don’t want to believe it, I can see only one answer – or at least a series of answers that emerge from one source. Social Media.


I have loved social media. Saying hello to friends that I wouldn’t have kept in touch with otherwise. Playing shared games and puzzles. Getting that boost when I post about a bad day and people say nice things and commiserate and tell me that I’m wonderful and I’m loved. Chatting with extended family in a group. Seeing pictures of people and things I never would have seen.


I’ve even enjoyed reading articles that friends post. And that are posted by… who?… companies, groups, individuals that I don’t know, and shared amongst my friend group. Sweet thoughts and pictures of kittens and cake recipes, and news of what is happening in the world. News that is posted by recognized media like our local newspaper and tv channel, and news that is posted by people and companies that I don’t recognize, but they sure seem to know what they are talking about. Updates on the virus and other updates that say the first updates are wrong. Then other articles that have real doctors that agree that everyone else has it wrong. Then people saying that original news media have been lying to us for years and we can’t trust them. That something bigger and scarier is behind the lies. And people we know are commenting on this, saying it’s true.


Okay, but I’m not stupid, I can make up my own mind where I fall on the issues. But something happens that isn’t that obvious. Algorithms in the social media company start to only show me articles that agree with ones I’ve already read and liked. And those have links to things that are a little bit more radical, and a little bit harsher against the other side. And there IS another side, but it looks so ridiculous that people are believing what they are saying on the other side, because there is SO much information that supports what I believe. And some of my friends are saying to go and look at sources that have been fact checked and resources that are peer reviewed by scientists – but they don’t know that I know all of those ‘trusted’ sources are lying and cannot be trusted anymore. I comment on their message that they need to wake up and realize that they are being taken in by the ‘fake news’, and they are idiots.


Okay, so I took you down one rabbit hole into one side of a debate. There are so many other factors that make people believe things firmly and without doubt. There are foreign influences that post opinions on fake accounts, countries that want to destabilize ours that pay ‘influencers’ to post positive things about their regimes, and large radicalized groups like white supremacists who pretend to be Christian organizations. And that sentence right there sounds like a conspiracy theory of its own, doesn’t it? I heard it on a CBC documentary that I have always trusted. Am I being lied to? And which source is telling the truth?


But basically, what Facebook, Twitter, etc. do is to try to get you to stay on their sites for as long as they can so that they can show you as many ads as they can. And they use your site activity to tell them what you are interested in and what makes you outraged enough or excited enough to do that. For example, there was a story that came out about teenaged girls looking up anorexia sites and being shown dieting ads and Facebook pages glorifying thinness and anorexia. Social media certainly does NOT have your best interests at heart, just your consumer dollars.


These social media strategies create what I have heard called ‘echo chambers.’ You see and hear only the things that support your own beliefs and biases and it seems like everyone in the world is on your side. This causes you to believe more and more strongly in your own opinions. You post something, and everyone praises you and agrees with you about it. If one or two of your friends with differing opinions comment something contrary to what everyone else is saying, a thousand people jump on them with guns blazing. You start to believe that not only are you right, the people who disagree with you are crazy or stupid, or sheep. Do you feel the division that is pushing us all apart?


As I am thinking on these things, I’m thinking about and writing about the people on the other side of the equation than I am. Because I feel like I have always had these opinions, I have followed the science, I am being responsible about the virus, I am trusting the government to run our country (with reservations, because, you know, they are politicians). I am trying not to marginalize people that are different than me. I am trying to root out sexism and racism and homophobia. To me, it’s common sense. Any responsible, mature, educated ‘normal’ person would agree with me.


But what are the chances of that? What are the chances that I am 100% right and a huge group of others is 100% wrong? I looked at the situation in USA during the Trump administration and saw a division between people who looked out for themselves and people who had empathy for others. People who were so worked up about ‘freedom’ and ‘the good old days’ that they couldn’t see the trouble they were making for others. But some of those people were people who had previously done good for me and whom I knew had love and compassion for others. What were they seeing that I wasn’t?


And now, with the convoy protest, so many people that I know are good people, are so firmly behind the idea of freedom being the right to make choices that hurt other people with no consequences for themselves, that I can’t even wrap my mind around it. And just the way I’ve written that points to my bias.


I’m sure the ‘other side’ would say something like “I can’t imagine someone like Donna not caring about freedom for Canadians! We all should have the right to bodily autonomy, to accept or refuse what goes into our bodies! Freedom is such an exalted concept – what kind of a crazy person doesn’t want to have freedom in their own country? Even if they are okay with the vaccine, they should worry about what freedoms will be taken away next.”


So I can explain to ‘them’ that in a free society we still need rules and laws and governance or we will become a free-for-all anarchy that will not result in freedom for anyone except the people who own the most land and can pay for the most muscle.


And they will explain to me that if we don’t stand up for freedom, we’ll end up in a Communist country or a dictatorship where we have no freedoms at all.


But it is like talking to a brick wall. I am no more moved by their argument than they are by mine.


And in the middle of the division, pushing to widen the distance, are the people who stand to gain from the chaos – subversive groups, foreign powers, rich people getting richer, social media owners, etc.
I can’t see us ever closing that gap. I can see what is happening, and I still am ready to fight for what I think of as a fact and science based response to a terrible virus, an empathetic response to the downtrodden and wronged, and a government system where our freedom lies in our vote and our voice, not a chaotic free-for-all.


Who gives in? If the freedom fighters are forced back home, they can stew in continued anger, breaking forth into new and worse rage when an opportunity presents itself. Or, they can pretend that they won because sooner or later, the mandates will be dropped. If the freedom fighters are given what they want, the residents of Ottawa will revolt, as well as a good portion of the country, and lose all respect for their government. AND, since the convoy’s tantrum worked, they will hold Canada hostage and either threaten or enact an occupation every time the government does something they don’t like.


Basically, what I’m saying is that differences that used to be somewhat contained are now bigger, worse and more widespread. This isn’t something that people can fight out at the legion with fists.


This one issue is dividing the world – many more countries are joining the ‘freedom’ fight as time passes. And this isn’t the only issue, nor even the worst of the issues that are dividing the world today; and we can all be part of every one of them through the magic of social media.
Terrifying, isn’t it?