Just Look at How Creepy We've Become

In a Netflix special that will suffice until Dave Chappelle does another one, Michael Che calls out women for being creepy. It’s fresh and honest material and something that should have been said. He states that women are just as creepy as men, but we won’t call them on it. I imagine this is because much of what we men think, do, and think about doing is for positive romantic and/or sexual attention from women. I’m not letting out any big secrets here, so slow down with the pummeling, bros. I bruise easy.

I am here to say that we U.S.A.icans have become creepy in ways that we haven’t even defined as creepy. Think of the adjective creepy, and then think of examples of the word. All sorts of images and people might come to mind. I won’t go into any sordid examples here because this is already a loaded topic and I don’t want to offend any sensibilities. Now, think of the ways we are creepy on social media. We might stalk an ex lover or a future potential lover. We might linger on and hit the like button on that one picture that’s a little too revealing. We might read the inconsequential information people put on there about themselves a little too long. We might look at their check-ins and tell ourselves that we’ll meet them there and pretend it’s a wonderful coincidence. I’ve not done any of these, just saying.

But how about this. What do we call it when we whittle our social media down to a fine point and plunge it into the beating heart of our fellow man? I call it creepy, nasty, gross, nauseating, revolting, repulsive, and anything else my thesaurus could reveal were I industrious enough to peruse it just now.

Don’t break your neck on this segue. I’ll circle back around. Much of our constitution is based on the writings of John Locke and his Social Contract, along with the natural law most deists believe is written on our hearts from birth to death. Both of these are similar in that we expect consequences imposed upon someone who injures our person or steals from us. It’s not so simple as that but you get the gist.

So the guy who broke into my car a few weeks ago and stole my backpack, books, sunglasses, bluetooth enabled noise-canceling work headphones (I ride mowers for a living), my imitation Carhartt jacket (prompting me to replace it with the real thing in a rare moment of Treat Yoself-ing), and a few other items deserves to be charged with theft and pay back the damages. That won’t happen because police in my city are tied up with violent crime and the images of the guy on my security camera were okay, but not great. They didn’t capture his good side. Same thing to the customers who recently received hundreds of dollars worth of work and welshed on their debt. I just must have one of those faces which screams “steal from me”.

Now, when someone disagrees with you on social media, attends a rally/protest in defense of political principles you despise, says something you just can’t stomach, raises their kids in a way contrary to how you were (despite your overarching need to point out that you turned out fine), posts a picture of themselves hunting wild game, refuses to violate their conscience through their business service, or does any number of things that cause controversy nowadays but aren’t even close to stepping out of civilization’s generally agreed upon boundaries, they haven’t injured your person or stolen from you. In two minutes of burglary, the dude mentioned above hurt me more than the doctor who shot a lion ever hurt you. So do they deserve your wrath, the full weight of Social Justice Warriors, and to have their lives irreparably damaged or destroyed for it? May God always and forever forbid such a thing. It’s so disgustingly creepy it’s giving me the chills just writing about it. I feel all icky making this blog post.

Case in point. She-who-is-the-thumbnail-to-this-blog-post-but-must-not-be-named is calling for the blood of a 17 year-old kid who dared to be white in public and wear a Trump hat. She wasn’t content with the school’s decision on discipline, because rational adults with proper judgment couldn’t ever run a private school in Kentucky. She wanted names. Of minors who didn’t break a law. To be spread on the internet. A response on her twitter feed showed her that the original video was chopped so as not to include context or show that this boy was actually quite innocent of any of the racism, bigotry, and all the other default buttons progressive harpies push whenever a white guy finds himself in the public eye.

The coward’s way is to delete tweets, as is being done this very instant by some of the aforementioned harpies. But that’s at least a correction, if not an implicit admission of guilt. The leader’s way is to admit you were wrong and apologize to the people whose pound of flesh you’ve hacked off. That way actually lends you credibility and respect in the eyes of the people who look up to and follow you. The prideful monster’s way is to double down and deflect to a whole other issue on the same topic, like saying that non-whites have such a visceral reaction to a white man smiling that Nathan Phillips couldn’t have felt anything but fear and oppression when confronted with such overpowering visuals (I guess white people do have some Juju to dole out). Guess which of the three options listed above she chose? I’ve read Kathy Griffin’s twitter feed. You can too. Make sure you’ve not eaten in a little bit.

This is creepy, and no mistake! This and his parents have received death threats because why not go all in and wipe out his seed from the earth, right? He’s had to issue statements. His parents explored the idea of litigation. For the love of crumb cake, when I was 17, I wanted to maintain good grades, excel at the ACT, score goals in soccer, beat The Legend of Zelda, goof off while walking dogs at the kennel that employed me, and impress the girls around me with my various witty remarks. I didn’t need anything close to what this boy’s gone through in the past few days. By the darling blue eyes of my husky, Momar, I thought “liberal” meant you leave people alone and let them live their lives.

What’s worse, this isn’t even an isolated incident. It’s now becoming the norm. Every time someone wishes death upon someone else or that their daughter/sister/mother be raped for disseminating their opinion (no matter how uninformed and ludicrous), hurl the epithet “libtard” at a young person who doesn’t see the role of government the same as you, a celebrity breaks the mold you’ve fashioned for them, someone is incriminated in the court of public opinion before they are convicted by the due process of the law, the local population boycotts and destroys that business owner who steps outside of your echo chamber, you scope out the profile of a total stranger on a comment feed so you can blaze them based on their body type, hurl obscenities and dehumanize someone who engages in civil debate, and tell someone that based on the label you apply to them that they are not entitled to weighing in on a matter, you engage in this same type of creepiness.

I’ve done it. Remember that Florida convict’s mugshot that went viral? How silly of me. That’s a country mile away from narrowing it down. That guy with the large neck. That’s the one. I joined in on the comment thread and made some stupid joke about it. I was ashamed, and that shame didn’t leave even when I saw that he made a video in which he showed he’s got a great sense of humor about it.

And the aforementioned leftist harpies, while being the greatest offenders, are not the only ones. Not by a sight. Kathy Griffin is a prime example here again. A provocateur is someone with little of substance to say and a dearth of material who still wishes to engage in artistic expression. Griffin took photos with a plaster head of our president taken by a provocateur photographer. She got her second fifteen minutes of fame after whatever she did to begin with expired. Whoopty do. Trump shouldn’t have even responded to it. He’s Trump, and he did, because he’s Trump, and that’s what he does. He said that his son was alarmed at his dad being dead. I supposed that’s a valid enough story, but I’d have a talk with junior about distinguishing reality from fiction. What made it worse is the rightist (rightist? Just doesn’t have the same ring to it) harpies going through the harpy motions. Death threats, demands for her to lose her job, boycotts, blah blah blah. I wonder if there’s some sort of secret cabal that sends a group-chat whenever they deem someone worthy of their empty and preposterous death threats.

But I digress. Conservatives and republicans, if they are really sincere about rising above this nonsense, should just leave stuff like this alone, recognizing that it’s so very much altogether and in total quite creepy. Your heating bill won’t go away if you ignore it, but provocative media images will. Turn your head around. Turn the other cheek. Don’t respond in kind. A soft answer turneth away wrath. Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you. Any of this ringing a bell? See this is why I won’t maintain that the Republican Party is the party of Biblical truths because so few of them are amenable to simple concepts like this. Yes, what Kathy Griffin did is tasteless, but is she alone in that mode, and does she deserve to have her life ruined because of it? I want her to make a living and walk down the street without being harassed, just as I enjoy. She may be obnoxious and be calling for the excoriation and harassment of a teenager, but do we go lower when they go low? I think a recent first lady had something to say about that, and republicans did nothing but ridicule her on it.

One unfortunate offshoot of the Twitter age is that our words can be brought back to show our hypocrisy. It’s why I as a personal rule try to only put positive messages on my social media. People who know me intimately, know me well, barely know me, and don’t know me one bit don’t need to be made privy to my personal struggles, controversies, and drama. They should look at my social media, get a brief chuckle at my posts and generally assume based on the evidence in front of their eyes I have a perfect life. But there are many (probably most) who disagree. Negative images reign supreme on social media. It sells I guess. So what is accomplished when you on the left and you on the right who engage in gotcha journalism when you find that a public figure, often a politician, has contradicted their former self’s Twitter post? Not much. You’ve not dissuaded anyone to change their mind about that person. On top of showing everyone you’ve got the time to scour someone’s old Tweets, you’ve just proven that humans are flawed, inconsistent, and sometimes don’t practice what they preach. I didn’t need Twitter to show me that.

So stop being creepy. You may not get as many likes, retweets, followers, and ROFL’s, but you also don’t have to be grouped (at least in this humble writer’s eyes) in with weird Uncle Ralph who isn’t invited to family functions anymore.