Somewhat against my better judgment, I have become fairly active on social media.
I'm a pretty heavy Facebook user, sharing my work and the work of colleagues as well as other stories I find interesting and/or amusing. I stay pretty close to Facebook's limit of 5,000 "friends," generally accepting any request that doesn't obviously come from a robot. I'm a little less diligent about Twitter, though everything I post on Facebook cross-posts on my Twitter feed (I'm @borkdog).
Facebook is a good way for a natural introvert to maintain the illusion of a rich and diverse social engagement. I communicate daily with a lot of people all over the country and overseas via the platform. And since I'm a professional content provider, it probably doesn't hurt for me to promote myself--something I generally have a difficult time doing IRL (in real life). I think as long as you understand that Facebook is a public space, accept anyone could see anything you do there and act accordingly, you shouldn't have any problem. (In other words, don't be stupid and you'll be fine. You don't have to copy and paste that notice that cites the "Rome statue." )
I should probably also say that while my reasons for being on social media are fairly self-promotional (buy my new book The President Next Door), I very much enjoy the people I've met on the Internet. It confirms my general Pollyanna-ish view of our kind. While it's very possible for people of good faith to disagree, most people are nice enough. If you don't come across as threatening, you can talk to anyone about almost anything.
I don't mind spirited conversation. You don't have to agree with me. And you're not going to hurt my feelings by posting a nasty comment. (But I might hurt yours. I'm not running a Montessori School here.)
Anyway, for the past year a lot of what I've shared has to do with national politics. In recent weeks the presidential election has dominated my timeline. If you'd paid any attention to this column over the past year, you know where I stand. I'm lukewarm on Hillary Clinton and would have preferred another candidate. She's problematic, but I think she has a chance to be a highly effective president.
On the other hand, I'm horrified by Donald Trump, whose relative success indicates some grave problems in our society. It's become disturbingly clear that we don't share the same reality, and that some of my fellow citizens really do believe in the byzantine conspiracy theories proposed by the mad and the apocalyptic prophets of the airwaves and interwebs. A lot of us lack the intellectual courage to challenge our self-mollifying beliefs, and we'll cling to any proffered "fact" that gives us comfort or helps us impose the illusion of order on an increasingly chaotic world.
Trump has been a petulant pop culture villain since at least the mid-1980s, but he turned out to be worse than most of us ever imagined. He now seems willing to try to burn down representative democracy out of pique. It's difficult to fathom how anyone paying attention could respect, much less support, him.
Obviously the GOP's vetting process failed, in part because of institutional cynicism and an ongoing willingness to monkeywrench governance for short-term political gain. Their members created Trump with their anti-government rhetoric and their empty appeals to the fears of susceptible Americans. They own him, even if he's done their brand irreparable damage.
Trump's rise is reflective of how deeply wounded and disconnected from the mainstream a segment of our population has become. And sure, some of it has to do with what we might call their deplorable world-views--they might feel nostalgic for some imagined Mayberry America where the dusky and unchurched better knew their place--but there's plenty of blame to go around.
One thing we've learned from the Wikileaks email dump is that Democrats early on identified Trump, Ted Cruz and Ben Carson as their opponents of choice and took measures to give them political legitimacy and elevate them during the primaries. And while it's unclear what substantive measures the Democrats could have taken to do this (anecdotally, I've heard of Democrats voting for Trump in open primaries but I don't credit the effect), that's an unsettling Machiavellian attitude.
Most people don't care about politics. And they shouldn't have to. One of our problems is that so many people in politics and the media are willing to treat it as a game and to employ comic-book rhetoric to spur on their "team." When Asa Hutchinson says he can't support what Trump says but will vote for him anyway, he's putting team ahead of country. That's not an honorable or worthy position.
We can also be disappointed in those "leaders" who seem to be auditioning for TrumpTV gigs by serving as surrogates. Republicans who refuse to distance themselves from Trump are taking a huge political risk--when the dust settles, even some Trump voters will look askance at them. Others will probably excuse their loyalty as practical careerism.
But the thing is, most of us aren't beholding to any political party or orthodoxy, and we ought to be able to call things what they are. So it's a little frustrating when presumably grown-up folks cut and paste the partisan talking points of professional politicos or, worse, reductive memes. We ought to be better than that. We have a responsibility to be better than that.
And so, for the first time in my decade or so on Facebook, I un-friended (de-friended?) a guy last week. I'm not sure I did the right thing. He thinks I'm censoring him. But it's not because of his views, but his online behavior. He had made himself a nuisance, never offering anything of substance while declaring everyone who disagreed with him to be corrupt and dishonest. His only source seemed to be his own holy certainty. I finally cut him loose because I didn't like how I was responding to him--after he called me a liar and a hypocrite for the 40th or 50th time, I got a little mean-girly with him. I decided we could do without his contributions.
I told he was welcome back if he'd curb his ad hominen abuse. Maybe I'll send him a request after the election.
When we can all get back to talking about guitars and sharing cute animal videos.
pmartin@arkansasonline.com
www.blooddirtangels.com
Editorial on 10/23/2016