Social Media Says People Aren’t Very Bright
I hate to even get started on this subject, but a nasty exchange with someone on Facebook convinced me even more that humanity is in sharp decline. Now I don’t have high expectations for the educational attainment of our fellows these days in the first place; I am one of the dependable critics of our public school system, after all. People that aren’t taught much can’t be expected to be all that well informed.
What shocks me worse is the decline in comprehension of something like sarcasm. You make a sarcastic post about something that strikes you as dumb, stupid, dishonest, false or offensive, and you’ll be denounced as a racist, crackpot, loser or illegal alien in seconds! People can’t seem to grasp humor either and satire…dear God, that’s a one way ticked to Trollville!
I sure do miss the good old days, when people had enough education and fluency with the language to be able to be witty while beating the hide off a fool with just words. Now you’re instantly a hater or worse, all because the rest are morons! It keeps getting worse. The politicians all misquote and misinterpret things to make each other look like godless weasels. This is really dumb, because even if they told nothing but the truth, they’d look like slimeballs and gasbags. But no, they have to help destroy the language and the finer skills of oratory.
Social media is even worse. Not only can’t anyone understand satire and sarcasm, they can’t spell either. I once joked, (sarcastically), that we’d eventually sound like a bunch of chimps, but I now realize that was unkind. The chimps are using sign language, and actually do so correctly, unlike our youth. The monkeys will be wearing three piece suits, while our young are dragging their knuckles on the ground and grunting at each other. I was just too unkind to the chimps, apparently.
Jack