Unpoetic injustice
I’d call it poetic justice, if the comments on news stories and social media weren’t pretty much the antithesis of poetry.
But for anyone who’s ever been the target of anonymous online trolls, here’s a little object lesson — and one more clear reason not to read the comments on anything you’ve written or are involved with.
On April 23, CBC tweeted out a link to a story about Canadians and their increased anxiety levels during the current pandemic — based on using Google Trends to look at and what people were using the search engine to find on the internet.
It’s not a bad little story, actually; it even looks at the increased queries for how to make sourdough and how to learn to play the guitar.
People started reacting to the story right away, with replies to the tweet promoting the story streaming in.
“That’s because @CBCNEWS keeps pumping out fake news designed to do just that! #Enemyofthepeople”
“Wow. One of the most daft understatements I’ve ever heard. Ya think??? This is news???”
“The MSM (mainstream media) is mostly to blame like @CBCNEWS. They’ve absolutely contributed to the anxiety and mental health issues surrounding this so called pandemic, and continue to do so. Imagine if they told the truth for once … sad part is no one would believe it.”
“We wouldn’t if the govt would protect the vulnerable and open up for the vast majority of us.”
“Remind them their grandparents got called to war. We’ve been called to the couch.”
Heck of a reaction, hey? I don’t spend much time in the comments section — but this time, I did. For a reason.
I wanted to see how long it would continue.
Because it’s almost certain none the commenters had even read the story.
In fact, they hadn’t, unless they took a lot of extra effort to hunt it down.
How do I know that? Because, originally, the CBC accidentally put up a faulty link to the story. Click on it, and you went to a deadend “we’re sorry, we can’t find that story” web page.
I watched until CBC fixed the link; the pace didn’t slow. “Thoughtful” opinions about something that commenters hadn’t even read kept on coming in, proving that you don’t have to actually read something to become a self-proclaimed expert on it.
Now, from long experience, I know already what the responses would be if those same commenters read this column: any number of sneering versions of “I didn’t need to read the story to know it was all bulls**t anyway…”
They’d happily say that, without ever realizing that they’d just made my point for me all over again.
I know that social media lets small people feel bigger by the sheer vandalism of tearing down what someone else has built. I also know that social media or comment attacks are common and painful.
But why should you care what they think?
Would you let someone who can’t be bothered to read a recipe or learn to cook be the chef at your restaurant? Would you let someone who can’t be bothered to read the contraindications on a medication give you a random injection? Would you let someone who had never driven a car drive you to the next town on the highway?
Of course not — not if you have any interest in survival.
They don’t know you, they don’t know what you’re trying to do, and they can’t even be bothered to find out.
All they really have is open access to someone else’s technological platform — a platform they couldn’t build, maintain or even explain.