Some see the potential of the Internet to communicate, to build community and relationships, some see it as a creative platform, a means to invent and to share things they believe to be novel or profound. But what if you have nothing to communicate? What if you have no capacity to appreciate, much less invent anything that is original or challenging? Then you share the emotionally manipulative, mawkish, sentimental shit that has been around forever. You pass on those simple, simplistic stories that were written to fire up the emotions of people who are too dull to pick up on nuance. Stories that cannot possibly be true because they are too trite, too pat, too obviously generated to suit a specific point of view. You don’t have to check Snopes.com to tell what is bullshit, you just have to look at what it wants you to think.
You get a choice every day: believe the comforting lies or go with the truth. There is a kind of person who would rather go with what makes them feel good than with real life. These email chain-letters and blatant lies are their alternative to having to deal with life.
Your cute animal story, your inspiring story of love and friendship in the animal kingdom, your twisted slice of history that proves that a certain politician is not just incompetent, but evil on a monumental scale. Like Hitler or Stalin. The kind of thing sent around by old women everywhere, the fuel of spam and rumors and generally annoying gossip.
Posted via email from Team Lowlife | Comment »
