Today I uploaded a #BookReviewWithMel on my Youtube. The book reviewed was “Idiot America: How Stupidity Became A Virtue In The Land of The Free” by Charles P. Pierce. To me this book explains so much about America today, but I want to take it a step further. I wage, that Social Media is making stupidity an even wider virtue than it needs to be and with it, killing the American ability for both thought and discourse. This goes for both the right, the left, and the middle

I”m going to start with the left, partially because everyone rags on the right, but also because I have a LOT to say with the right. Pierce theorizes in his book that facts are decided in America by who is the loudest. And I think the left in 2017 embodies this. Social media definitely pushes this ability to the extreme.  Social media has enabled people with silly notions and ideas, to not only have a voice, but have a LOUDER voice. So we have turned to a “I am offended so everyone must be offended” society. People put every grievance on social media, for the masses to retweet, reblog, and share, and tank careers, companies, and people with it. On one hand, this has been invaluable in the case of police brutality. Without social media, the cases that have been brought forth would never have seen the light of media day. On the other, it allows a lot of really annoying notions to run wild. IE: The dove ad debacle. Someone took a screenshot that failed to show the entire picture, posted it online, created outrage, and Dove turned to apologize…. For something that was never particularly offensive to begin with. We have turned to the age where an out of context screenshot can make or break someone’s career, livelihood, or company. An age where fake apologies and fake outrage go hand in hand. We have turned morality into political theater, where retweets and facebook shares count as positive reviews. People who’s wild insinuations would have been laughed off a decade ago, have now found a home among their internet friends. Comedians and companies have to be particularly careful to babysit every feeling of every person. Because if ONE person is annoyed/offended, and they gain enough traction on social media: hell will reign. We have taken social science terminology such as “cultural appropriation” and “toxic masculinity” and created our own definitions for them, devaluing them and attributing every single thing to them. This breaks down discourse in the worst way. We no longer have room for intellectual conversation, we only have room for sensitivity, loudness, and emotion. We devalue our stances and beliefs, we fail to effectively move people.

Then we have the Right. In “Idiot America” Pierce writes something profound. He writes that America is the BEST place to peddle public lunacy. And I think the current president embodies that. If ANYTHING speaks to the fact that social media is making stupidity a virtue, it is Donald Trump’s twitter feed. Pierce also says ““Fact is merely what enough people believe, and truth lies only in how fervently they believe it.” I think the Right embodies this the way the left embodies loudness. The Right has become to embody a party desperate for people to confirm what they already believe and as such, refusing to accept any fact that challenges their pre-determined biases. Trump can be factually incorrect a million times over, but because his followers are looking for someone who agrees with them, they don’t care how unfactual he is. If the facts don’t agree with them and Trump does, Trump trumps facts (pun intended). I recall discussions with people when The Nathan Bedford Forrest Statue was topic of discussion in Memphis. Some people swore to the end of the earth that the South did NOT secede because of slavery. I presented them with secession  documents of Southern States (that talked more about slavery than anything else), they retorted with a meme “No one goes into battle to die for someone else’s slaves”. And that’s where we are. In a place where actual historical primary sources are abandoned in favor of memes that, in intellectual context, make not an ounce of sense. And because of this, people have decided they no longer need to learn. They refuse to accept any facts that don’t fit into their view, believing facts are what THEY believe, and all else is “fake news”. When we say that birth control helps regulate menstruation, “fake news”. When we say African-Americans have been systematically excluded from the table for centuries, “fake news”. When we say DACA recipients are productive members of society, “fake news”. And that’s the danger. There is danger when a political party hangs it’s hat on the idea that everything that calls their stances into question must be fake. It devalues critical thought and it encourages stupidity. And with the right, it puts people in danger. In danger of losing livelihoods, jobs, and lives.

On top of this, there are fringe groups and ideologies. Nowhere is the downfall of social media more evident than in people like Tariq Nasheed or Umar Johnson. These two men can be factually wrong at EVERY turn, but they have an ability to drum up followers. Nasheed produced an entire film series full of alternative facts that millions have watched. “Hotep’s” believe in fake history, fake studies, and fake idologies. But they have found a group of people who share their ideology. They are no longer challenged to change or consider their positions, they take any criticism as “brainwashing”. The funny thing is, black hoteps adhere to the same ideologies as white supremacists. (although theoretically, the groups “hate” each other.  White supremacy fringe groups are quickly gaining legitimacy. Thanks to people like Milo and outlets like Brietbarts, these groups have a bigger platform now than they did in the 50s. These groups believe diversity is the product of “liberal brainwashing”, that college is evil, that “sharia law” is imminent, that Hispanics are the reason they can’t find decent work (although mots of them ARE employed) and that black women are a huge part of “the problem” that is poverty. (Hoteps hold these “alternative truths” to be self-evident as well). And it doesn’t matter how many facts we hold up, no matter how LOUDLY people who actually study economics and history and politics and race and gender tell them “no”, they exist in an eco chamber where the only thing they retain is things that confirm their beliefs.

In my opinion,  all of this has led to a dumbing down of intellectual discourse. Where we once engaged in things based on facts, now we engage based on emotion. We feel we HAVE to be louder and wronger than the other to be heard, and as a result, we fail to honestly and openly discuss things. We shut down any criticism, and any line of thought that does not fit within our neat little boxes. We selectively read and cherry pick studies that fit within our readily accepted ideologies. We no longer self-reflect, instead we dig our heels in deeper into our existing ideologies. We exist in echo chambers, where we seek out people who already agree with us. Anything that disagrees with us is “fake news”. We no longer learn for knowledge, we learn to confirm our pre-existing biases. We make anyone who agrees with us an “expert” no matter academic rank or actual factual knowledge. So you have the right believing “white genocide” is a real risk in America (refuse to link such foolishness), and the Left believing Dove’s ad about Cracked Skin is inherently racist. Make no mistake, I recognize that the Right’s fringe beliefs are inherently dangerous. Realistically, while the Left’s ideas are dangerous to intellectual thought, they hold no reasonable threat of physical harm. I will also recognize that the inability of many on the right to listen to ANY facts has probably attributed to the Left’s lack of concern with them being presented or not. However, I do believe, the Left’s (And the middle’s) dumbing down has left it unable to counter the dangers of the right. When a large group ignores all facts to rather deal in emotions, there is no reason to believe what they are saying unless you already exist in their echo-chamber. In fact, you are less likely to listen to them (if you don’t already agree with them) if their statement is void of all facts (or in some cases straight “alternative facts”). Where the ideas on the right are for more dangerous and thus more troubling, the ideas on the left also lead to an inability to think critically, which is a tragedy in itself. As a whole we no longer challenge our ideologies. We no longer grow in our thought process. And the downside of that is, America cannot grow that way. We cannot revolutionize and innovate with no challenge. The right is costing people their lives and brains, the left is causing people their brains. It would appear, that partially through social media, the right and fringe groups have lost their ability to think, leading to dangerous ideas; and the left is losing the ability to think, leading to an inability to effectively counter dangerous ideas. And in this: America has become Idiot America, where stupidity is a virtue and public displays of ignorance can be found on the president’s twitter feed.

PS: Im STILL a broke single mom in grad school feel free to donate to my cash app or paypal.