Damn, has it been a downer of a week.
Some racist prick shoots nine people dead in a house of worship. Many scientist have concluded we're living in the midst of the sixth great extinction. Global Warming is very real and getting worse.
All the above is depressing enough, but it's the subsequent lack of any widespread intelligent reactions to such vital issues that really has me down.
I can't believe the responses I've seen from more traditional mass media and social media to Dylann Roof's slaughter of nine black people. First off, so many parties immediately launched into advancing their own interests. Pro and anti gun control parties put on their spin. Mass media plastered click bate headlines with corresponding articles of little to no substance in droves. It was all so predictable.
Can't we just take time to be sad? Can't we just process this instead of pretending we know what exactly happened? Can the talking heads shut up long enough for us to observe this?
Now that the dust has somewhat settled, I feel comfortable espousing a few views.
The idiocy I've seen from some friend's and friend of friends' Facebook posts is beyond stupid. First off, if you think that this wasn't an act of domestic terrorism, you are, quite frankly, a fucking idiot. If you think this an act of mass murder wasn't fueled by racism, you're even more of a fucking idiot.
Roof, the shooter, was wearing an Apartheid-era South Africa flag and a Rhodesia flag, a former nation that was under white-minority rule until 1980 until true democracy took hold and the country became today known as Zimbabwe, The young man told the victims and survivors as he was committing his heinous act that he was solely targeting black people because they are "raping our women" and "taking over our country." On top of that, he immediately confessed to law enforcement he did it. It's also looking likely his manifesto has been found posting online where he claims Trevon Martin's death and it's controversy caused him to do research where he alleges mass black-on-white crimes drove him to do his evil deed.
Sure, anyone who goes into a church and butchers nine people probably isn't mentally well. But to act like this wasn't heavily steeped in racism means you're... well, you know.
This act of domestic terrorism was made all the more depressing to me because of a recent Facebook debate I engaged in. An acquaintance of mine, though hardworking and tough, is an ardent racist. I try to focus on his good qualities, but he inundates his Facebook friends with borderline and outright racists posts. I usually look past it because when has a Facebook debate ever changed anyone's mind? Recently though he posted a video of a a crowd of black people doing incredibly destructive and stupid things. He provided the caption, "See the common denominator?"
This far too disgusting and easy to counter. I responded with a video of the 2011 Vancouver riots, then Penn States, Boston, San Francisco and -- this is a good one -- a pumpkin festival in New Hampshire. Of course, the majority of these rioters destroying random people's property were predominantly, if not solely, white. He responded with bogus statistics. I came back with FBI statistics, showing how white people were murdered in 2013. 2,500 of which were murdered by fellow whites. (For the record, while an idiot, this acquaintance doesn't have a violent bone in his body.)
Funny how Roof seems to never have bothered to search white-on-white crime.
As I mentioned briefly in my prior post, I truly thought my generation was on the cusp of achieving a post racial America. Judging by my Facebook friend's sentiments, the fact Roof is only 21 and the views being espoused by people of all backgrounds made me realize just how naive I truly was. I should have known better. Defying all morality and reason, the Confederate flag has flown high above South Carolina's capital-- it still does.
Those parishioners gunned down in what's meant to be the most peaceful and serene of settings sure seemed like outstanding citizens to me. The grief-stricken congregation and community seems to be uniting as one. That's awesome. It fills me with hope.
But then I factor in how species are and have been dying off at rapid rates since the advent of the Industrial Revolution and how otherwise seemingly smart and rational people continue to deny or turn a blind eye towards Global Warming and realize we may very well be absolutely fucked.
I'm so down isn't due to me questioning the goodness of mankind. I think the vast majority of people the world over, at their cores, are good. I don't question our hearts. I question our collective whole's ability to think through these issues. Our hearts sustain us, but we need our brains to save us from ourselves.
No comments:
Post a Comment