I should break these topics into separate posts, but it’s representative of just how much information we news and current events consumers have to deal with on a daily basis. All of this happened on Halloween Day.
Civil War Controversy
The Twitter day began with controversial remarks by White House Chief of Staff John Kelly about the Civil War. Most of my Twitter feeds (ie. gaming and authors) are *extremely* sensitive to anyone trying to put the Civil War in historical context, so of course it exploded.
Just my two cents, but saying the Civil War was caused by a lack of compromise is about as uncontroversial as one could get, somewhat similar to a statement like, “Death is caused by a lack of breathing.” *Of course* the war was caused by a lack of compromise. All wars are caused by a lack of compromise. I mean, duh?
But in today’s society, if you don’t shout like a madman that the Civil War was nothing but a referendum on whether or not you like black people, you are somehow a “revisionist,” so Twitter outrage ensued.
Yes, obviously slavery played a very large role in the Civil War. Yes, obviously, the compromise would have involved slavery. But wars are very rarely ever about one thing and one thing only. Are we seriously supposed to believe that every person sighting down a rifle to shoot in the Civil War was thinking about slavery? It’s actually possible for many things to be true simultaneously.
I’m at the point now where I just sigh and rub my temples when people from New York and California and overseas start their lectures on the Civil War. Whatever, dudes. I live a stone’s throw from Cold Harbor and troops might have marched across my property, might have shot at each other, or stabbed each other, or more likely died of dysentery, right where I’m typing this sentence. You can’t live in Virginia without being a lifelong learner about the Civil War. People who recite things about the Civil War they read on Wikipedia somewhere tire me.
The only thing worse is when people start pontificating about how America was founded by people fleeing from religious prosecution, or that the Pilgrims founded America as a Christian nation. (Double-Zing!)
Okay, moving on.
Testimony by Facebook , Twitter, and Google
Next I discovered that Facebook, Twitter, and Google were testifying before Congress about how their services deal/dealt with Russian interference. I watched most of it on C-SPAN, but you can find the video from PBS on YouTube.
I came away from it very certain that social media is going to get the living bejebus regulated out of them. I can’t say I’m sad about that. Self-regulation isn’t working. The Big Three were not prepared at all. They spoke in Silicon Valley marketing-speak the entire time and couldn’t give a straight answer on anything. (I have a very low opinion of IT marketing types who speak in buzz words and lingo as if it really means anything. I work in this business and I know quite well they are often full of crap.) The Google rep literally said, “I’m not sure exactly how the money flow goes.” That is a direct quote. I wrote it down, I was so amazed. All three of them appeared to be evasive and defensive. I laughed out loud at Al Franken’s inability to get a straight answer out of them.
Following the testimony of Facebook, Twitter, and Google, two experts on how terrorists use social media came in and testified. (It starts about 2:30:00 in the above-linked video.) Those two guys wiped the floor with the social media reps. They were well-prepared, well-spoken, direct, and clear with their testimony. They were clear with their responses, and oozed an expert, knowledgeable demeanor on the subject matter. (As opposed to the social media reps, who oozed an expert demeanor in how to speak without saying anything.) Those two guys pretty much nailed social media to the wall.
I often get annoyed at how people who have good charisma and speak well get preferential respect in the world, but in this case I was glad.
Then Terrorists
Late in the afternoon (for me), about the same time as the testimony I described above, a terrorist attack occurred in New York City. (“You can just say New York.”) It was another one of those low-tech, vehicular manslaughter-style attacks. As far as I can recall, the first one of this kind in this country. At least the first notable one. The suspect (who was captured alive, amazingly enough), drove for 20 blocks down a bike path and killed 8 people.
I will be sad that people were hurt and died eventually. But right now I’m angry, so I want to take a slightly different tack in my response.
How much of a complete failure as a soldier in your holy war do you have to be to drive FOR TWENTY BLOCKS down a bike path in one of the most densely-populated cities in the world and ONLY kill 8 people? These so-called “terrorists” are (still) a complete joke. I am not even the slightest bit terrorized by these guys. “Oh no, it’s a terrorist! Oh wait it’s just an ISIS terrorist. It’s okay, I’ll just step slightly to one side.”
[UPDATE 11/1: I heard today that the guy planned this attack for weeks. And he STILL couldn’t kill more than 8 people in the middle of New York.]
These guys do not frighten me, they make me angry. How are people so colossally dumb being allowed to make so much of an impact on our lives? I’m starting to understand how people in the early 20th Century would cheerfully volunteer to fight in World War I and II. If there was some way for me to channel this anger into helping to fight ISIS, I think I would. All I can really do, though, at my advanced age and with my limited skill set, is write blog posts to mock and demean them.
Then The Politicization
There used to be a time when the politicization of terrorist attacks didn’t start until a day or two later, but we don’t bother with respectful distance anymore. It now begins immediately. The president certainly doesn’t wait, he started tweeting about travel bans or whatever right away.
But all sides are guilty of this.
After this attack, Left Twitter has been fairly quiet, beyond a few, “thoughts and prayers.” Right Twitter, of course, has exploded: See! See! See! Islamic terrorist!
After the Las Vegas attack, Right Twitter was fairly quiet. Back then it was Left Twitter’s turn to explode: See! See! See! White terrorist!
It’s all a game to these Twitter activists.
Final thoughts on this terrorist attack: I am completely confident that the people of New York will bounce back, and will not be cowed by fear, and I respect them for it. We should all strive to be like them.
Most of all, we should all keep our eyes open when we’re out and about in the world.
UPDATE
Oh, I forgot to mention the other reason people went berserk over Kelly’s remarks about the Civil War. He said something about respecting General Lee as a commander, which is JUST. NOT. DONE. in today’s society. I mean, to kids today, you might as well paint a swastika on your front porch, shave your head, and start in with the Nazi salute. (No, the Civil War and World War II have nothing to do with each other, but you know kids today. It’s all the same to them.)
I’m not qualified to judge any military generals, but it seems to me that Lee won some and he lost some. He is highly praised by experts for his audacity in some battles. He is criticized for overextending himself in others. I personally think whatever brilliance he had as a general may have been over-accentuated because of the complete and utter incompetence of the Union army for the vast majority of the war. Some battles were handed to Lee on a silver platter because General Meade basically just sat around twiddling his thumbs and throwing his soldiers’ lives away.
The point is, again: Many things can be true at the same time. Lee can be a great general. Lee can make terrible mistakes. Lee can be a great person. Lee can be a horrible monster. All can be true.
