I watched an interesting video on something that I have been pondering and have written several drafts about and it was basically asking the question of why is everyone so cruel now and their how being 'mean is cool' and that really puts a title to a lot of what I’ve noticed and it’s not just a right vs left issue. It’s everyone and I am not sitting here on my soapbox on my high horse pretending I am not guilty of it myself because I know that I am, but I’ve become more aware of it and mindful about it.
I’ve noticed that you can’t disagree with anyone anymore and as soon as you disagree you’re the enemy and you get blocked or go through the cancel culture scrutiny. This is just how it is on social media and I think it’s long past the tipping point of it’s usefulness. I have to be on social media for business purposes, but I hate it because all I see is people being mean to each other over the pettiest bullshit and that permeates throughout the occult spectrum -- so when I write these blog post, I’m not just writing about random things that have nothing to do with the greater occulture.
I experience it from customers sometimes when what could be a very simple question like 'hey when’s my order gonna ship?' but instead I occasionally receive belligerent screeds with wild assumptions and accusations. Believe me, I do appreciate when people contact me with some level of grace and civility because I didn't start this business in 2018 to screw people over in some long con many years later. I have had to learn to add a little bit of fluff to my communications because I can be autisically matter of fact and more blunt that intended.
The meanness is so pervasive that it’s permeating every aspect of life that everyone is just so mean to each other and it’s making everything that much worse and it’s the cruelty for clicks, likes, and subscribers. We are feeding the algorithm cruelty and the more cruel it becomes as a result. Who wants a feel good story of someone doing something awesome when we can have an endless supply of rage bait? The irony is that, in my experience, the real world is much kinder.
One of the things that I have never been able to wrap my autistic brain around is how many content creators are out there that are just making fun of what other people eat -- unless you’re being forced to eat it perhaps consider minding your own business. A lot of you never lived with the fear of "if you make fun of my food, you are going to have to eat it" and I thank my father for that life lesson growing up and that’s why I don’t make fun of what people eat because I’ve lived in fear of liver and onions, scrapple, and corned beef hash since childhood. People have different dietary concerns for medical reasons and so on and so forth. It is what it is, but it’s not a reason to be cruel to people and to make fun of them. It’s just nastiness, but that’s the point -- cruelty sells.
Cruelty culture often goes hand and hand straight into purity culture and everyone’s got a problem with everything and everything’s problematic and then there’s a point at which it’s dilutes actual serious issues when things *are* seriously problematic because if everything is problematic, then nothing’s problematic and that doesn't solve anything.
We need to find joy and meaningful whimsy in our lives that’s how we survive through resilience. The world may be on fire, but there is no need to throw ourselves on the pyre. I am a multifaceted individual with a wide variety of interests and likes that are 1000% IMO none of anyone else's goddamned business. I like what I like. I have no idea why everyone is so bloody authoritarian about what other people like and feel morally obligated to inform, by which I mean BULLY them over whatever XYZ thing has everyone's panties in a bunch this week. Who the fuck cares if I listen to Taylor Swift running errands to the post office?? Unless you are in my car, but then I divert to the following from Supernatural "Driver picks the music, shotgun shuts his cakehole!"
I would LOVE the peer into all of these critics likes and interests to vet and pick apart every goddamned one.... but I have a life and am quite good at minding my own damned business as best as I can. If they want to be miserable people that can't enjoy anything that's on them.
And in the end, this could all be solved with one beautifully eloquent solution -- the art of minding your own fucking business with a heaping dose of practicing kindness over cruelty. Thanks for coming to my TED talk.