Mea Maxima Culpa
What follows is a self-critique that I recently posted on my personal Facebook page and it’s about following “best practices” on social media at a time when our society finds itself being pulled apart, both internally and externally.
This is a stark departure from what I have posted on my site so far. The fact that most of my music is abstract, or “instrumental,” does not mean that I am without a political viewpoint.
I stand for every human being’s right to experience joy, peace, compassion, equality, and security and I oppose all who would seek to deprive anyone of these rights for any reason.
Mea maxima culpa.
I woke up after partying a little too hard in my kitchen last night and, before drinking any coffee (BAD IDEA), began indulging in the most addictive, shameful, and destructive habit in which I currently indulge: I scrolled through my FB feed and did the copy-and-paste thing with someone else's post.
Thankfully, after a few sips of a delicious Rwanda Ruvumbu pour-over, a discussion with my wife, and some personal reflection, I took it down. What follows are my current under-caffeinated thoughts on why I did that.
Firstly, just speaking for myself, when I do the copy-and-paste thing it’s because I’m being lazy. Here’s how that goes down: I just read something that made me chuckle or feel empowered, it seemed to be more or less along the lines of how I generally feel, and I passed it along without too much thought, much like all of the assholes not wearing masks and spreading the coronavirus.
Secondly, which should really ALWAYS be firstly on social media, I didn’t perform my due diligence in checking the source. It might have been from the person mentioned in the post who offered their sage thoughts, but I didn’t do any digging to verify this.
Thirdly, I didn’t challenge my own feelings about the sentiments being expressed to see if they really square with what I think. The post led with a mildly subversive teaser that I liked and was then followed by some seemingly innocuous pablum. I gulped it down.
Now I’m going to show the post in quotes and annotate each point.
"Wise advice:❤️💙 ❤️
Daughter of MLK & Coretta Scott King posted this last night:"
STOP - Can I verify this? How many daughters did they have? Do I know without looking that up? They had two: Bernice and Yolanda. Are they both still alive? No. Yolanda died before the current Republican administration. Must be Bernice then. I did a search for her page on FB and I can’t find it. Finally found it through a Google search: @OfficialBerniceKing I scrolled her feed for five minutes and I can’t find this post. What’s up with that? Did she take it down? Did she not actually post this advice? I have no way of verifying so I should either not re-post at all or remove the reference to her before I do.
"1. Don't use his name; EVER (45 will do)”
I’m down with this. I also like Drumpf. Cool. Moving on…
"2. Remember this is a regime and he's not acting alone;”
STOP - I have to check my understanding of what that really means. I think I know, but I couldn’t give a Ted Talk on it. The dictionary definitions are vague. I found my way to the Encyclopedia Britannica online (Anglo-Imperialist foundations √ but a firm command of the English language no doubt):
"The term… is used colloquially by some, such as government officials, media journalists, and policy makers, when referring to governments that they believe are repressive, undemocratic, or illegitimate or simply do not square with the person’s own view of the world. Used in this context, the concept of regime communicates a sense of ideological or moral disapproval or political opposition.”
OK, I’m down with this too. It’s not only 45 who will be held accountable but also his cronies, yes-men (and women), and all those who cynically rode the wave of power.
"3. Do not argue with those who support him--it doesn't work;”
Here’s where it starts to "jump the shark." This sentiment is so lazy and wishy-washy. Is the post now saying that we should all just shout our grievances into the echo chamber of our FB friends' feelings and notions, thus simply further eroding any sense of a social contract or democratic responsibility? This is a serious flag for foreign intelligence meddling. If we stop making well-reasoned arguments against the Republican administration’s policies then where do we leave the historical narrative?
"4. Focus on his policies, not his orange-ness and mental state;”
While I agree that simply lampooning him doesn’t shine a light on current atrocities I also need humor in my life. I can pat my head and rub my stomach at the same time. I can call out the Republican administration’s policies loudly while still mocking him and them.
"5. Keep your message positive; they want the country to be angry and fearful because this is the soil from which their darkest policies will grow;”
Again, overly simplistic. Different people are motivated to act by different factors and forces. I want my messages to hit home. If I were as savvy as a certain Republican Senator from KY (no, not the dumb one) then I might craft both positive and negative messages and experiment with both until I see which ones are getting traction. I want to be effective in my fight for progressive change in this country so I’m not going to potentially tie one hand behind my back in this fight.
"6. No more helpless/hopeless talk;”
STOP - here’s another one that I had to reflect upon. My first gut feeling was “Hell yeah. You’ll never get me down. I’m gonna just keep comin’ for ya.” After my white, male, cis-hetero ego trip subsided I tried to put myself in the shoes of someone who is feeling overwhelmed by all of the social media posts showing people of their race/gender/orientation/identity being abused and murdered with impunity. And I thought “who am I to suggest how they should express their voice?”
"7. Support artists and the arts;”
This one OBVIOUSLY got me. In fact, I’m quite certain that this was the tipping point for me to do the copy-paste thing. But isn’t it a bit of an outlier in the post? This is another flag for me.
"8. Be careful not to spread fake news. Check it;”
Yes, this is exactly what I violated and the entire reason why I am writing this post. I was a hypocrite to have not written this and to have copy-pasted it. It’s almost as if the original author of the post was laughing at me as they typed this. Dark.
"9. Take care of yourselves; and
10. Resist!”
Yes to both of these things.
"Keep demonstrations peaceful. In the words of John Lennon, "When it gets down to having to use violence, then you are playing the system’s game. The establishment will irritate you - pull your beard, flick your face - to make you fight! Because once they’ve got you violent, then they know how to handle you. The only thing they don’t know how to handle is non-violence and humor.””
Here’s where I really had to check myself. Some of you may disagree with me on this point but I think that this gets to the heart of what is going on in our country right now. John Lennon should not be a go-to source for advice about political protest (or pacifism for that matter, as he was a brawler who also beat his wife and children). His quotation is dripping with White Privilege. Pull your beard and flick your face? How about murder you? Gas you? Sick dogs on you? Incarcerate you for life because you were busted for possessing the same drugs that The Beatles so publicly enjoyed? What we in this country have experienced since the end of the Vietnam War is a political and economic system that has learned how to keep the flash points of social upheaval suppressed in order to insulate a hyper-capitalist, white supremacist status quo. If the current protests weren’t unfolding exactly as they are then how much momentum for change do you think would be happening right now? The 1% of this country have enough treasure to wait out a hundred generation of peaceful protest. People in that “class” are as untouchable as medieval royalty. The Citizens United ruling by the Supreme Court was the end of American democracy as we thought we knew it. Just marching is not enough, and just voting is not enough either. Until massive changes are enacted and Citizens United is overturned, uncomfortable, inconvenient social unrest must continue.
"When you post or talk about him, don't assign his actions to him, assign them to "The Republican Administration," or "The Republicans." This will have several effects: the Republican legislators will either have to take responsibility for their association with him or stand up for what some of them don't like; he will not get the focus of attention he craves; Republican representatives will become very concerned about their re-elections.”
I liked this and I’ve been adhering to this advice in the post.
I’m not pointing my finger at any of you in my mea culpa. I’m attempting to take responsibility for how I use the FB platform and social media in general. This shit matters. It’s real. It has consequences. I can’t complain about the ill effects of social media on society if I copy-paste posts and share them without dissecting each assertion made in the post. I can’t blame Mark Zuckerberg. I can’t blame the Republicans. I can’t blame Russia or China. It’s on me.