As many of you have heard, Paris has
been bombarded by multiple terrorist attacks recently. But I’m not here to talk
specifically about the attacks. I want to address everyone talking about it on
social media. A friend of mine brought to my attention that r/toosoon was
blowing up with activity. So I decided to go there to see some of the posts.
None of them were very good, but one stuck out to me. It was a link to this
video.
Now
this comedian, Anthony Jeselnik, is known for being very crass and outspoken. This
segment is about people reacting to tragedies on social media. He makes fun of
people who react to these tragedies with, “My thoughts and prayers to people in
[blank]”. He says that this statement is worth “less than nothing”. He says
this because, “You are not giving any of your time, your money, or even your
compassion. All you are doing is saying, ‘Don’t forget about me today’”.
A
part of me agrees with his view here, but a part of me whole heartedly
disagrees. For the most part, I’m not one to post things on social media. I’ve
never done this myself, but I do find myself telling people that are close to
me that “I wish the best for them and their family” if there is something that
happens to them. I have come to understand that this is my way of doing the
same thing, but I’m not trying to do it for attention. I’m doing it because I genuinely
care and wish the best for them. And I can also say that, on the receiving side
of these words, it doesn’t mean ”nothing”. It feels nice that people you know
are showing their support. But recently something has happened that I do
believe means “nothing”.
This:
You
are not doing anything meaningful here. You are not spending any of your time
to do anything helpful. You are simply clicking a button that puts an opaque
shader over your profile picture. Like Jeselnik says, you are not giving of
your time by doing this. You are not showing any compassion by clicking a
button. Then I think about the money portion of what he says. This is, in many
cases, the best that people can do to show support. In just as many cases,
there are people who would like to support others, but they cannot afford to
give any money. So their thoughts and prayers are all that they can give. And
if that is not enough for you to receive, then you need to do some serious
thinking about yourself and your views.
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