If you have decided that you are right, but you no longer feel a need to listen to anyone else then in reality, YOU ARE WRONG. Additionally, if you feel the need to demagogue and disparage others without any sense of civility, you are WRONG. Being right is NOT enough. It never was, it never will be. This is a huge problem on the left and the right.
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By Lonnie Bullock..
As we move into early voting and the last few weeks before the election, I have been thinking often about the filters I use in selecting the person I will vote for. Beyond party alignment, beyond fear, beyond media hype, beyond the deception of advertising, I find myself asking, "What will influence my decision when I mark my ballot?" Here are some of the filters I am using to determine my vote: 1. I am a Christian who values the teachings of the Bible so that is my first filter. 2. I have and will forever be a defender and voice for the unborn. I will never silence by voice by voting for a person who devalues the life of the unborn. 3. I value our history of being a republic of states, united under one constitution. 4. I believe government should be as small as possible and exists to serve the people not for the people to serve the government. 5. I believe all people are created equal and should not be used as pawns to accomplish political agendas. 6. I believe in capitalism and that government exists to encourage private ownership and not government control. 7. I believe those who have much, much is required as individuals find ways to serve the community. 8. I value religious freedom and believe the church is essential to the health of communities and our nation. 9. I value law and order equally administered and enforced. 10. I will support those who best match my filter and who love their country. I am proud to be an American and am excited to participate in our great democracy by voting. I encourage all of you who live in America to do the same. Assuming that a friend or family member has heard or knows something is the beginning of a disconnected relationship. At scale and duration, it becomes toxic and destroys that relationship. I was taught the implications of assuming early on and I never imagined that such a simple concept could become so pervasive and destructive thanks to social media. ASS.U.ME is a dangerous word and it spreads like a virus in our 2020 culture of selfaggrandizing self interested obsession.
Snooze
This cancel culture mantra of think this, say this, or unfriend me is terrible. The costs in the long run are terrible. Life is not a video game that can be reset easily. Friendships and relationships are the keys to our future prosperity. Popularity is not all that valuable in the end. We don’t have to agree but we should find a way to stay connected. Absence of a virtue signal does NOT equal the absence of virtue.
I believe that the masking mania sweeping 2020 is directly connected to the public visual nature of the mask itself. When we as a society decide to assign negative intent to NOT doing something we are assigning a set of moral decisions to that individual which may or may not be true. Individuals make the decisions on what is a valued virtue. The proven results of a practical behavior show its value. Outliers are allowed even if discouraged. In a communist collectivist world view the decisions are made by the assigned authority. This is the root of our current dilemma. The case for or against masking lies at the personal level not at the group level. Mass compliance requires agreement in a free society. The mask of rugged individualism is as porous and likely corrupt as the mask of communism. The difference is an individual bears the consequence of poor decisions in both. We are all now struggling with flying the flag of virtue in public. The rule of law applies and defining what is appropriate and comfortable or even moral and healthy for one and for all is a wasteland of battle flags and casualties. I repeat. The absence of a virtue signal does not equal the absence of virtue. Let me be crystal clear. I DO text but I don’t like it. I like FB but it is terrible for me so I am limiting it drastically. Texting is okay 👌 but my responses are not likely to me instant. If you are interested or need a quick response. Call me. And Text me. And call again maybe?
The secret sauce seems to be response time. That is how I manage. I set my time and choice priorities. You set yours. We all do what we prioritize. FB is not a priority. Texting is important but limited. Calling and Talking is hard but worth it. I want to grant sincerity to technology and healthcare leaders. I don’t anymore. My cynicism born of the 2020trials and 20+ years in tech and leadership has infected me. I’m not sure there is a cure. I’m not sure there will ever be a cure. Without a modicum of respect, the distrust germinates and spreads like a virus into every experience.
I trust God. Period. His power is absolute. His love is unbounded. He listens and hears me in my whining. If you want a friend or family member to know something, or if you care what they think, TALK to them. Social media has conditioned us to assume knowledge and intentions. This is a terrible way to live and communicate. The disconnect is real.
my newest social experiment is to go completely off of FB “proper” and evaluate my stress levels and connectedness. Difficult, yes. Healthy, yes. Recommended, yes. I am LESS connected to the noise. I am MORE connected to things and people that actually matter. And shocker?! Stress overall is down because sometimes not knowing everything is just better. I do desire connections with my FB friends but the cost must be managed. If you are connected to me and care what I think about something, don’t assume I know about it, text me or call me maybe. Even better, Visit. Personal connections are how we know the current stuff that matters. I celebrate others success. I mourn their failures. I wish I could do more to help. I do all that I can without sacrificing my own family. I revel in the beauty of others testimonies in word and deed. As a conservative minded libertarian, I am branded by others. In a free country, I still get to speak and vote as I choose. This seems to be changing.
In the face of such division and exploding emotion, it now seems that the only viable path towards peace is to listen and be silent. Once emotions have overtaken reason in the halls of power disallowing opposing views, we the people must assemble our platforms and proceed with caution. We all lose in the violence of mob rule, and mob mentality... We must use our systems, and our relationships, and our legacy to garner support for action.
Rhetoric is now useless and inflammatory. It has been made so by the intense pain, real or not, felt by all sides. Individual pain is no longer separate from the collective pain. In most cases, it seems that the ability to grant sincerity has been rendered not essential. Our era of identity politics dictates that our brand is all that matters. This is a treacherous slope. It is time to leave this place in every sense. Social media, particularly FB shows you what you “want” to see by design. It amplifies the echo chamber. Seeking diversity of opinion and real dialogue is extremely difficult and time consuming.
The new rage of Blaming conservatives for NOT seeing posts and ideas is lunacy. The nearly instant rage mobs grow and peak emotions to garner views/likes. It is NOT productive. The feeds show me what I like to maximize online time and retention, spurring the mob effect for the most extreme and provocative writing. This amplifies and extends the moral superiority based on popularity fallacy. We all lose in these crazy spikes of energy. Flatten the curve by logging off and talking to neighbors and friends and family for real. I think it is extraordinary process that more of my friends are posting honestly on social media. Dealing with pain and emotion and stress with healthy coping mechanisms is key to progress. It is a hard thing to hear when others speak their truth. It is not my view. It IS theirs and the struggle and burden to listen and hear them is on me.
This reverses as well. I have lived out loud on media platforms for over a decade now and even I struggle with sharing bad news and emotional instability. It is human. MY truth is that I have little patience for the victim culture of blame. The shame game regarding speech is futile in a country built on free speech. I reject collectivist consumerism in favor of rugged individualism. Talking openly about my beliefs and principles is not easy. It has consequences for real. Sharing pain and sorrow without becoming a attention seeking victim is a difficult balance point to identify. It is not easy. I am confident that few hear me. They listen with their viewpoint and then debate or seek to debate line by line point by point. I am listening more carefully to others now and hearing more completely. Agreement is not required for respect and tolerance. It is helpful, and peaceful to be in the majority, and to be popular, but it is not reality. check yourself as you listen. Speak boldly and do not be bullied into silence and compliance. Respect and consider others as the extraordinary children of God that they are. Realizing and seeking to clarify the divide is useful. Building a new bridge which accepts the differences but connects hearts and minds is key to our future. All of this begins with a foundation of honesty and relationship rather than blame and punishment. Progress is hard bu necessary. The stark reality is that each of us IS a journalist and a news contributor and an editor in the social media infused frenzy of the 21st century. We are curating our feeds and our contacts and presenting our daily editions with content. The platforms of social media are an exceptional megaphone for free speech. Only the individual can decide what is or is not appropriate for their mind feed intake channel.
As in all things, some are more skilled that others but the tiered value system has yet to fully evolve. Twitter and FB models which monetize the person as the product and then censor the content reach based on the “platform” editorial and political view are a disaster. The ensuing echo chamber segregation is destroying lives and families and communities and remaking the world. I want to hear what people say and think. I don’t care what the platform thinks I should hear. To submit to this ongoing filtering is anathema to authentic dialogue and freedom. The best ideas, managed well, succeed at scale and duration. Only individual skills and local communities based on shared context with relationships pass the gating criteria for phase future. New normal. Online speech is not free speech. This is particularly true if your speech is not in line with the editors’ political views. Perhaps this has long been the case with journalism, letters to the editor, and talk shows, but Twitter and FB are now raising the message control game to a new level. We the people don’t seem to understand the principles of free speech and the implications of allowing this message management.
Imagine if the social media platforms decided that coverage of riots was not appropriate for the greater good. What if we aren’t allowed to hear and see what the government or police are doing? Free speech is messy and even dangerous, but it is free. The alternative is unthinkable. We the people can educate ourselves and choose how we proceed. If we do not, the messaging overlords will do it for us. This idea is deplorable. CleverSnark is the currency of social media. Coupled with SmugSnark is it common and usually unattractive. It is entertaining and mean spirited all too often and the bite can hurt.
I'm fairly certain that the major media outlets would consider me to be an "extremist" because I don't share their liberal views on liberty, firearms, or appropriate government involvement in daily lives. Even more because I write and share my opinions and suggestions freely with the attitude that my thoughts are valid, and my platform as a connector, and message as a leader is important. I'm not a threat to them, but I would like to be. I AM REAL and EDUCATED and PASSIONATE and REASONABLE. To be honest, some of you probably already consider me to be overly concerned, and too worked up as I've been really active in past month due to stress and quarantine and my family Rona reality.
Maybe, but if I'm right, and I usually am about these things, then we are in for a really rough time in coming months... and the ONLY thing that will sustain us will be local communities, family, and faith... The government and the central planners are NOT coming to save you... even in the red states. There are a lot of people worried about censorship on FB and YouTube. I’m one of them. Also: consider that Google is the real information broker. They “censor” and promote content? Of course they do. And most would never even know it. HOW exactly will you get info if the search engines went “offline”. Consider your data consumption and curating plans carefully. Things could change in the blink of an eye. Preparation is best.
The monopoly on information access and connectivity is a major danger in a world in crisis. Many of my liberal friends seem to expect me to be sorry or feel bad that I’m a conservative libertarian minded patriot. I don’t feel that way at all about them. My views allow for theirs. This is most interesting when people who KNOW me pass judgement on me rather than my ideas. Demagoguery is destructive and devastating. Debate and dialogue are the cure. Decisions require voting rather than demeaning morality judgements. Respect given is respect received and vice versa.
If I have made anyone feel diminished I apologize. That is never my intent. My opinions and actions are mine. I like it when we agree but it is not required for friendship and love. Free speech is messy but freedom Is like that. Stand up for what you believe. Be. Love. Serve. Repeat. Relationships are what matter. Period. The real test of credibility arises when an expert and/or communicator must align and collaborate with others who DISAGREE. Managing dissenting views is a CRITICAL skill in short supply during this crisis, and virtually all crises. If experts can't quickly and efficiently handle questions from non-experts in a public forum, are they really experts?
The answer is yes, but it does mean that their communications credibility is called into question. The echo chamber amplification phenomenon of the internet does exist in academia and peer review models across all verticals. GREAT and CREDIBLE leaders seek out dissenting views, listen to minority reports, and then decide accordingly. Sometimes the majority wins, and sometimes the dissenters hold the day. Sometimes we are right, sometimes we are wrong. The more we are right... the more credibility we have. Period. “Each of us has the right and the responsibility to assess the roads which lie ahead, and those over which we have traveled, and if the future road looms ominous or unpromising, and the roads back uninviting, then we need to gather our resolve and, carrying only the necessary baggage, step off that road into another direction. If the new choice is also unpalatable, without embarrassment, we must be ready to change that as well.” ― Maya Angelou, Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now I’m struggling a bit to find the right balance with public vs private these days. I’m a performer and leader and have always been comfortable in the public spotlight but I’m also concerned about responsibly setting an example.
FB is a vast echo chamber which makes money with me as the product. Twitter is an epically vast rant platform. Again the money flows using ME as the product. 1x1 messaging device tools are awesome but don’t easily allow me to see what my friends and acquaintances just think about things. There are niche group tools but so far adoption is anemic and the old rule still applies. Value of the network is directly correlated to number of nodes. I’ve gone Public on FB as part of a social test of sorts. I despise the regulatory bots and surveillance censorship there but I will try to use it as a front door to promote my opinion platform and maintain my occasional links to a wide group of interested followers. I have no real desire to be famous or popular but I would love to be able to monetize my messaging and maintain connections “someday” That is how all consultants think. Count me in. Public... might work. The echo chamber is not useful except as a means to an end. I feel kind of proud that I finally said something worthy of the thought police. Ridiculous to consider how they would classify such a post as hateful... to who, and exactly why? #idiotsincharge never cease to amaze.
amazing that FB algorithms don’t preclude them from trying to get me to pay to boost a post that they previously flagged and I actually deleted to be in “compliance” with big brother. Etiquette and Manners are important. Knowing what to say is something, but knowing when and where you can say it effectively is quite another.
Ignorance of environment is not acceptable in a mass/social comm environment and will absolutely diminish even the best of intentions. Assuming that others are listening, and care is toxic. Give them a reason to care and show respect. Ask and listen?! Freedom is about choice. If they choose to listen... that is a win. If they choose to act accordingly... celebrate. Above all, adjust your message and mode first and often. If they continue to offend and ignore the cues... it is perfectly fine to “unfollow” or even block. This applies in digital world and it applies in the physical world too. Seek the right audience and platform, not the largest. Speak and listen. Repeat. #TuesdayThinking #needmorecoffee |
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