Just Because Something Sucks, Doesn’t Mean it’s Worth a Tweet

Granting slack is a better choice than venting rage

Photo by Uriel Soberanes on Unsplash

You’d think the declining infection rates, incremental lifting of mask restrictions, and signs of a more social, physical, and prosperous stretch ahead would do a lot to raise spirits, lighten the mood, and reduce the high level of belligerence that has characterized the public discussion. Yet every time I peek at my social media feeds, it feels as if people are only getting more irate, more triggered, and more entrenched in their positions.

Over the Trump presidency and then the pandemic, I watched as a lot of my friends fell deep into their respective ideological, conspiratorial, or social justice camps. Some were more based on facts than others, but I understood how people on every side on every issue felt hoodwinked, manipulated, or abused by the institutions that were supposed to be serving them.

So, while there may have been no factual basis to the story of Bill Gates putting microchips into vaccines in order to control people, there was an emotional logic to feeling trapped in a cycle of increasing dependency on the pharmaceutical industry. Likewise, the more that authorities denied the possibility of researchers playing a role in an accidental leak, the more that subsequent admissions play into…