Well, yesterday was one of the more painful days on social media. Everyone telling everyone else how they are doing patriotism wrong and how they bleed red white and blue. It was about as patriotic as a cross burning if you ask me. First I woke up to about 30 pictures of the towers, reminding me about a day that I really hate thinking about. Do we dig dead people up and parade them around once a year to seem more noble? No, we remember them, shed a tear and we do it in our own way, privately.
I got into a twitter war with some ass hat who kept telling me about the 800,000 bikers in Washington who were shoving it up the Muslim's ass and representing the United States of Fucking America! Then the person told me to suck some dicks because I laughed at what I thought was a man (the name was Dan). After cursing at me, calling me gay and some other stupid shit, she told me she was a mother. I bid her good day and told her that I hoped her kid didn't end up to be a dumb twat like her mother. Yeah, sorry, but I had to stoop to her level to shut her up, because she wasn't understanding the big words. By the way, this was all over the fact that I questioned the number of bikers when I read that the entire march was a mere 1/3 of a mile long and in double file, this could only have been a few hundred bikers at most. I read something from a DC resident that it was no more than 3,000. And many of them didn't ride, because they stayed back to harass the 20 Muslims and revved their engines during a moment of silence for those whose lives ended on 9/11. Classy! This isn't a reflection of all bikers mind you, but pretty much those who rode in that anti-Muslim march. It should also be noted that there were quite a few accidents....drinking and driving?
As I read Facebook and scanned Twitter, it dawned on me that about one in ten people were posting because of their personal sadness. They were almost all posting to get a like, a comment or appear better than others. The highlight of the day was the Towers, wrapped in a flag, with an eagle crying blood. Patriotic?
It really struck me how angry my friends were. Many commented on political or satirical threads with anti-Muslim, Obama or anything not American remarks and some were vicious. The memory of that day is still vivid, but what has happened to the world, especially this country is lost. We're no longer a true super power. Sure, our military expenditures dwarf the rest of the world. Our firepower is unquestioned, but what about our moral fiber. We've never been more split on issues in our nation's history. 9/11 is a great indicator of our divide every year. As one friend put it, "it's the scab we keep picking, never allowing it to heal." This is so true, but we revel in this.
Some might read this and see me as anti-American, but that couldn't be further from the truth. I'm as pro-American as they come, but I'm not proud of what we're becoming. I don't like the hate and I do a hell of a lot more than most to stop it. I stand up to the uneducated and ignorant bullies on social media. I stand up to them in person too. I use facts and intelligence, which used to be deadly weapons in debates, but they fall on deaf ears. Now it's how you tell the information and it's substance and validity mean nothing. If you can tell your story and it seems feasible, you can sell it as fact. Or you can do what some of my more dimwitted friends do and just ended your sentence with the word fact!
Yesterday, I thought about 9/11/01, but I also thought about my street in Brooklyn and I went down the street. Male, female, rich, middle class, poor, French, German, Colombian, Mexican, Puerto Rican, Greek, Black, White, Chinese, Cuban, Republican, Democrat, Independent (when it meant something), Jewish, Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, multiracial, multi-religion, atheists, straight, gay, bi, asexual. This was all within one block in Brooklyn. This was what this country was. We watched over each other and we loved each other, for no other reason than we were neighbors and we shared one two things in common. We were New Yorkers, but more importantly, we were Americans. On 9/11/01 we were all Americans, but ever since that day, this hasn't been true. At least not in the way I knew it before.
I got into a twitter war with some ass hat who kept telling me about the 800,000 bikers in Washington who were shoving it up the Muslim's ass and representing the United States of Fucking America! Then the person told me to suck some dicks because I laughed at what I thought was a man (the name was Dan). After cursing at me, calling me gay and some other stupid shit, she told me she was a mother. I bid her good day and told her that I hoped her kid didn't end up to be a dumb twat like her mother. Yeah, sorry, but I had to stoop to her level to shut her up, because she wasn't understanding the big words. By the way, this was all over the fact that I questioned the number of bikers when I read that the entire march was a mere 1/3 of a mile long and in double file, this could only have been a few hundred bikers at most. I read something from a DC resident that it was no more than 3,000. And many of them didn't ride, because they stayed back to harass the 20 Muslims and revved their engines during a moment of silence for those whose lives ended on 9/11. Classy! This isn't a reflection of all bikers mind you, but pretty much those who rode in that anti-Muslim march. It should also be noted that there were quite a few accidents....drinking and driving?
As I read Facebook and scanned Twitter, it dawned on me that about one in ten people were posting because of their personal sadness. They were almost all posting to get a like, a comment or appear better than others. The highlight of the day was the Towers, wrapped in a flag, with an eagle crying blood. Patriotic?
It really struck me how angry my friends were. Many commented on political or satirical threads with anti-Muslim, Obama or anything not American remarks and some were vicious. The memory of that day is still vivid, but what has happened to the world, especially this country is lost. We're no longer a true super power. Sure, our military expenditures dwarf the rest of the world. Our firepower is unquestioned, but what about our moral fiber. We've never been more split on issues in our nation's history. 9/11 is a great indicator of our divide every year. As one friend put it, "it's the scab we keep picking, never allowing it to heal." This is so true, but we revel in this.
Some might read this and see me as anti-American, but that couldn't be further from the truth. I'm as pro-American as they come, but I'm not proud of what we're becoming. I don't like the hate and I do a hell of a lot more than most to stop it. I stand up to the uneducated and ignorant bullies on social media. I stand up to them in person too. I use facts and intelligence, which used to be deadly weapons in debates, but they fall on deaf ears. Now it's how you tell the information and it's substance and validity mean nothing. If you can tell your story and it seems feasible, you can sell it as fact. Or you can do what some of my more dimwitted friends do and just ended your sentence with the word fact!
Yesterday, I thought about 9/11/01, but I also thought about my street in Brooklyn and I went down the street. Male, female, rich, middle class, poor, French, German, Colombian, Mexican, Puerto Rican, Greek, Black, White, Chinese, Cuban, Republican, Democrat, Independent (when it meant something), Jewish, Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, multiracial, multi-religion, atheists, straight, gay, bi, asexual. This was all within one block in Brooklyn. This was what this country was. We watched over each other and we loved each other, for no other reason than we were neighbors and we shared one two things in common. We were New Yorkers, but more importantly, we were Americans. On 9/11/01 we were all Americans, but ever since that day, this hasn't been true. At least not in the way I knew it before.
working in a bike shop I pretty much guarantee your assessment of the drinking and driving and all that is true. more so than not the bikers I know are a completely idiotic bunch... and sadly the old timers didn't change as the years went by.
ReplyDeleteanyway, my point is that what our government/media turned 9/11 into is exactly what they want from us now. To find a group to be scared of and to hate. To unify over a foreign group and to side with ourselves against them. congrats 'Merica, you've succeeded.