free speech isn't
It's truly a ghost town in here. I guess I'm the last ghost standing. Or slumping over coffee.
Saw a meme yesterday that said "It's amazing how quickly everyone went from being an infectious disease expert to being an international conflict expert". I see the same all-or-nothing fervor with this war on Ukraine. I'm not saying Russia is innocent. I'm saying that groupthink is scary. I don't disagree with my FB peeps' opinion about Russia being awful, but it sucks to not have the option to disagree. Because I'm pretty sure if I did, I'd be crucified like I was with covid.
I don't spend a ton of time online, so maybe my online skin isn't tough enough. But covid was my first experience where an online disagreement wasn't just a disagreement. The act of disagreeing or even questioning covid protocols was heretical, taboo. For example, one covid policy that really bothered me was limiting people in grocery stores, and especially forbidding children to enter. Obviously that was going to hit single parents and transit users harder than anyone else. I thought that businesses should be more moderate, make more accomodations for people in the lower socioeconomic rungs. They already face so many restrictions that other families don't.
But when I said this online, people reacted with statements like, "I DON'T WANT MY GRANDMA TO DIE, THANK YOU" like it was an equation: "Kid in grocery store = Dead Grandma". They were feeling all the feels but not thinking all the thinks. They couldn't draw the line between the kid and the grandma. They were scared, there were limited lifejackets on the lifeboat, and they were pushing hard. Better to push off a single parent than my grandma, right? It's ok if people can't get food, right?
I worried about the huge ding to kids' physical and mental health from closing schools. And bingo, sexual abuse of minors is up by a million percent, kids are having unprecedented mental health crises. Kids as young as 6 are trying to kill themselves. So it's ok for covid to cause kids to be mentally unhealthy for the rest of their lives (those that survive), but at least Grandma gets another 4 years of watching TV in her rest home.
I didn't disagree with the purpose of the policies. But we didn't do enough to protect our most vulnerable members of society. And when I said this, people started frothing at the mouth. They could only see one vulnerable group at a time. I'm not used to my ideas being heretical. I never thought of myself as a radical. But wow. Covid changed my opinion of society. It's far more fearful and conservative than I realized.
In one way, the theories of far-right political platform align with the far-left academic platform, in the idea that people's right to free speech should be preserved as much as possible. The difference between the two platforms is implementation: academics are professionally accountable for what they say, so they're far more careful about their words than non-academics.
Maybe I'll just unfriend people who post groupthink memes. It'd be a fast way to find the people who aren't thinking carefully. And most of these friends had already disappeared from my life before Facebook found them again. I was happy to see them again, but it's not like any of us had cared enough to stay in touch over the years.
OK enough rambling. Today: Kids are at school. Short day for Bug, field trip for LLB. We're thinking about heading to E-town tomorrow for R's birthday. It would mean coping with gas prices, and also sourcing a gift. Must puzzle this today.
It's P's last week at home; next week he returns to the office for three days a week, which will be his permanent office schedule from now on.
We're worried about the dog. He's going to miss P a LOT. I've made plans to stay home more on Tues/Wed/Thur when P's gone, so the dog will spend less time alone.
Saw a meme yesterday that said "It's amazing how quickly everyone went from being an infectious disease expert to being an international conflict expert". I see the same all-or-nothing fervor with this war on Ukraine. I'm not saying Russia is innocent. I'm saying that groupthink is scary. I don't disagree with my FB peeps' opinion about Russia being awful, but it sucks to not have the option to disagree. Because I'm pretty sure if I did, I'd be crucified like I was with covid.
I don't spend a ton of time online, so maybe my online skin isn't tough enough. But covid was my first experience where an online disagreement wasn't just a disagreement. The act of disagreeing or even questioning covid protocols was heretical, taboo. For example, one covid policy that really bothered me was limiting people in grocery stores, and especially forbidding children to enter. Obviously that was going to hit single parents and transit users harder than anyone else. I thought that businesses should be more moderate, make more accomodations for people in the lower socioeconomic rungs. They already face so many restrictions that other families don't.
But when I said this online, people reacted with statements like, "I DON'T WANT MY GRANDMA TO DIE, THANK YOU" like it was an equation: "Kid in grocery store = Dead Grandma". They were feeling all the feels but not thinking all the thinks. They couldn't draw the line between the kid and the grandma. They were scared, there were limited lifejackets on the lifeboat, and they were pushing hard. Better to push off a single parent than my grandma, right? It's ok if people can't get food, right?
I worried about the huge ding to kids' physical and mental health from closing schools. And bingo, sexual abuse of minors is up by a million percent, kids are having unprecedented mental health crises. Kids as young as 6 are trying to kill themselves. So it's ok for covid to cause kids to be mentally unhealthy for the rest of their lives (those that survive), but at least Grandma gets another 4 years of watching TV in her rest home.
I didn't disagree with the purpose of the policies. But we didn't do enough to protect our most vulnerable members of society. And when I said this, people started frothing at the mouth. They could only see one vulnerable group at a time. I'm not used to my ideas being heretical. I never thought of myself as a radical. But wow. Covid changed my opinion of society. It's far more fearful and conservative than I realized.
In one way, the theories of far-right political platform align with the far-left academic platform, in the idea that people's right to free speech should be preserved as much as possible. The difference between the two platforms is implementation: academics are professionally accountable for what they say, so they're far more careful about their words than non-academics.
Maybe I'll just unfriend people who post groupthink memes. It'd be a fast way to find the people who aren't thinking carefully. And most of these friends had already disappeared from my life before Facebook found them again. I was happy to see them again, but it's not like any of us had cared enough to stay in touch over the years.
OK enough rambling. Today: Kids are at school. Short day for Bug, field trip for LLB. We're thinking about heading to E-town tomorrow for R's birthday. It would mean coping with gas prices, and also sourcing a gift. Must puzzle this today.
It's P's last week at home; next week he returns to the office for three days a week, which will be his permanent office schedule from now on.
We're worried about the dog. He's going to miss P a LOT. I've made plans to stay home more on Tues/Wed/Thur when P's gone, so the dog will spend less time alone.