It feels impossible to use Twitter without knowing that one day, you too will get roasted by an angry horde.
We have no chill for anything, and no sense of perspective about how to respond to people who, let's say, are still on their journey of understanding.
It's exhausting.
And I get that there are many totally valid reasons for this. For too long, bad actors have used ambiguity and a lack of consequences to do terrible things. Mob justice is the only justice we can get, and it's necessary to stand up to these abuses. I agree.
But there are so many folks who spend so much time pointing pitchforks and demanding that everyone else has an 11/10 response to every problem. It's unsustainable.
I jdon't have an inexhaustible supply of anger, and I don't want one.
I think activist Twitter of just about all stripes has become unbalanced. We continually look for the worst in people, and offer little social support to those who are trying to be better. It's beginning to feel like a purity test no one can possibly pass.
We should absolutely call out toxic behavior and long-standing abuses that have been ignored.
We should be listening to each other and finding ways to respect the fact we're all imperfect.
I get we're all tired -- trust me, I am SO TIRED of being mistreated.
This isn't a subtweet or any specific thing, but it's just something that's been on my mind for like...a year.
And I've been afraid to say it because I really don't want to police tones or come across like I'm diminishing the pain of other people. I'm not. I see you.
But is the constant and unrestrained anger moving us to the world we want? Can we stop to look at the effect we're having on the people around us? Who we're becoming?
Can we recalibrate ourselves to be the people we want to be instead of running away from our worse selves?
I'll try to practice what I preach and be a bit more active and (hopefully) comforting(?) to the feed.
I want to bring good things into the world AND purge it of the stuff that should never have been there. I can do both.
Anyway, here's Wonderwall:
But we should think more about the way we're treating other people, and be more careful that we're not focusing on our pain to the exclusion of anything else.
It honestly helps to spend some time spreading joy, too. And hope. And grace, and acceptance.