Final Blog (rant) Post
I'm going to touch a bit on that video first. First off, the art style reminds me a lot of this video. Secondly, I think part of it is very accurate and part of it isn't. The video was definitely not made at the same time the song came out, as I found the animator and he is literally 26. Secondly, that song wasn't even what was original with the video. The guy who you got the video from just put that song over it and re-uploaded it. It's obvious the animation is a satire of technology today. As much as the "technology bad" satire makes me roll my eyes, since that's what I had to grow up on, being born in the beginning of the technology boom, it's important to know where the important stuff is, and what matters to you, and to not let it get unhealthy. That's easier said than done.
So fast forward to December 9th. It's been almost 2 months since I opened this, and I'm in a pretty bad depressive episode right now so bear with me.
My current relationship with technology is good for me, I have a lot of online friends, and I trust them more than a lot of these people in real life. Being a communication major is kind of lonely because I'm not in any cliques and I'm not like a stereotypical communication major here. I'm friends with psych majors and that's my minor and I'm way more comfortable there.
That being said, where would I be without my online friends? Lonely, still feeling like I have to fit in a certain mold, probably less comfortable with my sexuality. Also, I'd probably be less versed on different people from different backgrounds. Having friends online has opened up my mind as well as theirs and it's pretty great. It's helped me to deal with stuff I might have to deal with in real life, like conflicts over petty things... or not-so petty things. It's helped me where I've been uncomfortable talking to my parents about stuff, like my past. These people are a lot less judgmental, and it's easier to open up about things to people who don't know you in your real life.
Politically, I think it's helped me to solidify my own beliefs. Where I'm from, it's all REPUBLICAN RED WOOO YEE HAW!!!! Like, very intensely Republican. Naturally, my beliefs as a kid were heavily influenced by that, but things never felt right. I felt confused and I didn't understand. I thought politicians were celebrities competing to run the country for an embarrassingly long time. I didn't understand policy, I didn't understand that where we were with human rights isn't where we could and should be. I didn't understand labor laws or corporations. I didn't understand WHY democrats were "so terrible".
It was just all engrained in me that life worked a certain way. As I got more introduced to people online, it helped me to determine that there are many different kinds of people out there and to embrace everyone for who they are, and not for whatever stereotypical crap we were taught. It's taught me not to judge or assume too much based on how someone might be upfront.
Literally, let's jump to another topic. Where I live, people very commonly get their news from Facebook or they go to some biased news source (they all have some bias) but they listen to one side of it. This is a problem on the left side as well. On top of that, they'll get some meme from Facebook or someone's inflammatory post and share it around and spread hate and misinformation. It's concerning as well how divisive media is.
Politicians don't care about us, no matter how much they pretend to. We need to care about each other, but we don't. Some people don't listen to doctors and think they're all lying, while some people say people deserve to die if they don't take the vaccine. The people in group 2 deserve to have to stop at every stoplight. They suck. Group 1, however, seems to have been exposed to a LOT of misinformation. Then there's Qanon. Look at the subreddit r/Qanoncasualites. People lose their family members to this cult-like thing.
The problem is not about conservatives. I personally do disagree with conservative people about a lot of things, but as long as they live in reality, they're fine. We can argue our points and know we are dealing with an objective reality. We both may be objectively wrong about things, but we can still get along as people.
But this cult of misinformation is destroying relationships, families, communities. It's made me inherently distrust the Republican party, and it should definitely not be that way. But how can I talk to someone who thinks I'm a communist because I got vaccinated? How can I take someone seriously who thinks all democats are evil child molesters? It's not true conservatism, it's something else. There is absolutely nothing conservative about trying to overthrow democracy to make Trump some sort of dictator. It's all driven by lies.
But all conservatives definitely don't fit in that box. We have a two party system, which I disagree with the idea of a two party system because it places the normal people in with the people who do not think rationally, and it does this on both sides. We need actual conservative people to step up and shut down this Qanon crap.
