The presidential election is still almost four months away but judging from the media coverage and posts on various social networks, you'd think it was just weeks away.
The idiom that one should never discuss politics, sex and religion among polite company clearly doesn't apply when referring to the internet. One thing is certain; the internet has made the world smaller. What is unclear is if that has created more hatred, divisiveness and bigotry or just made it more visible. The most rational explanation is that it is a little bit of both. There are those who are always seeing red on the other side of the aisle and are now emboldened by the anonymity of the web. You may not say anything to your coworker who mentions who they are voting for over fear of a face-to-face confrontation but it's easy to cast stones from behind a keyboard.
The lack of decorum from the online journalism community is especially shocking to those who are used to objective reporting. When Ted Kennedy died in 2009, writer and self described "Reagan conservative" Andrew Breitbart took to twitter with some choice words about the long time U.S. Senator. So it wasn't a complete surprise that when Andrew Breitbart died of a heart attack earlier this year, several left leaning journalists didn't hesitate to write some disparaging things of their own. Within hours of Breitbart's passing, Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone had posted an article titled 'Andrew Breitbart: Death of a Douche' that spread around the internet like wildfire.
Of course both Breitbart and Taibbi are protected under the 1st Amendment to state whatever they think of any person but by spewing such vitriol they are just adding fuel to a fire that needs no more accelerant. I'm all for a spirited debate and have been known to engage in a few myself but there is a time and place which is probably not 2AM on your friend's Facebook wall.
I posted the above status update earlier today and received mostly positive feedback but lost two Facebook "friends" within a few hours.
Sadly, the quote at the top from George Bernard Shaw is accurate and the reason we see such little change in politics or the world in general is because most people aren't open to change. So I'll close this out by reminding you to think for a second before you send out your next politically charged tweet, YouTube comment or Facebook update and ask yourself if you have the right audience, the right intentions or if it might upset someone you consider a friend.
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