I rarely open Facebook. At best, it’s boring and banal. At worst it’s ugly and dangerous. I don’t have a Twitter account. I’m too old to tweet. I’ll leave that to the birds – and bird brains like Donald Trump. It’s not that I don’t want to keep up with friends and family. But I […]
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Posts tagged with 'social media'
Abusing “Free Speech”
Freedom of speech is one of America’s most hallowed traditions, but it is becoming a dangerous one. Like any freedom, it must have limits. We are not free to do any number of things – murder, robbery, assault – even trespassing on a neighbor’s lot. Why should speech be different? Free speech has been […]
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A Farewell to Alarms?
Could this really be goodbye for Alex Jones? The conspiracy theorist has just been banned by Apple, Facebook, YouTube and Spotify. And my response is: What took you guys so long? Alex Jones is a bad joke. A dangerous bad joke. He is the kind of hazard Oliver Wendell Holmes obviously meant when he […]
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Shaming is Out of Hand
I would be among the first to cry shame if I became aware of someone in authority abusing that power to make another human being perform any kind of sexual act. But I’m getting tired of the accusations of “impropriety” in the press and on social media. It’s all part of a culture of shaming. Especially on […]
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Making up the “News”
Trump and his minions constantly complain about “fake news” produced by left-leaning media. And the mainstream media are not completely blamesless. Political reporting has always been suspect. This type of journalism seems to rely on more lenient standards than “hard news” reporting. The practice of using unnamed sources, for example, is prevalent in political reports. […]
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There’s No “Good Citizen” Gene, Mr. King
Iowa Congressman Steve King set off a tweet storm with his openly racist claim that “we can’t restore our civilization with somebody else’s babies.” King was supporting Dutch politician Geert Wilder, (depicted at upper right) who wants to sfop Muslim immigration, shut down mosques and ban the Koran in his country. King’s comments sparked widespread outrage, of course. But some […]
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No Politics in Golf
Call me a fascist. A bigot. Any of the nasty names Rory McIlroy got called.. But I don’t blame him for accepting Trump’s golf date. I’ve played thousands of rounds of golf in my life, and I never once asked my companions about their politics. That’s the charm of golf. That’s the charm of sports. I heard […]
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A Digital Protest? Really?
In another time, Americans might be marching on Washington today, massing in front of Congress to support the Democratic sit-in against gun violence. But I know of no plan to march. Instead I got an invitation – by email of course – to join a “digital protest.” So I won’t have to leave the […]
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Shame on Body Shaming
One of the worst things the Internet has popularized is shaming, especially body shaming. The trolls get away with it because they can remain anonymous, and it causes a lot of grief. Some kids have even committed suicide as a result of this kind of bullying. So I view the emergence of the new […]
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Racists Strut Their Stuff
I am astonished – shocked – by the shameless way in which racists are flaunting their bigotry in America today. Take this comment from Maine’s Governor Paul LePage: These are guys with the name D-Money, Smoothie, Shifty – these types of guys – they come from Connecticut and New York, they come up here, they […]
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