Last Friday, you let me down, Twitter. You really f-cking let me down. I should not have been surprised because we all can’t be at the top of our games at all times but last week, I saw people take L’s they didn’t have to take, and even worse, I saw people standing firmly in the Ls, without a morsel of acknowledgment.
Now, in all fairness, we’ve all done it, but even Twitter, for all of its despotic leadership, still asks if you want to read the article before you quote-tweet it. Sure, maybe not when you respond in the thread, but I imagine writing takes more energy than reading, especially a two-minute article that might give insight into a two-hour argument to the dumb ass on the other side of the smartphone.
Last Friday, I wrote an article about why the term “Karen” was essentially an ill-fitting term to use. My reasonings, other than my mother and the boss lady’s names being Karen, were that it did not directly address the issue of the purveyor of said racism, and it allowed white women access to more victimhood and denial of accountability by feigning marginalization. Some people, after actually reading the article, realized the error in their ways and complimented the article (thanks, y’all). But others stood tall in their refusal to admit that they didn’t know what the f-ck they were actually responding to, including me being called white, a woman not realizing she was talking sh-t about the author (to the actual author), another woman posting her own article, (but not the reason she did not agree with the points made in the article), about white privilege and the word Karen, ’cause like you think they finna read yo’ sh-t on my sh-t, without actually reading my sh-t, without referencing her actual gripe with mine?!
I just do not understand how someone could be on Twitter all day and not read articles but still read tweets—about said articles?!
Maybe it was the clickbait-esque title, but I still expected people to have a modicum of respect for their own intellectual dignity, even when commenting under other comments making fun of the people who weren’t reading. Seriously, I know that controversy moves people. If it didn’t, people wouldn’t remind others of some sh-t someone said 15 years ago whenever they pop back up in the news. Hell, they could be donating a kidney, and someone will bring up the time that they called their kitten stupid. It’s a thing. It happens, but allowing ourselves to disseminate information and even have such a strong opinion on half the knowledge when we were presented with all of it is not just a failure to do due diligence but it is a recipe for disaster (the Irish still were not slaves, no matter what that meme says).
In a world where we are literally fighting for the correct information to be still taught in schools, it’s tragic when we join the intellectual echelon of those whom we know are not only uninformed but who have no space for absorbing and applying new information (I didn’t just compare you to a Trump supporter did I)?
While we are watching the banning of books and information in real-time, we are not even taking the time out to read the information that is readily available. And let me be clear, Twitter is not a place for required reading assignments, but going into battle without even knowing who your opponent is, will surely blow up in your face.
