02 Apr 18: Love My Neighbour - Liam Bailey

I’ve had a wonderful Easter weekend visiting my aunt and spending more time on a couch than I have cumulatively in all of 2018. It’s been nothing short of bliss and peaceful... that is until I started scrolling through Twitter, YouTube and Facebook comments.

Have you ever found yourself getting angry at a comment on Facebook that had absolutely nothing to do with you? All of which could have been avoided if you ignored the "Ooh this will be good" voice in your head.

13 minutes too deep into every comment section battle you quickly hit the inevitable moment where you remember how much of a waste of time they are. Why do we do this every time? What do we expect to be different this time?

After a number of these rabbit holes you pick up the trend of how people are automatically herded into two camps on the internet battlefield and the keyboard warriors – the chosen few who take it upon themselves to take time out of their otherwise busy day to engage in verbal combat with someone they’ll never meet on the other side of the world - are our only voice of reason. The sacrifices these men and women (predominantly men from my experience) make should – for the best part – go unnoticed because their cry for attention is comparable to a tantrum throwing toddler.

This seeming inability to look past the dichotomy of arguments engineers an environment of in-group / out-group mentality. Most people fall in middle of these extremes – that’s just how statistics work. But the internet plays by its own rules. It’s either: Us v Them; You v Me; Liberal Lefties v Alt-Right Racists; Pro v Anti.

Yes – sometimes people engage with posts that go against something they feel strongly about but I’d honestly love to hear exactly how they thought calling that person a “fucking moron” was going to address the issue. If someone could highlight a moment in the history of disagreement when the response has been “You know what – he raises a valid point. Maybe I am a fucking moron. I’ve changed my mind now” I'd be truly grateful.

It’s a shame because some of the people who go into these threads blindfolded from the context and swinging for a reaction are rarely the most informed on the topic. They are simply confrontational enough to blurt out their non-constructive comment thinking the rest of the world values it. (Note: the irony of sharing my opinion on a blog and thinking the world cares has not escaped me). It seems for them defending their pride is more important than defending objectivity. They feel attacked and therefore retaliate. How fragile is your ego that you can’t conceive the idea of being wrong? I find comes down to who shouts the loudest.

"I try and love my neighbour, even though my neighbour don't love me"

Sometimes I wish I could be less sceptical and wonder what it would be like to not be so much of a fence-sitter on certain topics. To be able to have the mental capability (or incapability) to see something from the contrarian perspective to try and understand what has happened to make a person think a certain way seems like an impossible concept to grasp for some.

This may come as a surprise to some but people can and do have different opinions to you on whether they like a song, where they stand on a political topic, whether or not they like hot chocolate. This doesn't automatically put them any more right or wrong than the next person.

“I love hot chocolate”

“Well, I fucking hot chocolate!”

Do you feel better now, Dave? The world has heard where you stand on such an arbitrary topic and you’re not changing anyone’s life but at least we now know that you fucking hate hot chocolate. Just let people enjoy things. Don’t “Yuk” their “Yum”.

On more serious topics than hot chocolate just look to engage in dialogue. If people go into

these “conversations" from a Here is my point and I’m interested to see how/if you think otherwise as opposed to Here is my point and don’t you dare tell me I’m wrong or you will catch these hands.

To the next generation of keyboard warriors, how about trying to take an approach of being the bigger person and "love your neighbour"? Maybe try and engage in constructive conversation and, for the love of god, no one cares if there's a spelling mistake in their tweet. Do this and we can save each other precious hours that can otherwise be spent more productively than getting pissed off at @DaveBrexit66 online.