This rant is a reaction to a rather depressing article on npr.org about hate messages on social networks, but it is more than that. I have been reading the news. I am connecting the dots. And I see one ugly picture. I see the shattering of standards of minimal decency, of treating all human beings with basic respect. The 2016 campaign isn't over, but the standards are gone.
The article I mentioned is about a social media app called Yik Yak. It is used on some college campuses to let the students chat with each other anonymously. Naturally, under the mask of anonymity, people could get a bit nastier than normal, but just how bad could it get? If you guessed threats of rape and calls for lynching, congratulations! You are correct.
That was just one dot, mind you. How about the incident with written hate message at CSU Sacramento last January? Another red dot.
There are more dots, to be sure, such as every other thing that comes out of the GOP front-runner's mouth. My favorite one is his retweet of "Jeb speaking Mexican", but there are plenty more, and plenty more to come.
I have said it before and I will repeat it: he is a salesman. The real problem is, that stuff sells. His personal contribution to the standards-shattering is probably significant: he came out, walking all over certain norms of social conduct and not only is he just fine, he is being rewarded. What a courageous pioneer.
Only two years ago, the country had a chance to "admire" Rush Limbaugh, but at least -- thank Goodness -- he has been loosing business. I will not claim that the standards were very firmly established. Nor will I deny that racism and hate were an issue all along. But at least, there was a widely accepted consensus that those were bad things. In the offices and on public forums, people had to either be decent or to wear a certain mask if their spiritual face was too ugly to bear.
I had once told my kids that in Germany, swastikas were illegal, but in the United States they were only de facto illegal. Nobody would arrest a Nazi, but nobody worth hanging out with will ever say hello to them, either. I told my kids they were lucky to have been born in America. This is the most successful nation in the world. We have standards here, for crying out loud!
Back in the twentieth century, the country has been at crossroads. Thanks to the human rights movement, thanks to the turbulent history of the 60's and 70's, we are headed in the right direction. Were headed, that is. A ship like USA doesn't turn easily, so it must be that for the last several years, we have been making a supertanker's equivalent of a swerve in the direction of the dark ages.
