Although whats going on in Ferguson right now is incredibly problematic--not to mention: beyond despicable (also: alarming, infuriating, insulting)--the social media explosion that preceded (and which continues to comment on) the Michael Brown case is symptomatic of another problem, that is: the dramatic lowering of the bar for what constitutes legitimate political discourse. The sound-byte culture that Twitters 140-character format helps to produce has (disturbingly) begun to replace more traditional modes of dialogue, modes of dialogue which, not viral in any sense of the word, share as a foundation a rigorous analysis. Before critically examining any of the evidence in the Mike Brown case, I admit, I was ready to condemn the police (and all police) in much the same way the twittersphere (and my own Facebook newsfeed) has done. Based on my own political lean, I consumed and dispersed a narrative that appealed to me, despite the lack of substantiated evidence therein. After taking some time to read up on the case and to think about it, my perception of the incident has completely changed. Whats problematic for me is not the quickness with which my opinion was able to change, but, instead, that quickness with which it was initially formed. Ideology led me to conclude that the Michael Brown case was just another example of institutionalized racism and fetishized violence coming to a head (a la George Zimmerman). Twitter confirmed my conclusion, muddling and mincing the facts. While, in my opinion, the actions Officer Wilson took are inexcusable, even idiotic, the way he has been represented in this case as a cold blooded killer is probably disingenuous. Trigger-happy yokel? Yeah. Racist? Probably. Cold blooded killer? I dont know the man that well. To the point: ideology will always play a role in human judgments--this much is certain--but that does not mean that we should not be critical of ideology (and the mediums through which it influences us). Now, this post is incredibly ironic, given that my thesis concerns the impotence of social media platforms (like this one Im using right now) to be politically productive or rigorously composed (this post is certainly neither). But that does not preclude me from pointing to what I see as a growing problem: the disavowal of reasoned argument in favor of the easy-to-consume rhetoric of social media (a likely product of a late capitalist fast-food culture). TL;DR: Twitter destroys the integrity of discourse and reinforces cheap appeals to ideology.
Posted on: Thu, 21 Aug 2014 00:33:00 +0000
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