BETTER ANGELS
Well, I just got Zucked into The Facebook Twilight Zone.
I've been following David Talbot, a wonderful progressive writer for
years and have enthusiastically engaged with him and his followers in his
comment feed. Yesterday he posted a comment about the coup in Bolivia
and referenced an article by Marc Cooper, a progressive reporter since
the 70's who has drifted more and more to the right recently.
The article claimed there were "Maduro Death Squads" in Venezuela. I
was quite surprised by David's reference and did some research on
Cooper. I found there were comparisons to Christopher Hitchens, another
left wing reporter who swung right after our invasion of Iraq. The
comment section of David's post was filled with his friends arguments
against his position. I posted a (what I thought) humorous comment
comparing Cooper to Hitchens - "Fe fi fo fitchens, I smell the scent of a
Christopher Hitchens" then followed with a link to an article
expounding Cooper's similarity to Hitchens. I was working on my computer
and got distracted. I picked up my tablet in the other room to check
the comments and couldn't connect. I came back to my computer to see a
furious announcement from David:
"FYI I
just deleted and unfriended an imbecilic name caller who was attacking
me as a "Christopher Hitchens" -- a writer I personally knew and
scathingly criticized when he took up with neocons during the
Bush-Cheney regime. For me, ignorant smears like that have no place on
my page. Our debates can be vigorous but should have some intelligence
and substance. As a journalist who truly tries to emulate George Orwell
in my principled criticism of authoritarianism on the left and right
(unlike the drunken and increasingly sloppy embrace of Orwell by
Hitchens), I will continue to speak out in this way/"
I
immediately protested and explained that he had got it completely wrong
but as he had unfriended me, he could not see my comments (I assume). I
was still on the feed however and commented on another person's comment,
asking him to post my protestation in the feed to see if David could
read it and realize he had made a terrible mistake but the person said
no and I lost the feed.
And there you have it. A fellow writer
and progressive who I have followed, supported and adored
through his struggle with a massive stroke, his joy at having his son
create a much heralded movie on the gentrification of San Francisco, and
our shared fight against The Machine, misunderstanding an innocent
comment, viciously insulting me then unfriending me with out even giving
me a chance to respond.
Is this what has become of us? That one
of the most liberal writers today can autocratically shut out a "friend"
without even going back in his posts to take a good look at the
innumerable kind and supportive posts of his "friend"?
I realize
he was on the defensive from all his other "friends" disagreements with
his post and I realize that I was the target for his anger but I think I
know him well enough to say if he saw this post, he would realize the
error, apologize and "refriend me". This is so far beneath him. He has
hurt me deeply. He needs another chance more than I do.
We cannot be
victims of social media pit falls and sink holes. If you think a friend
has insulted you, either in a correspondence or in person, don't you
want to make sure you understood them before you throw them out of your
life? Have we all become a bunch of screeching monkeys?
(the next day's post)
Let's wrap it up.
Conclusion:
Better Angels
Breathing a little easier after sleeping on it, realizing that there
was little chance of reconciliation, I decided to look deeper into David
Talbot’s hissy fit. What on earth was there about Christopher Hitchens
that the mere mention of his name pushed him to the point of not reading
my post completely and mistakenly thinking I ignorantly smeared him
(imbecile that I am)? Christopher Hitchens was a very individual and
original thinker who for most of his career wrote, argued and spoke to
the left. He was profoundly irreligious and felt that organized religion
had for the most part done nothing but harm to our species throughout
history. Unfortunately, he took that view to the extreme in singling out
Islam after the 911 attacks, jumping on the Neocon war wagon of
intervention and destruction in the Middle East that resulted in a swath
of murder and mayhem that haunts the world to this day. This history of
progressive belief and action throughout his life up until his last few
years mirrors to some extent the life and career of the person I was
referencing in my post on Talbot’s feed, Marc Cooper, a progressive
reporter who started out as an interpreter to Salvadore Allende, the
socialist president of Chile who so raised up his people to the
detriment of American corporations that the CIA overthrew his government
and assassinated him in 1973. Cooper had to flee for his life and has
spent most of the rest of it, as Hitchens, writing for left wing and
progressive causes until the last few years. Then he too jumped on a
corporate capitalist juggernaut of hatred for Venezuela’s president
Maduro and wrote overblown accusatory articles claiming Maduro was a
murderer who used assassination squads. David Talbot referenced these
articles in his own hyperbole against Maduro and Bolivia’s president
Morales claiming that these two tin pot dictators who overstayed their
presidencies were perfect examples of power corrupting and absolute
power corrupting absolutely. The funny thing is both elections were
monitored and passed by UN inspectors and while running for a fourth
term might seem dictatorial to a lot of Americans, there was no problem
in our country when a wildly popular president by the name of Franklin
Delano Roosevelt did just that until the republican side or our equation
said never more.
So what did drive David Talbot to abuse his own
power over one of his couple of thousand friends on Facebook, publicly
vilify me and silence me with banishment without a chance to defend myself? On the face of it, fellow
left wing writer, Christopher Hitchens turning right over a horrific attack against his
country toward the end of his life and career could have ended their
friendship, professional or otherwise but how could David Talbot hate
him so much that a mistaken (on his part) comparison instantly become an
“ignorant smear that has no place on my page”? Me thinks the lady doth
protest too much. Me thinks I really don’t give a shit.
And with
that Shakespearean reference (used in 20th century argot), let me finish this dark dive into the
alienation and anger that has consumed our country to the point where
even those of like minds are snarling and chewing on each other with my
favorite cannibalistic Shakespearean quote from Titus Andronicus. A
guest at the royal dinner table asks where the royal children are and is
answered “Why there they are both, baked in that pie, whereof their
mother daintily fed, eating the flesh that she herself hath bred”.
No, no no. Can’t let it end like that, can we? The clouds were clearing
this morning. In the grocery store, my favorite check out lady I call
Sunshine, with false eyelashes that could substitute for mink stoles
offered me a dazzling smile and told me she no longer looks at the news.
Still glowing from that warmth and with Max Richter in my earbuds, I
sat down to take a rest on a bench in the park. A lady sitting next to
me looked warmly into my eyes and said “God bless you.”
We’ll get through this.
David Talbot FYI I just deleted and unfriended an imbecilic name caller
who was attacking me as a "Christopher Hitchens" -- a writer I
personally knew and scathingly criticized when he took up with neocons during
the Bush-Cheney regime. For me, ignorant smears like that have no place on my
page. Our debates can be vigorous but should have some intelligence and
substance. As a journalist who truly tries to emulate George Orwell in my
principled criticism of authoritarianism on the left and right (unlike the
drunken and increasingly sloppy embrace of Orwell by Hitchens), I will continue
to speak out in this way/
