Let's talk about rights (11/27/19)

Let's talk about rights.

There seems to be this ongoing discussion about what people have the right to say, or what people can and cannot say, and I find it fascinating. Someone says or does something offensive and certain groups are outraged and some say they shouldn't have said it and others try to justify what was said.

It's like people feed off the drama, and I don't understand why certain things are so important to some people, but I do get a kick out of watching it unfold. Sometimes.

Other times I feel really sorry for the general population who feels like it's their responsibility to correct someone else's "wrongdoing", or make it known how offended they are. It's exhausting. I know because I used to be that guy. Someone would say something incorrect and I would be there to set the record straight. Knowledge must be distributed!

Then one day, I decided to keep my mouth shut. Not entirely sure why. Maybe I was feeling experimental. Someone said something that I knew was incorrect, but I knew that it was ultimately inconsequential, and so I just smiled. It was a weird feeling, but it actually felt really good. I felt like a weight had been taken off my shoulders. I suddenly didn't have to correct everyone who said something wrong.

I can disagree with someone and remain silent! Yay!

If you're reading this and you haven't tried it, I seriously recommend you do. Just once. Just to see how it feels.

You see, here's the thing. A lot (like, just so much, you guys) of the stuff that I see people freaking out about on the interwebs, is stuff that only went viral because everyone is freaking out about it. You are literally giving a voice to the person you disagree with.

Every time you share that meme or that article and say "look at how terrible this is", you are spreading the message that you hate. If everyone (*cough* you *cough*) would just moooove aloooong, then no one would even know that someone made a racist comment, or that Trump tweeted a picture of his head on a human's body. It would fall into darkness, because no one would be showing it to everyone else, announcing how terrible it is.

Let's start picking what we are outraged about. If it's a law that is being passed, or a societal trend that you don't agree with, by all means, let your voice be heard and be a positive change. But if you're really just complaining about something that happened, or someone said something you don't like, consider that you might just be fueling the fire.

At the end of the day, we live in a country that still kind of has freedom of expression and that inherently means that people will have disagreements. So if everyone has the right to express themselves, then it doesn't make sense to be outraged when someone does just that. You have every right to be, it's just not healthy. As in you're just hurting yourself, so please stop.

In summary, I have the right to say whatever I want.

You have the right to be offended and say so.

I have the right to not care.

You have the right to hate me for not caring.

We are both well within our rights, but your hatred is way more harmful than my apathy.

Does this make sense?