For the past several months social media has been rife with snark. Facebook and the Twitterati have turned the decibel level up to 10, gloating over Donald Trump’s poor approval ratings and the inevitable Blue sweep of the Congress in the November midterms. So why was I not surprised when CNN released a poll yesterday saying the the midterm races were in a dead heat?
Puke-faced millennial social media mavens can talk trash until carpal tunnel sets in, but that’s not going to change the fact that we live in an uneducated, racist society that could care less that a narcissistic dullard is president. Throw in the fact that the Republicans that *are* educated are making so much money off of this administration that they, too, are happy to turn a blind eye.
Folks, the fix was in long before Trump became president. Between gerrymandering, the gradual dumbing down of our nation through massive education cuts, and a gluttonous one percent, we have long been a lost cause. Time to batten down the hatches — we’re in for a rough ride.
Last night I played a very enjoyable gig at a trendy new jazz club in San Francisco called The Black Cat. (There used to be an old Black Cat which existed before my time living here) It’s a basement club with tables packed tightly together filled with 20 and 30-something techies drinking $15 martinis and fancy mixed drinks.
At one point in the gig I looked out into the audience from the stage only to see half of the people buried in their phones. There was a table with four young women right in front of the bandstand, all of whom were looking at their phones.
Can’t people go five minutes without checking their Instagram? What’s the point of hanging out with friends if you’re not going to engage?
Is there any wonder we elected a dullard such as Trump? We are building a nonintellectual, incurious, self-absorbed populace that is vapid and disengaged. Wake up, people!
The latest sickening internet trend is the conceit that a random grouping of 365 days is a sentient being. This is especially true on Twitter where people are trying to one up each other for the whiniest tweet. Here’s an example:
So so sad to hear about the death of Carrie Fisher. 2016 has taught us one hell of a lesson.. don’t take anyone for granted! Hurry up 2017!!
I guarantee you I can pick any year and find just as many celebrities that died. Here is a list of notable deaths in 1955:
Albert Einstein, James Agee, James Dean, and most tragically, Shemp Howard of the Three Stooges.
Charlie Parker died in 1955. Bam. 1955 is exponentially worse than 2016.
Again, it’s all about the humblebrag. RIPing Prince, Carrie Fisher, or ________________________ makes you seem like a sensitive individual, but the effect is to draw attention towards yourself and away from the deceased.
There is nothing new about the gratuitous social media RIP, but this year came with a new wrinkle: The anthropomorphism of 2016. As if a year is a sentient being and that somehow 2017 will be more benevolent.
If I might offer a suggestion, try a different calendar. Why not go by the Chinese calendar? Or give the Jewish calendar a shot. Or the Mayan. It couldn’t hurt.
After my previous post decrying the decay of western civilization through videos I decided to see for myself what it was like to produce to have a video experience of my own. In the past week I had received a few notices on my Facebook feed about so and so being ‘live.’ I wondered what it was so finally I clicked one of the feeds and there was one of my ‘friends,’ – more like an acquaintance – live and in full pontificating mode. He was all over the map but mostly he was bloviating about the coming election.
I found it kind of self centered and self-serving. Until I tried it myself. Then I thought it was fun. I donned a beret and took ‘hater’ act live and beta test a five minute rant.
I started off be-scowled, pontificating about people posting over-produced political videos with the sound track and fancy graphics. I was segueing into the Academy Awards when I noticed at the bottom of the screen there was a display of who was viewing my feed. Soon my friends began commenting and that’s when I lost it, breaking character in a fit of laughter.
I have to admit, as much as I hate to, that being live and having an audience was intoxicating. It was visceral in a way that a written post is not. The thing is, it’s too easy and the risk of crossing the line from detached, ironic humor into trite, self aggrandizement is too easy. You’re trying to be funny in the moment and your friends are there — who knows what offensive bon mot may slip from your mouth in the moment. With the written word there’s a good chance you would take stock of what you are writing and edit out something potentially hurtful.
After 5 minutes I realized I was out of gas and said goodbye to my viewing public. I’ll try to resist over-saturating myself on Facebook, but the lure of the audience is strong. Pray for me.
Someone on my Facebook feed posted an article decrying downfall of society as a result of pre-packaged peeled oranges at Whole Food. I would counter that articles like this, which contain headlines that tell us how to think and feel, are what’s wrong with society.
I love how in the middle of the story the writer does a u-turn, talking about the backlash against Nathalie Gordon, the anti peeled-oranges activist: But some people are now pointing their anger at Gordon rather than at Whole foods, arguing that the pre-peeled oranges were helpful to the elderly and people with disabilities. From the looks of it, just as many people are ticked off about Whole Foods pulling the peeled oranges from store shelves as there were people who were ticked off about them being there in the first place.
BAM. A perfectly, but rarely executed, 180 degree PC turnaround! I didn’t see that one coming.
I’ll tell you what, I’m sick of everything being videoed and posted on Facebook. Some middle aged guy rescues a duckling stuck in a chain link fence…WHILE HIS WIFE FILMS IT?! That’s not selflessness, that’s self aggrandizement.
I get that this is an organization that wants to promote kindness to animals…but I don’t care. If I see a duckling, cygnet, or a baby hippo stuck in a chain link fence I’ll do my best to set it free. (well, maybe not the hippo) I’ll tell you one thing I’m not going to do. I’m not going to have my wife film it so that I can brag about what a superior human I am.
In the end what is this video going to accomplish? You’re either the kind of person who’ll save an animal or you’re not. No Facebook video is going to serve as a behavior modification tool. I’d sooner watch a video of this guy having sex with his wife. Now that’s a cause I can get behind!
The Trump stuff is starting to get a little scary. He’s like a cartoon character — a buffoon – and it’s hard to take his platform seriously. After all, other than promising to build a wall, or make Mexico build a wall, he really hasn’t said anything. If you go by his history he’s even a little more liberal than his hapless opponents.
No, what’s worrying me are his followers. Trump’s jingoistic, xenophobic banter has brought to the surface a virulent racism in this country, so much so that I’m beginning to wonder if we’ve progressed at all since the 1950s.
Coded racism has long been a staple of Republican (and even Democratic) candidates. One need look no further than patron saint, Ronald Reagan launching his 1980 campaign at the Neshoba County fair, a few miles away from Philadelphia, Mississippi, a town associated with the 1964 murder of civil rights workers. There, he used the term, states rights, a kind of code for tacitly approved racism.
But with the ascendance of Trump there is no longer a need for code words. He can vilify Muslims and Mexicans, thus empowering rednecks across the land to speak their minds. And I’m not just referring to the South. There were plenty of racists in the New York metropolitan area six years ago when I lived there. Drive ten miles in any direction from Manhattan and you’ll see what i mean. Long Island and New Jersey are cesspools.
Even here in the Bay Area, one of the most liberal places on the planet, you can find racism. A singer with whom I worked with just last night friended me on Facebook. No sooner did I accept her request than I saw that her page was littered with racist posts. One showed a pair of four or five year old African American boys teasing and hitting a white girl, with the implication that violence starts at a young age. She also compared these children to Palestinians.
By itself the post is merely ignorance. In light of the violence and bile we have seen at Trump rallies, however, it’s unsettling. What level of racism would be unleashed should this man somehow gain the White House?
I can’t stand a humble-bragger. As a musician, my Facebook feed is filled to the brim with humble-bragging. I can’t turn around without reading, “I was humbled to have played with [insert great musician’s name here].” No, in fact you are not humble, you are a blowhard.
The worst is when someone famous dies. An internet R.I.P. is the humblebragger’s catnip. If an H.B. has anything remotely to do with a recently deceased celebrity he’ll have a post up before the cadaver has cooled. The idea of eulogizing someone on social media whom you have never met is repugnant enough, but to use it as an excuse for self aggrandizement is pathetic.
I’m sure the H.B. is not germane to the music business. The internet is built on the backs of porn and humble-bragging. The next time someone famous dies check your social media feed. I’ll guarantee you will uncover some bragging thinly disguised as a eulogy.
I suppose it was inevitable that as Facebook and the humblebragging that goes along with it have become ubiquitous so have videos of children precociously doing or saying adult things. Today I saw a video of a young European girl playing the drums along to Led Zeppelin’s Black Dog. She had all of John Bonham’s fills down and you can tell she was coached thoroughly and that she was probably a quick study. Except that it doesn’t matter. All it proves is that she has above average concentration. She didn’t create anything and to be honest she didn’t even groove.
I saw a video of two pre-teens dancing a sensual mambo. They were resplendent in Cuban drag and they had all the steps down. Impressive? Not to me. In fact I found it a little creepy having these two youngsters ape a sex-infused dance.
Then there are the pre-teen jazz musicians. Listen to that kid wail on Giant Steps. Wow! But here’s the thing: An important facet of improvisation is telling your story – it is the musical equivalent of your life’s experience. What experience does a 10 year old have? I would hope not much!
Parents, we know what you’re trying to do. Congratulations, you have a ‘gifted kid.’ Now that your passive aggressive humblebrag is complete, how about tamping down your zeal and letting your kids be kids.
Thanks to the proliferation of social media as well as blogs such as this one, we live in a smarm society, one where mean-spirited sarcasm is used for political gain. Nowhere is this more evident than in the web magazine, Salon. Nary a headline is posted that fails to tell me which opinion is right and which is wrong.
Here are some examples:
Donald Trump humiliates himself on conservative radio.
No, Christians you’re not being persecuted, and Kim Davis is not a martyr.
The media’s breathless email scandal reaches new nadir.
At this point I’ll disclose that I am as liberal as they come, yet this kind of didactic, mean spirited, snarky reporting is as offensive to me as Fox news. How are liberal publications any different then reactionary rags such as the New York Post? I would expect more from them, but what it boils down to is they attempt to be as sensationalistic as possible in order to garner readers.
Here is a particularly smug photo caption that someone posted on my Facebook feed.
I agree with most everything the caption says yet I had a viscerally negative reaction to this smug propaganda. What does Occupy Democrats hope to gain by this? If I was a left leaning Republican this cloying, self-aggrandizing ad would almost certainly not sway me to vote Democrat. On the contrary it might inspire to urinate on Occupy Democrat headquarters.
To sum up: Dems we’ve had a good run and things are marginally better than they were in the first eight years of the 21st century. Now shut the fuck up!
The World According to Keitho 