The Sunday Feed

Why an average Idiot is more dangerous than a Psychopath — Part 3

Let me begin by saying that I do not condone any criminal or illegal activities. It is used just to put forward a hypothesis so that wise people can give it a thought. This is the last and the concluding article on the above.

Like in the first article, I had pointed out that the one thing that has brought out the idiot in everyone is the phone. It is believed that today no one has so called free time. Seems everyone is busy with the phone adding to the chaos. Either pushing the lies by liking them or sharing it!

Let’s take the latest escalation of the skirmish between Israel and Palestine. And before I go any further let me tell you that I do not support any acts of war and to me a even one life is one too many. No innocent person should suffer such a plight, But who is going to make the idiots understand who instead of trying to resolve the situation are merely adding high caliber fuel to the situation.

There are many Pakistani YouTube channels who are openly saying that what Hamas is doing is right and many Indian YouTube channels trying to score by telling that we are with you Israel. What is scary is that there are a lot of people who actually follow these channels and blindly believe, accept or even endorse them by sharing the content.

What is mind boggling is that how do these people even know what is going on in Gaza or Jerusalem while sitting in their poorly ventilated house that has not seen a new paint since it was first built decades ago. Their confidence is such that even the people actually involved in the war will be shaken up for not knowing what these people claim to know.

The thing about people is that their emotion gets triggered even with a small piece of information. It could swing in different directions like sympathy, anger, hatred, dislike or even concern. This makes them react instantly without giving it a proper thought or checking the facts. The people creating all these fake unsubstantiated stories are continuously feeding on this and growing their viewership while the average idiot has no clue that he or she is being so easily and constantly manipulated.

The primary reason for this submissive behaviour is the fact that we humans have become far too impulsive than what we used to be. There is what is called a FOMO — Fear of missing out. It is prevalent across all age groups and all socio economic class. We always think that we have to either agree or disagree to everything our eyes and ears consume. Whereas the real need is to put it in an undecided zone due to lack of knowledge to arrive at a conclusion. But if we do that constantly then we will infer that we are idiots and we do not know anything. However, the real stupidity lies in agreeing or disagreeing to something without knowing the proper facts and not admitting to the notion that I cannot decide because I don’t have enough substantiation.

But this cannot and should not be expected from social media networks. They very well understand what people or these private channels are doing and how wrong it is. I think we have reached a stage where all social media channels have to come together and take ownership. Because, not reporting a crime witnessed by you is also a crime. So, if these channels think that they are not involved because they are just messengers then they are gravely mistaken. They cannot wash their hands by merely saying that we do not endorse such stories. It’s like me saying that I will deliver the illegal substance for a fee though I personally do not consume or endorse it.

So why have these social media or how-to-do site suddenly become so popular with the political parties or these private storytellers who are spreading lies like wildfire. And why are they not doing anything about it if they are true to their vision. I assume that the desire to grow revenues has gone so far that they have happily decided to turn a blind eye to morals. They have understood that what drives sales or viewership is not truth but emotion and no one knows how to disrupt emotions better than a politician or those that propagate their deeds.

We all know that nothing is going to come out of this war or any other war except the fatalities of the innocent bystanders who have nothing to do with it. It is surprising how 99.99% of the people do not understand even a cent of how politics works. They fail to understand that the order to commit any crime of this nature has to trickle down 4–5 layers and it is impossible to know who actually initiates the action. Try explaining this to all these channels who are so confidently and vehemently supporting one nation or the other and basing their episode on one piece of information picked up from somewhere.

I have no relationship with anyone living in either Palestine or Israel but I do feel sorry for those that get killed. Those that get displaced from their homes! Those that are permanently disabled! Those that lose their near and dear ones! Those that face the daunting future after all this is over and the world stops talking about them because it is no more topical or in fashion!

I know it is not going to be easy and no war can be stopped in a day but this also does not mean that we add to the woes of the innocent people by spreading lies/ anger and hatred. I think Twitter, FB and YT need to take note of this and say that it is time to so something to end this stupidity. Let the mainline channels do their work of broadcasting verified political news and let Twitter, FB and YT be social or a how-to channel and not a cesspool of idiots making the world a dangerous place that will affect the world in a very destructive way.