A speaker laments how social media has become hostile to genuine opinions, with bots and bad-faith commenters dismissing everything as propaganda. He's implementing a new rule: any impolite comment gets removed and the commenter banned, using his agency's moderation tools to enforce it.
Chapters
On busy days, I get thousands of comments across my social media channels an hour, and I have noticed some patterns, and we should talk about them. First of all, people with 6 digits after their username are always bots designed to disagree with you. Second, guys in their 60s named Walter always seem to think I'm gay, or maybe they're gay and they think I'm hot. It's always those guys, and never Neil Patrick Harris, who I would 100% be gay for, and kind of am. And third, people have forgotten what an opinion is. No, really, like the last month or so, Instead of saying, "I disagree," and then offering some counterpoints, which I would fully respect, I get, "I'd tell you the truth, except it wouldn't fit your narrative." So, like, having an opinion, just a plain old garden variety opinion, is now some sort of coordinated propaganda effort. Like, I say I like pineapple on pizza, and now suddenly I'm part of a psychological operation designed to undermine traditional tomato sauce values. What kind of dystopian high school debate club have we stumbled into? Narrative on social media now means any idea that someone doesn't personally agree with. You could be quoting peer-reviewed research or the weather report and still be accused of pushing an agenda. You think it's raining? Convenient. That fits your narrative of believing in clouds. I get it. You're mad that someone doesn't agree with you. It used to be that that if someone disagreed with you, you'd say, "I see how you'd feel that way." And now it's, "You're part of the media industrial thought complex, and I will not be manipulated." I'm sorry, Brenda, but nobody is manipulating anything. I just don't think that your cat memes prove that vaccines are a scam. Maybe not everything is a covert ideological plot. Maybe some people just see things differently. Not everyone is reading off the same cue cards. We all grew up in different places. We all come from different backgrounds. Some of us are improvising. Like, it's just being human. So I'd like to announce a new rule on my channels: if you cannot manage even a modicum of politeness in your comments, you are not welcome here. I will remove your comment and ban you. Hell, I run a social media agency. We have tools that do that at scale. Go be angry somewhere else. Like, life is too short to get into a fight with someone who thinks that fluoride is a mind control substance. If we keep treating opinion like it's part of a hostile takeover, then we will never have real conversations again. And then, ironically, that becomes the real narrative. One where no one's listening, everyone's accusing, and the only winner is whatever algorithm profits off our digital tantrums. So next time someone online says something you disagree with, try saying, "Interesting. I see it differently. I know, it's radical." I might just save the internet.
