Too Controversial

When I was younger I remember my father telling me that there were three topics that you were never supposed to bring up in conversation. One being religion, two, money, and three, politics, all highly controversial, opinion-based subject matter. I can now only realize after this past election how correct he was in saying so.

It seemed no matter where you went you were always being barraged by politics with mass media being their main weapon of choice. I couldn’t watch my favorite TV shows or watch the news without seeing a political ad every commercial break. I’m fairly sure I could recite most lines of each ad as if I had the lines written on the back of my hand. I always had the mute button on standby every time my ears were in close proximity to the redundant commercials. Television was not the worst of it in my opinion. If anyone/thing got the brunt of the blow, it was social media. I can’t tell you how many posts, statuses and tweets I bypassed because of the partisan rhetoric I cared so little about. Don’t get me wrong, I believe in free speech, but when heated political debates turn into pre-school bickering matches over Facebook, I would like little to do with any of it. One example in particular comes to mind, someone posted a status voicing their opinion and quarreling ensued. Both sides were trying to tell each other that they were wrong about their opinions. It just didn’t seem like the right place to be debating.

Maybe I’m just an uninterested, bad American, I don’t know. Maybe I’m just being a little bit too melodramatic. Probably. Maybe I’m just elated this election is over. Definitely.

Tags: general interest, opinions, sibleyscribe