Talking Back to People
Welcome to a new Friday feature.
We’re introducing something new for Fridays: Talking Back to People. It’s a weekly opportunity to react to articles and comments by reporters, celebrities, politicians and other high-profile people who will never likely respond, but that won’t stop us from speaking our minds. Meanness is not allowed, but logic and reason are highly encouraged. Your comments and feedback are also much appreciated.
What Would Archie Bunker Say?
I have a new daily obsession: taking to Twitter to see what Rob Reiner has recently tweeted. Although I’ve been following Reiner for some time, he has only recently shown up at the top of my Twitter feed. (Thank you, algorithms.)
First, some background. I have always rather liked Rob Reiner. I enjoyed him as Meathead on “All in the Family.” I believe the “The Princess Bride” is one of the cleverest movies ever made. His acerbic wit can be engaging, even if I don’t agree with everything he says.
Recently, though, Reiner has gone off the rails. (Or maybe I’ve just noticed this.) He has replaced humor with dread and doom. Each of his tweets is bleaker than the last. They all boil down to this: If you vote Republican for any office this fall, you are declaring that you approve of 1. fascism, 2. bigotry, 3. antisemitism, 4. everything fascist, bigoted and antisemitic that Trump has said or is believed to have said.
Here’s a sample of one of his dire tweets:
You got it? Pull the lever for one measly Republican, and you’ll effectively be bringing Mussolini back from the dead. That city councilman running in your small hometown? If he’s got an R after his name, he’s a fascist. That conservative woman running for county treasurer? Also a fascist. Probably a racist, too. And an antisemite. And a homophobe.
It’s true because Reiner says so.
See that? It’s not just the Donald Trumps, Marjorie Taylor Greenes and Ron DeSantises of the Republican Party he’s trying to save you from. It’s every single one of them. Of course, you can argue that some antisemites and White Christian Nationalists exist within the GOP. But you could not say that all Republicans are antisemites and White Christian Nationalists. That’s as bad a Republican accusing all Democrats of being Socialists or Communists.
I just imagine Reiner waking up in a tizzy, sweating at the thought of Republicans winning elections in November. He’s likely got a Doomsday countdown calendar on his refrigerator. And it’s his duty as a citizen of this great country to warn everyone on Twitter about the danger that lurks behind each conservative politician.
Yikes. How does this guy make it through the day?
To be fair, he’s not the only celeb on Twitter using the word “fascist” with reckless abandon. Honorable mentions go to
Debra Messing
and
Jamie Lee Curtis
Back to Reiner, though, since he seems to be the most prolific tweeter of impending gloom. Here is how I would like to talk back to him:
You can’t throw around words like “fascist” and “antisemite” without proof to back them up. Otherwise, you are just encouraging fear and anxiety, and we’ve had enough of that over the last couple of years. Also, while plenty of people disagree with the Republican platform, it is disingenuous and dangerous to paint the entire party as evil. Finally, if you can’t say why your preferred party is the right choice but instead need to demonize the opposition, it sounds like you don’t have positive reasons to vote blue. If inciting mass hysteria is the most effective tool you have, I’d say you’ve got a pretty weak set of tools in your belt.
I know you enjoy being an activist, but for the sake of everyone’s sanity, please go back to being a comedic actor. Listen, Meathead, if our freedom dangles precariously in the wind and disaster looms after the midterm elections, can’t you at least make us laugh while we’re descending into hell?
An interesting take. Personally, as a professional who works in advertising, I study the algorithms used by social media and aside from Meta feeding into the toxicity of Conformation bias and echo chamber while supplying targeted ads, Twitter is equally guilty of using this horrendous business model. I've tested the way the algorithm works and it mirrors back tweets based on what your own tweets contain. Tweet comedy, you see more comedy. Tweet politics you see Politics. However ironically it usually slanted with more tweets from those you oppose. Which is definitely one way to get a person to turn to the darker side of their psychology. It creates a defensive mindset and amps up the aggression one feels towards others. This is further amplified with feeding of ads that are targeted. A pretty evil algorithmic set-up once you really analyze it.
It's only going to get worse on Twitter since it'll be turned into a free for all without any controls over disinformation or offensive distortions. Ultimately this will probably doom Twitter since only total sociopaths will want to be around all that toxicity.
Personally, I've been moving more and more over to Counter Social, which is a much friendlier space, free from advertising and where people are honestly, sane. Best of all they don't tolerate disinfo and hate speech. You have to play nice and have real discussions with people, like what social media should be.