Is it just me, or has this mud-slinging thing gone too far? Remember when mud-slinging was this ridiculously immoral and inappropriate thing that only politicians and reality television stars would do?
Seriously, I remember when my parents wouldn’t vote for someone who said anything negative about the other guy that wasn’t good ol' pure political ideology, and they certainly wouldn’t watch a network that played that game.
But now we talk about how Marco Rubio guzzling water during a speech is a career ender, how Michelle Obama was overstepping her “not-so-celebrity” role as First Lady to present at the Academy Awards and how Kim Kardashian’s booty is larger than her baby bump these days.
Every day, there is a new story about something ridiculous that means nothing but makes someone look bad.
Maybe mud-slinging isn’t a term that resonates with people who aren’t completely obsessed with politics, so let’s just call it what it is: hate.
The thing is, hate was once this off-limits, awful thing and now it’s permeated our lives.
I don’t know if it’s the ability to troll and see that girl we never talked to in second grade’s stupidest thoughts or if it’s just because we’ve become a society of fearless, confident jerks. But we really took off somewhere with this idea that our opinion couldn’t hurt anyone and we should share it even when it is unwarranted and unwelcome.
Hating is trendy. It's trendy to hate Nickelback. It’s trendy to hate homework (though we may be on to something with this one). It’s trendy to hate Fox News.
It’s even trendy to hate things that everyone loves.
We’ve created this culture where it’s somehow OK to hate the very people we expect to love us and have our backs when other people are hating on us. If we are busy trash-talking every person we’ve ever met, what bogus standard are we holding them to?
I’m going to be the ultimate hipster right now and say I hate, hate.
I’m not suggesting for one second I’m not a hater. I hate people who don’t have a sense of humor. I hate when people think I’m a hater (I’m a hypocrite to the max). I hate that I love to hate. I’m just suggesting that we turn over a new leaf.
Political scientist Robert D. Putnam's book "Bowling Alone," a classic in the political science field, essentially says there has been a decline in social capital in the past several years, and this decline has been undermining civic engagement among Americans.
In layman's terms, we’re losing a sense of community, which causes us to feel more cynical about participating in public life.
If I could amend Putnam’s book to include the experiences of the last 13 years since it was written, I would call it “Really Bowling Alone.”
We aren’t in bowling leagues anymore, sure, but we aren’t even going bowling because we can’t get a group together of people we won’t stab in the back (figuratively of course) the second they go to get us a pitcher of water.
Not a problem right? There is always the option for all of us to live at home with cats. Actually, make that one cat — you wouldn’t want them talking behind your back.
Reach the columnist at hkmills@asu.edu or follow her at @haleykmills
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