DISGUSTED

Every so often a good rant is in order... I try to keep them to a minimum but it's been a while since I have written one therefore, I feel that I have earned some leeway from my readers... :)

I am noticing a very disturbing trend with social media, and online news that I just have to make a comment on. In a world where we can sit safely behind our computers and type whatever the heck we want without any threat to self we have become a society of 'haters' (for lack of a better word). How many online news articles have you read lately where the 'comments' section is filled with the disgustingly stupid opinions of the ignorant readers? Everyone has an opinion, no one seems to have the facts, nor grace, mercy, or as is most cases, brains. Am I being too harsh? Good, I am sick to death of hearing the racist, the rude, the ignorant comments of a nation that is supposed to be 'tolerant'. I think the reality is that we say we are 'tolerant' when on the streets, but the true check of our tolerance should be done when we are safely behind our computers, smartphones, ipads, androids, blackberry etc...

Twitter? What could be a great tool is being used to crucify people! Add a hashtag (#) to Lance Armstrong for example and see the truth of what we are really like when we believe we are safe. Am I sad that Lance let himself down? Let us down? Yes. Do I think he was brave to finally come forward and say the truth... YES I DO! Especially in a day and age when he must have known what would happen to him in the media. Everyone has an opinion, yet everyone seems to have forgotten their own mistakes, their own lies, the things in their own lives that remain hidden to the unseen eye. Is Lance the only guy in the world to cheat? Is he the only guy in the world to lie? Is he the only guy in the world who hid something from someone? No of course not! So why are we so shocked and horrified that he is actually (dare I say this?) a sinner??

-Insert shocked face here-

Let's return to Twitter for a moment. Today @CP24 (the local Toronto news) tweeted that a 15 year old boy who was shot at 2:30 this afternoon died at the hospital not very long after arriving. It's horrible news! He's a kid, regardless of his affiliations and regardless of his mistakes. No news is out as of yet about what really went down in that apartment complex, no news about how he was involved (not that it would matter - he's still a kid who died too young with parents who loved him). One of the comments made on Twitter regarding this tragedy? 

"Another aspiring rapper gone too soon!"

I am not joking, this racist, disgusting comment was made about a young boy who was shot multiple times and died just hours ago in a Toronto hospital. How is it that we as a society claim to be more 'tolerant', more understanding, more 'civilized' than any other time in history and yet this sort of thing is still happening? Why, as a reader of news should I be forced to see the comments of these ignorant biased jackasses?!