The Great Bathroom Wall Of Public Discourse

In the world of journalism, it used to be that facts were facts, and opinions were clearly stated. It was the check and balance in the world of disseminating news and information that was as needed as the separation of church and state in this country and the abstaining from having dogs and cats living together so as to stop, as Bill Murray said in “Ghostbusters,” mass hysteria.

Today, civil discourse is anything but civil and has turned into something that resembles a shouting match between yet to be potty trained 3-year-olds and obscenely drunk adults: none of it makes much sense, and everyone is just spewing vitriol at one another until one party takes a huge tantrum or simply falls over from swinging too wildly with their “informed opinions.”

You can thank social media for much of this, and you can most certainly give a nod to the tumultuous and almost tragically laughable state of national politics in our country currently. Both are bringing out the worst in our so called humanity. As one business owner described to me this week, as I found myself doing yet another story trying to re-inform the public that the wrongful conclusions that many had jumped to on social media about the melee on the Boardwalk last weekend that resulted in the arrests of 12 African-Americans had nothing to do with the controversial Black Lives Matter movement; “social media is the great bathroom wall and it’s being scribbled with some of the most reprehensible and heinous things that you can imagine.”

Just picture that comment and the dirtiest turnpike bathroom you’ve ever had to use for a moment the next time you are about to go off on an ill-advised rant on your social media page. Ask yourself, “is this something that brings value to the larger conversation, something that’s well thought out and sourced, or is just an ill-informed vulgarity that is attempting to be Vonnegut?”

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