Becoming the “poster” children for performative intolerance

Prologue: I’ve experienced — firsthand — how anything related to this topic can result in people reacting without self-control or respect. Thus, I ask for discernment here. Read carefully to determine the point I’m making. This is not yet another impotent rant about events we cannot currently influence. Rather, it is a direct plea to safeguard our humanity. If you choose to comment, please pause and think carefully before doing so. Thank you in advance.

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Here in NYC, I’ve encountered plenty of posters like the one pictured above. In my very diverse neighborhood of Astoria, I’ve also seen a few identically designed posters that feature photos of Palestinians who have been killed by Israeli bombs. 

Without complication or reservation, I weep and pray for all the humans featured in either set of posters.

In both cases, however, total strangers have engaged in the latest performative manifestation of virtue signaling: filming themselves dramatically tearing down posters because they’re (allegedly) so offended by them.

Combine woke culture, MAGA culture, and algorithm culture with exhibitionist social media hate and this is what passes for “activism” and “debate” these days.

Minimal effort is put forth and nothing of value is accomplished. But social currency is earned within your particular hive mind.

Before I continue on that lamentable point, please allow me to introduce a thought experiment. 

Within a day of the 9/11 attacks, posters like those in the image above started appearing all over the Big Apple. Desperate friends and relatives were hoping against hope that someone, somewhere had seen their missing loved one.

How would these posters be received in 2023? 

My guess is that many of the folks who oppose U.S. foreign policy would ceremoniously rip down the posters.

Here’s the logic [sic]: Such posters put a human face on Americans and thus erase the pain felt by the myriad of beings wounded or killed by U.S. bombs on virtually every corner of the planet. In other words, the human-ness of the poster magically invalidates the rage of the oppressed and their right to fight back.

More logic [sic]: To feel sorry for a missing and almost certainly dead World Trade Center worker would be perceived as literally no different than endorsing rampant U.S. aggression, invasion, occupation, and mass murder.

After all, if those Americans voluntarily elected the warmongers and paid taxes that funded the weapons, they got what they asked for, right? How dare we feel any sympathy when thinking about their bereft friends and family?

In reality, though, no one tore down the posters in 2001 — not even the people who loathed U.S. militarism.

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This article of mine shares a more compassionate angle on this point:

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This brings us back to 2023: 

What I see today is a sinister escalation in identity politics and tribalism. To this generation of “dissidents,” the posters are deemed unbearable. These virtue signalers cannot tolerate being exposed to anything outside the restricted realm of their myopic echo chambers. 

No grey area exists in The Land Without Nuance™.

And spare me the dissertations on Middle East politics. As I recently wrote, I’ve been there, and I’ve done that:

Excerpted from this ^ article:

Firstly, if you’re ignoring — or worse, cheering — the murders of children (anywhere), I implore you to take a long internet break ASAP and salvage your humanity.

Secondly, if you’re rooting for the demise of an entire class of people (e.g. Jews, Arabs, Muslims, whoever), I implore you to take a long break from, well… everything — and restore your soul before it’s too late.

It does not matter one bit where you stand (or have been conditioned to stand) on whatever the latest commodified war claims to be. If you are lumping groups of people together and expressing a desire that they be singled out for extermination, I rebuke you.

Please allow me to reiterate that this post is not about the Middle East. It’s about human beings voluntarily, publicly surrendering their souls to the dictates of malicious mindsets like woke, MAGA, left, right, etc. 

Breaking news: You can have strong, informed opinions — and defend those opinions — without losing your integrity or decency. 

We can all do better — much better. But to do so requires us to disavow thought-policing and instead, live a life of open-minded, ever-evolving sovereign power.

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