My Deepest Apologies: Did Social Media ruin Sincerity or did it ruin Adamancy?

[ObsidianJones]

The man who cornered a little girl and snatched a "black lives matter" billet out of her hands, and followed up by trying to run down a member of her group with his bike has apologized

“I am sick with remorse for the pain and fear I caused the victims on the trail, and online. I am cooperating fully with authorities. I am committed to making amends by addressing, through counseling, the underlying issues that led to my abhorrent behavior.

I am dedicated to working with the Montgomery County State Attorney’s Office to provide peace to our community and justice to the victims in the video, as well as to all victims of racism and police brutality.”

So, my only thought is... Really, dude? Really?

This comes hot off the heels of another apology of some note.

Goodell posted a video to the NFL's social media on Friday in response to the video "Stronger Together," which features multiple black NFL players asking the league to take a strong stance in the wake of George Floyd's death.

"We the National Football League, condemn racism and the systematic oppression of black people," Goodell said. "We, the National Football League, admit we were wrong for not listening to NFL players earlier and encourage all to speak out and peacefully protest," Goodell said.

Now, both of these just so happen to be in the wake of Floyd's, Taylor's, and Arbery's death, and the reveal of how Police actually operate when the curtain is drawn back. But these are not the only things that even happened in the last two weeks.

Doja Cat apologizes after her chat rooms antics come to light

Chad Brownlee apologizes for a Soros comment

Drew Brees apologizes for not agreeing with anyone who kneels even in light of what has happened

NE Fire Chief Apologizes for Social Media Post about Looters

Hannah Brown says the N-word, apologizes after backlash

Gin Distillery 'Truly Sorry' For Shooting and Looting Social Media Post

Bills rookie QB apologizes for 'poor' choice of words

... Wow, ok, they seem to be all racially tinted. Really wasn't my intention...

It honestly confuses me to the purpose of social media. Why are people so happy to 'show their ass', as my aunt used to say. If you speak out loud, people will hear you.

But my main issue is that Social Media is ruining Sincerity in my view. Yeah, people are afraid of being 'cancelled', so they will always back-pedal instead of thinking not to place that idiocy for where the entire world to see. But it legitimately doesn't matter. You get the ability to get your digs in, fire off an assembly made apology, spend a few bucks or a few hours pitching in for the 'cause' and you'll be right as rain.

Logan Paul is a great example of that. He filmed someone's suicide, uploaded it, gave a heartfelt apology... and was fine. In fact, he's currently on talking about how his brother messed up for taking place in the Riots.

Paula deen was caught out using the N-word, and she got dropped by a few companies... just to start up not one but two cooking shows.

It isn't hard to think about what you're saying and how it would affect people. And especially at a time like this, I can plan every word, review it twice if I wanted, and then decide to put it out. And then when you are found out, you can 'apologize' to the public directly so they know your 'heart' and plead for forgiveness after you were caught out.

Look, of course I don't like racism, but I like sincerity as well. If you have these feelings, have them. If you felt strongly enough to share it with the world, stand by them until you were convinced by your moral feelings that you've changed your mind. Don't think about your marketability.

The amount of run backs that people commit on social media, it makes me truly wonder how people take any statements on social media seriously. Because if it's met with acclaim, they have always been edgy and want to push the envelope. If it doesn't land, whip out an apology real quick, lay low and put out sympathetic posts to some plight, and come back new and improved... until next time.

I hate social media.

 

[tstorm823]

Social media is media. People like to treat it like it's a conversation with friends, but it isn't. It's performance. Exceptionally low-budget performance. It's not supposed to be sincere, it does not breed sincerity. When you have an audience and your name attached, everything is about playing the audience to like your performance. What's difficult with the slip-ups is that they probably aren't. The n-words probably are, I suppose, a slip of the tongue, but a lot of those things were posted not because they were or weren't genuine beliefs, but rather because the person making the statement thought people reading or watching it would like it. There's no reason to believe the initial statements are any more sincere than the apologies. Whether that's better or worse I'll leave to personal opinion.

 

[Agema]

Social media is media. People like to treat it like it's a conversation with friends, but it isn't. It's performance.

Although I'd argue that conversing with friends is substantially performance, too. Less perhaps than with strangers, but performance nonetheless.

 

[McElroy]

What most of these instances prove is that Americans along with the rest of the world should get over the so-called "soft n-word", nigga. It's dumb to keep its power around in this day and age. That's the thing though, so many people will claim they can't even think about a saying a slur like that and thus it means whoever does say it is a bad person and they shouldn't ever have a platform or at least not without reminding everyone that hey, this person is harboring racist thoughts just a quick fact 4 u bro. Leftists think that giving every meme a chance will just lead people into far-right extremism, but unironically clinging to this stuff (nigga being just an example) is embarrassing. Like this piece about Doja Cat, who has honestly opened up about the edgy chatrooms she was a part of as a kid. Shouldn't have done that! Now if she slips up, and she has, we all know why she's rotten and any apology she gives is a lie. "I never took part in those conversations." If she wore pants they'd be on fire.

Logan Paul is a great example of that. He filmed someone's suicide, uploaded it, gave a heartfelt apology... and was fine.

He was never sorry for that video. I'm also glad it was filmed and uploaded. Very disrespectful (as is his whole "maverick" character) sure, but we got to see a genuine reaction from him and his pals, and it was genuine only because he showed the evidence as well.

OT: Social media has given the loud minority a great boost. Without filtering their news stories we get social media outrages spreading across "reputable" news sites and onto the retinas of regular folk. And I guess apologies stop the flood.