Social Bigotry | Teen Ink

Social Bigotry

January 8, 2019
By Anonymous

In this day and age, social media is widespread. It is much easier to hear people’s opinion now than it was fifty years ago. A bombardment of who’s right and who’s wrong has infiltrated social media at every turn and people are quickly taking sides. Social media blogs completely dedicated to political views aren’t uncommon. Whether it be a page dedicated to feminism or communism, it is accessed by a simple swipe of a finger. This could be seen as a good thing as exposure to a multitude of ideologies makes for a well rounded person, but when those exposed ideologies include things like, “degenerates” and the “Jewish Question,” a dilemma appears. With pages dedicated to feminism and intersectionality, there are also pages dedicated to neo-nazism and racism. Although those who promote those two ideologies and many more like it will not outright say that it is so. Social media has made it relatively easy for people, especially younger people, to become highly bigoted. Things like nazism, racism, sexism, homophobia, etc. have been made more appealing through the lense of social media, and cater to younger audience. Popular meme figures like Pepe the frog have now become twisted into alt right symbols, one way to make their movement seem more appealing. Moreover, Youtube videos decorated with flashy thumbnails and interesting titles like, “sjw is DESTROYED with FACTS and LOGIC” open up a rabbit hole of recommendations that is eventually lead to videos about race realism (a racist pseudoscientific view on human race). While blogs that focus on feminism and intersectionality can create an echo chamber of vile ideologies, I find that those who base their world view on those beliefs tend to be more compassionate and empathetic of those who are different. Those who follow into the hole of neo-nazis and racists tend to adapt to a more vile way of thinking. Many teenagers, myself included, have once or have currently fallen into the hole of soft core bigotry which then pipelines into straight up fascism. This is all thanks to how accessible and appealing those blogs tinged with bigotry have made themselves. The plethora of jokes and memes have made them seem harmless. Although, they are a gateway to greater more harmful ideologies, and all because of how accessible and appealing social media has made them.


The author's comments:

A commentary on the high accessibility of bigotry in the 21st century.


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