Tool for the wicked

The internet is starting to be a dark, scary place.

Once touted to be the future of civilization, it's looking as if I don't want to be in that future, if this form that the internet has currently taken is going to persist.

First, it's been a breeding ground for lies, distortions, untruths, urban myths and rumors. Black propagandists use it to spread their disinformation, so now we see even Donald Trump clinging to his belief that Barack Obama wasn't born in the United States and that he was an ISIS founder. Gee whiz, what does it take to educate the guy and convince him otherwise?

Candidate Hillary Clinton has this seizure and/or degenerative disease thing haunting her now.  In an election scenario, an unhealthy candidate doesn't generate much confidence. Or votes. Never mind that a doctor has certified that, after suffering pneumonia, she is now fit.  What is viral is not her health, but the rumor of her impending death.

And speaking of elections, how were the recently held presidential elections for you?  Didn't we see the most amazing stories about the local candidates? And even after the elections, the winning candidates are still having mud galore slung in their faces, never mind it's already thick by sheer experience or necessity. (If I hear one more stupid joke about drivers being sweet lovers, I'm going to scream).

Second, what about the negativity? Facebook used to be a celebration of life. Friendships, milestones, and successes were the norm. It was a happy place, as the likes one would get for posts were affirming and maybe, even nurturing.

Not so now. These days, hardly a scroll goes by without me seeing bashing in one form or another. The trolls, negative comments, the one-upsmanship, the nasty remarks.  Good grief. When did warm human beings morph into online monsters?

When did it become acceptable to publicly voice one's darkest thoughts? Or to wish another person dead? Not just wish, but to announce this to the whole wide web?  And rather than a collective gasp, or a rap on the knuckles, or condemnation, "friends" react by lauding the ill-wisher for his ill wishes.  An "amen", even, as if wishing death can be a religiously sanctioned occurrence.

A woman in her prime has just been caught, after searching online for a man to rape her daughter. She actually finds three men who are as sick as she is! (No, it doesn't end well. The daughter is stuffed with drugs and eventually murdered.)

Civilization has supposedly brought us into the age of reason, but why do I seem to be surrounded by rabble who don't want to listen to reason?  Or to act or speak or interact reasonably?

Sure, we have been raised to be critical thinkers, but why does it seem to me that everyone around me is suddenly a certified critic, with no thinking to back the criticism up?

Blame the Internet for this impression I have. Because it's now a venue for the worst side of people, as like thinkers rally around those whose ideas they like, and the affirmation they give each other results in a collective sense of rightness that cannot be brooked - as anyone who tries to do so, and insert a contrary opinion edgewise, gets flamed by the whole community.

 Pretty soon, humanity will stop relying on the internet for facts. Those serious about digging up the truth might just have to go back to opening tomes or even encyclopedias.  Or maybe, half the web will be devoted to reliable, safe, fact -driven sites, and the other half will be fantasy land, where one can build his or her own alternate universe.

Trump could run for president of that United Multi-verse.