I knew a woman who liked to refer to her fellow human beings as ‘sheeple’, as in sheep-people who were blindly following their dumb animal instincts over various cliffs, cliffs she avoided because she was much smarter, much sharper, never led anywhere other than her own way. I knew her and her then husband for about a decade, when I was in a public-facing job that required me to get along with her, her then husband, and their two really very charming little girls. But. I couldn’t stand her, and her internet persona – where the sheeple word was used time and again – was especially noxious.
In writing the above, I acknowledge my hypocrisy, and that I must chastise myself for doing the same thing, basically, because yup, I too refer to others as ‘idiots’ at times, albeit not on social media. Okay, sure, I don’t ever use the word sheeple, but still, it’s unkind to refer to others as idiots. And, TBH and ffs, if we haven’t entered a new age of idiocy, including resistance to experts, to science, to intelligent discourse, I don’t know what else we’re in; this makes being kinder when referring to the less well-informed a bigger challenge. Sigh. It’s hardddddd.
But that’s just it. Other people aren’t idiots; they’re un- or mis- or ill-informed. And the internet has unleashed a host of ills including self-appointed ‘experts’ who confirm our own biases, what Bill Maher refers to in his segment ‘I don’t know that it’s true, but it feels true, therefore it’s true.’ My own brother, a science guy, occasionally posts a link to various YouTube clips denying climate change, and it makes my head explode because with less than 3 minutes of research, his source for this science denying b.s. is revealed to be a geology major with an MBA, not a climatologist but rather an opportunist who denies human driven global warming for profit on the internet, where – SHEEPLE – find him. LOL.
Not sheeple, but rather people for whom his opinions – however factually inaccurate – fit their preconceived notions of the truth. ‘It feels right.’ Plus, he’s a middle-aged educated white male who speaks well and owns a microphone, behind which he sits!! We have all be conditioned to trust that guy, whatever he’s saying, the balding white dude who just ‘makes so much sense!’
How to unplug, un-condition, reframe, or recondition that? With patience and persistence. And kindness. If we cannot treat others with decency and respect, how do we dig ourselves out of the current era of crazy? If I cannot see any good in my neighbor because he loves him that Donald guy – how will I ever convince him he’s misguided, misdirected, mistaken but not, ever, unloved, unloveable, lost, worthless? Deep breaths.
And, because this, too – from Robert Heinlen – is true, it won’t be easy: “You can sway a thousand men by appealing to their prejudices quicker than you can convince one man by logic.” But, no one ever said it would be easy, did they?