Get a life!

Now, no, this was not written to me. And, as I posted, anyone who would have the temerity to say this to my face in real life would find himself sans their own face. Literally, I have squared up against malefactors at work to protect myself, my staff, and my patrons. So these internet tough guys are laughable.

But the past week or so I've seen this phenomenon increasing on Bluesky. I imagine it's the same thing on other social media. People are not well. People think that typing into the ether angrily marks them out as hard men and women, people to be feared, revolutionaries of the furious sort. 

These people wouldn't know what a real revolution is. It is death and destruction. It is all-too-often trading one oppressor for a new oppressor. They would be the first against the wall rather than commissars in the new and glorious people's republic.

And like Sir Mr. Penguin Pants, Esq., they would find that what gets them a block online would get them a beatdown in the real world.

Social media 90% of the time is, ironically, antisocial. So many people on social media lack any of the social graces. They would call it "being real". I call it being an asshole. And, again, try speaking to someone in real life the way these people do online. Where being an asshole on social media is a positive boon, it is injurious to one's health when being so to someone with a fist or a more deadly implement. 

We have generations of people raised on a false sense of their own—not omnipotence, but competence. They think that their own nous is equal to anyone's. And most of the time they are decidedly incorrect. It's why we are in the state we are. Yes, apathy is a huge part. But also unearned self-regard and self-confidence, based on no empirical data. People who think they could face tanks when they can't even face leaving the house. People who think they'd be able to take down anyone because they've seen a few Jet Li films. No, sir or madam. You are not Neo, you are not jacked into the Matrix, and you cannot "know kung fu."

I'm firmly convinced that a majority of our fellow-citizens live in worlds of their own making. They live perpetually online. They brag because they know they're empty vessels, having accomplished nothing in life. And I don't mean they need to have done great things. "Great things" is a highly overrated term. To quote the Talmud, "to save one life is to save the world". And that doesn't have to mean that you rescue a person from death. It can mean something as simple as giving a person a smile, a helping hand when they need it. But for that you have to not just "love humanity," as so many of a certain type aver, but loving the actual people who comprise humanity. It's easy to love the abstract. But loving the abstract often leads to the concentration camp and the gulag. If you don't see people as individuals, if you relegate them to intellectual constructs, then you get the likes of Stoner Philly Fan or the penguin person above. Tough talk with no juice to back it up. Don't talk smack unless you're willing to back it up with your fists. And 95% of the time, most are unable to back it up with their fists.

My advice to those who vent spleen online? As the tzaddik Bill Shatner told his over-eager fans: Get a life. Go out. Be with friends and family. Touch grass. Become a full human being who can see the depth and breadth not of "humanity," but of people. Because quite frankly you come off as risible. When you shuffle off this mortal coil, no one will care how vehement you were on social media. Your legacy will be the memory you leave behind. It will be how those who survive you think  of you. And acting like a splenetic lunatic online will simply leave derision in your wake. Get a life.