carrinacat:

one thing i’ve noticed is that people on tumblr are very prone to mob mentality. for example, that photo of obama fist bumping a janitor at the white house that went viral on tumblr. it was a cool photo and everything but i guess what bothered me was that so many people wrote things like “OBAMA 2012!” or something generically anti-republican/pro-obama (“I HATE RICK SANTORUM”) 

first i’m going to make a few assumptions: 1) 99% of these people don’t have a clue of what obama did in office/his policies 2) 90% of these people only are jumping on the obama train because he seems like a bro in that picture. 3) the same people would laugh if someone decided they liked mitt romney from an obviously biased political ad.

and so to the people who are all of the above: don’t you see people that you’re falling into the same sort of propaganda that you laugh at republican voters for? i’m sure obama has great personal traits but by simply declaring your support for him just because of that one picture, you are JUST AS STUPID as a television watcher deciding they liked mitt romney from that one political ad. obama is first and foremost a politician, otherwise he would not have gotten this far. he knows what scores points with voters, and he is a very skilled orator (which means he can sound genuine when he’s not). it’s important to be wary of that. you want to like him, but in the end rhetoric is just rhetoric. 

i don’t really know what the whole point of writing all that was. i guess the moral of the story is that people should think critically. the internet is a fertile breeding ground for unsubstantiated information/propaganda to thrive in and feed on your ignorance and stupidity so it’s probably not a great idea to take a stance before doing your research. don’t be a sheep i guess, to sum it all up. 

I was thinking about this on Friday when I got all excited about voting. I realized that I have such superficial knowledge of Romney and Obama, because I’ve never researched what their stances on various topics were. All I know is what Tumblr feeds me, and the occasional news from friends. But to sum what I know up, Tumblr seems to be a very liberal social networking platform (either that or I just follow a lot of liberals), and thus, the slices of politicians I see are obviously skewed. Obama is often shed in a good light, while Romney’s getting the rough end of things. People around me are more liberal than not, and overall, aren’t as engaged in politics so we’re all pretty much politically ignorant (except Cole. Cole is insanely politics savvy. You go, Cole. You go).

I’m excited to research a lot this summer, and vote in November. (And if things work out, attend the inauguration ceremony in January!)

1. magickmosteevile likes this
2. irisistable reblogged this from carrinacat and added:

   I was thinking about this on Friday when I got all excited about voting. I realized that I have such superficial...

3. eshb likes this
4. j-gao said: yes
5. michellothere said: yes yes yes
6. sweet-as-lemons said: yes. this is exactly what i was trying to say in my opinion story before it got watered down (you’ll see, sigh). well-put ^^
7. ayak0 said: …agreed.
8. carrinacat posted this