You’re a Bad Person

 

By Jack Mandaville

You are a hypocrite. That means you’re a poser, have little to zero integrity, and cannot be trusted. You’re an uncleanable stain on the advancement of the human species and I want you to know why.

An explosion killed an estimated 60 people and injured over 250 more at the Lal Shahbaz Qalandar shrine in Islamabad, Pakistan yesterday. This comes just a few days after 14 people were killed and 59 were injured at a protest in Lahore, Pakistan.

Why isn’t my Facebook feed bombarded with profile picture filters of the Pakistani flag? Why is my feed not bombarded with people lamenting about this sad incident and sending their “thoughts and prayers” to those affected?

Why aren’t people on my feed vomiting out hashtags like #PrayForPakistan to generate awareness for those impacted by this terrorist attack? Where are the sad face emojis? Why aren’t people wailing the words, “What is this world coming to?”

I ask those questions because that’s all I saw after numerous terrorist incidents that occurred in Europe and North America. Do you know why? Because, at the end of the day, all of you people who proclaim your love for your fellow humans and get heartbroken over the loss of others only do it when they look, dress, or act like the person you see in the mirror every day.

Simply put: you don’t really care about other people and you only take notice of suffering when it’s socially convenient for you.

This isn’t an observation that’s exclusive to Democrats or Republicans, religious people or atheists, or intelligent or slow people for that matter. This level of hypocrisy knows no labels. It’s merely indicative of a widespread “look at me” characteristic in our society. I wouldn’t passionately be calling people out if the gross level of insincerity wasn’t so rampant.

Now, this may not apply to many of you. Your consistency in not having the urge to publicly give your two cents on tragedy is more admirable than those who do so in a tongue-in-cheek manner. I say good for you for not going there. Additionally, some people may just flat-out not care—which is certainly more genuine than those pretending to care.

But a lot of you are probably getting angered by what you’re reading right now. Trust me, you’re not angry at me. You’re angry that you’re having to face the fact that you’re not the pillar of compassion you’ve tried to project to your Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram tribes.

It’s perfectly normal for those directly affected by tragedy to be discussing it. That goes for news reporting too. When tragedy rears its head, the discussion must happen. But when mid-level sales manager Paula O’Rourke of Akron, Ohio goes into an emotional rant on her Facebook page and changes her profile picture directly following an attack in an American or European city, it means nothing because Paula, in all reality, is unwilling to do anything to truly change the situation. She just wants her 249 friends to know that she’s also hurt by the tragedy.

Because it’s about her opportunity to put the light on herself. I know this because my fictional representation of this mentality, Paula, is not commenting “thoughts and prayers” about the Pakistani bombings right now. She’s playing Candy Crush while suckin’ down a Virginia Slim on her lunch break.

The Pakistani victims of terrorism, who experience it on much more consistent basis, are just too foreign, just too non-western, and just too brown for her. It’s not worth her time because her hand of empathy is only extended to those she can identify with.

You’re all a bunch of Paulas.

I hope you remember all of this next time you go on one of your online thoughts and prayers crusades. Maybe you can start chipping away at your pretentiousness by changing your profile pic to a Pakistani flag. However, you won’t. Doing that would mean you’d have to acknowledge that people living in those borders have value.

Have a safe and fun weekend, you fraud.

 

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