Comment by Patric Hedlund

Well yes. Actually….you can fix stupid, if what we are talking about is stupid deeds. Fixing that kind of stupid is easy. Just stop doing something stupid.

The four-word diagnosis, “you can’t fix stupid” was aimed at me last week. Because indeed, not knowing what I was doing on an online bulletin board, I did something very stupid.

And then I learned about the hazing that can greet a Facebook chatboard newbie.

It can be dangerous to be armed with a keyboard at a moment of vulnerability—a human response to crude behavior can become a nightmare. Mine did.

I wrote “I’m surprised at your lack of grace” to a fellow who had been cultivating followers for a campaign with him leading the charge. He wrote something untrue.

I started to write a response but did not intend to post it.

Famous last words.

Piling on

Dog Whisperer Cesar Millan gave me the perfect metaphor for understanding Facebook piling-on culture.

This is when it appears a group of people get their pleasure jolt by smashing someone in the face—digitally—and then close in for the kill…a kind of video war game that calls up primal pack behavior.

People who would rarely be ugly and violent in person can allow their postings to become a feeding frenzy of piling on—with ripping and snarling worthy of a nightmare scene from The Dog Whisperer’s survey of ‘red zone dogs’—those aggressive enough to pose a lethal risk, becoming candidates for euthanasia.

For one on the receiving end, the braying and snarling is like being shredded by hyenas. It is a cyberspace version of what I once saw on a street corner in East Berlin. A pack of skinheads began kicking a man on the ground with their steel-toed boots, circling him in a yelling mob. Really. It physically hurts.

Fortunately, though, I’ve had the gift of friendship of a Facebook Flamer legend. Barry Ailetcher was brilliant with rowdy horses, but he alienated humans with his angry online rhetoric. The good news is, I shared only “real life” things with Barry. He was always respectful and thoughtful, even when he was in pain. He was a special friend to me.

Knowing Barry was a lesson not to judge the person behind the keyboard by what slips out of their fingertips without brain engaged.

That includes me. In fact, I never intended to make a post that day. I just indulged myself in typing without sending. Famous last words. That is what qualifies as stupid.

It is like playing with a loaded gun. You never know when your finger might slip. Mine did. My private momentary thoughts popped into public. And this is what made it really stupid: I had no idea how to delete what had just happened.

Oh boy. Within one second the hyena howling began. Really, one second. My life flashed before my eyes.

So, I’m just sayin’…. There is life after Facebook sliming. And there is a fix to stupid.
Plus, guess what? I learned how to find the delete tool.

This is part of the January 1, 2016 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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