By Forest Rain
As someone who studies
psychology and influence, I have recognized in myself an interesting
progression of reactions to the behavior I am seeing online.
Recently, I have
experienced a deluge of hate on my posts unlike anything I had encountered
before. In the past, almost all my online interactions were pleasant. Even
people who disagreed with me or did not understand me were, for the most part,
polite.
At first, I was
startled by the amount and intensity of the hate. Why me? Why now? My content
is written in the same style and tone it always has been. What changed?
Then I began to feel a
little bit afraid.
We know that online
interactions influence offline behavior. Incitement on the internet has led to
real-world violence. Actual terror attacks. On the other end of hateful words
and images, people have died. Others have been maimed for life.
I don’t believe that there is more Jew hate in the world
than there was previously. I believe that following October 7th it
has again become socially acceptable to express it publicly. The success of the
Gaza invasion awakened the darkness in the hearts of men, reigniting the hope
that now, this time, the Jews could be stamped out of existence. Hope ignited
the hate - stoked and honed by Qatari and Iranian propaganda that gave words
and excuses to justify it.
And woke culture excitedly adopted the hate because
destroying the Jews, the source of the ideas on which Western civilization was
founded, makes it possible to destroy the West.
The hatred is
everywhere, and it is often so intense and extreme that it becomes difficult to
see the support, love, admiration, and compassion that also exist. Admittedly,
I have pulled back from reading responses to my content because there is so
much nastiness that it feels like wading through sewage. Why make myself dirty?
My emotions had
progressed from startled to fearful to feeling defiled and disgusted.
It took me some time
to decide what I actually thought about the hate I was seeing. My initial
response was instinctive and emotional. Feeling rather than thinking.
What should I think
about people who do not know me and yet feel entitled to send vile messages
simply because I am a Jew, a Zionist, or an Israeli?
After some reflection,
I reframed what I was seeing: bullies. Why should I be afraid of keyboard
bullies who want to weaken my spirit?
There are actual people who want to kill me because I am Jewish and breathing.
Iran. Hezbollah. Hamas. Real people with real weapons, real intent, and real
capability.
Those are genuine
threats.
Keyboard bullies are
just that—bullies. And bullies are, at their core, cowards.
I have always despised
bullies. Why should I help these bullies achieve what they want? Who are they
to weaken my spirit?
Now I see these people
differently.
Many of those
expressing hate online strike me as reflections of poor education and poor
upbringing. Some appear unable to comprehend the content they are responding
to. Their comments bear little relation to what was actually written, like a
student answering a completely different question than the one on the test.
Reading comprehension
is such a basic skill... Life must be very difficult for those with such poor capabilities...
Others, with great pomposity, spout “facts” proving that, in
addition to a poor grasp of the meaning of words (like indigenous), they have
an astonishing ignorance of history, geography, religion, culture, or
archaeology.
Sometimes the behavior
is simply childish. One individual thought it brilliant to post the same curse
dozens of times on a single post. I eventually deleted most of the comments,
but not before taking a screenshot of some of them.
Many responses are
rude and vulgar.
I find myself
wondering: would this person's mother be proud of the way they communicate? Is
this how they were raised?
I was taught to be
polite. I was taught that if I have nothing nice to say, I should say nothing
at all.
Why do these people think it’s their business to respond
with something nasty, for example, in response to the death of a soldier? On my
post, on my feed?
Would they walk into my home and say the same nasty thing to
my face? What makes them respond rather than simply keep scrolling to something
more to their taste?
I find this behavior bizarre.
Empty-headed people with no manners and no understanding of
what shaped the world they live in, where their freedoms came from, or why
these things matter.
Pathetic, weak-minded tools in the hands of terrorists much
smarter than them…
I feel sorry for them. If they recognized themselves for
what they are, could they live with themselves? I couldn’t.
I belong to the greatest love story humanity has ever seen,
much bigger than my individual self. Much more important and influential than
any one person. My existence in my ancestral homeland is the fulfillment of
2000 years of faith and dedication, dreaming, yearning, striving, teaching,
sheer stubbornness, and never ever giving up.
And that is without me actually doing anything.
No wonder so many people hate us for being Jewish and alive.
By simply breathing, we have already achieved more than they ever will.
|
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