Twitter Telepathy

Recently, actor Chris Pratt was said to be wearing a "white-supremacist" shirt while out with his new wife.  I found this to be shocking.  How could anyone in this day and age, let alone a person with such a high profile as Pratt, go out in public advertising his belief that the white race is superior to other races? 

Of course, the headline was not just misleading, it was downright fraudulent.  Pratt was wearing a t shirt that had the image from the Gadsden flag on it.  This is the one used during there Revolutionary War that pictures a coiled snake with the saying "Don't Tread On Me" emblazoned on it.  I first became familiar with this flag through the Tom Hanks produced John Adams mini-series and then with Rob Lowe's character Sam Seaborne on The West Wing, where the flag was hung in his office. 

The article went on to say that some people who are far-right have used this image.  I guess the logic goes like this:

The Gadsden Flag is used by the far-right.
The far-right are white supremacists.
Therefore the Gadsden Flag is for white supremacists.

Of course, this does not follow.  You could use this same analogy

Oxygen is used by the far-right.
The far-right are white supremacists.
Therefore oxygen is for white supremacists.

Do racists use the Gadsden flag?  I suppose so. 

Do non-racists use the Gadsden flag?  I suppose so.

But that did not stop people on Twitter from condemning Pratt for his far-right display.  Is Pratt far-right?  I do not know the man's politics.  If I were to guess, he is more conservative than most in Hollywood.  He is a devout Christian, but I haven't heard him advocating for any particular issue.
And yet, the Twitter mobs came after him.  And I think I figured out why:

People on Twitter have telepathy.

Now, hear me out:  in rational discourse, you listen to another person and hear what they have to say.  After this, you ask clarifying questions and then restate their beliefs in your own words until they are satisfied that you understand them.  It is only then that you attack the idea. 

This is what we learned from Socrates.  Now, the give and take of dialogue like this cannot always take place.  But at the very least, we should listen to the words of our opponents and do our best to understand what they are saying before we respond.  We always begin by taking their words at face value.  But not anymore.

Nowadays, there is a lot of talk about "dog-whistles" and "code-words" in our discourse.  This is when someone says one thing, but they are actually signaling something else to their followers.  For example, we are told that "women's equality" is a code word for "abortion on demand."  Or we are told that "border security" is a dog-whistle for racism.  I am not saying that this form of communication does not exist.  But I have noted that we go very quickly to this explanation of a person's statement instead of starting with what they are actually saying.

Why would anyone make this radical leap so quickly?  My only conclusion is that these people have telepathy.  They can read the minds of the people with whom they are discoursing.  Because of this, they can see beyond the veil of words to the truth that lurks in their hearts. 

Someone I watch on YouTube has been accused of encouraging his followers to harass his critics.  When his supporters on Twitter point out that he specifically says not to harass his critics, they are told that "Don't harass them" is a dog-whistle for "Do harass them." 

I have to say I am impressed by this feat of super-human skill: to read the minds of those with whom you disagree.  It certainly saves a lot of time.  You no longer have to listen to the words or arguments someone is making when you can simple tell the world what they are thinking.  And what an insight into these wretched souls!  I saw someone tweet that the word "communist" was a code word for the n-word.  These telepaths are so powerful that they have discovered thoughts inside their opponents that even their opponents didn't know they had!  That is amazing!

If they are not telepaths, then we are in real trouble as a society. 

Instead of trying to discover the meaning of another person's words, we could then simply impose whatever meaning we desire onto what they say.  The world turns solipsistic, where we no longer encounter the thoughts and minds of others.  Instead, we simply encounter our own thoughts and opinions about others as we cover other people in our own pre-judgments.  In this case dialogue is impossible because my words have no meaning beyond what someone else chooses to give them.

And now we can see this move beyond words into actions.  Pratt is just one example of this.  And I'm sure he will not be the last.  See how quickly it can descend.  Wearing Nike's?  This is a dog-whistle for "I hate America."  Wearing an American flag?  This must be a dog-whistle for "I hate non-Americans." 

One of the reasons this trend is so disturbing is that it goes directly against Christ's command to not judge one another.  Only God can see the heart and can know our thoughts.  We can and must call out wrong actions.  But these Twitter telepaths claim the power of God in that they can see into the souls of men and judge them to be unworthy.  This is hubris beyond degree!

Another reason is that our whole civilized society is based upon the idea that we can be ruled by reason and argument.  This is why we have had 45 bloodless transitions of the presidency.  People in the country disagree on how it should be led, each candidate makes their case and then the people vote.  If the election does not go the way I want, I work harder at convincing more people that my position is correct.

But if we remove the ability to interact and argue and if we still want to enact change, then I cannot see a way to avoid violence.  In this brave new world of Twitter telepaths, a person does not need to have better arguments to win you over.  They only need more power to defeat you.

I am not naive enough to think that we ever lived in an ideal state where reason perfectly ruled over men's passions and prejudices.  But rational argumentation has always been at least an important part of how our society has functioned.  But the Twitter telepaths have shown us a world where reason and evidence are abandoned, a world where words and actions don't have meaning besides whatever I say, and a world where we can judge our fellow man as evil.  This world is one that would descend into madness and chaos.

And to see that, you don't need to be a mind-reader.