One of the lessons I learned from recent kerfuffles on the anonymous accounts and other sidebar disputes is that community is absent among many. Social media has become the great escape for eager tongues and pen.
I am a connoisseur of discourse analysis online, so I can sympathize with those seeking asylum on social platforms. But my role is that of a shepherd, and while my flock is my primary responsibility, I do not have the cowardly gene to forsake the public square. If a shepherd finds a wolf within the flock, it’s his duty to kill it or bid it a painful farewell. And if I happen to place myself in a different space where fire sirens are going off, I have a civic duty to inform the powers that someone put foil in the microwave just to be entertained by the sparkles.
I grant that my platform is small, but I do want to use whatever protective insights given to me circumspectly and loudly. There is little room for nuance, except, I grant, during whiskey tasting. Shepherds gonna shep, shep, shep, shep. And trolls gonna take, take, take, take your time. So, I have learned not to squander it and not lose one second of sleep on someone’s accusations, especially since they may be a bot trained in the language of Hitlerese.
So, what’s happening, you may ask.
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