I remember when the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting happened in 2012. I was eating at a local Mexican spot run by Chinese people. The news was playing on the TV and everybody stopped eating. Nobody knew what to say because we were all in shock. That was the last time I remember there being a general consensus that everyone should just shut the fuck up for a few seconds.
America doesn’t have national tragedies anymore. There are no moments of silence. We don’t mourn the dead. We don’t wait for the facts to come out because we aren’t interested in underlying causes. We’re looking for the next hot take. We’re eager to jump online and tell everyone what we think about it before the blood dries. The internet incentivizes everyone to turn tragedies into grievances about politics, culture, or the opposite sex. The heinousness of the crimes is irrelevant. The most deranged and performative people will be rewarded with ad revenue. The curious and level-headed will be ignored. Join the culture war or be washed away into irrelevancy.
Not everyone is like this. Some of us still have a sense of class. We watch the online spectacle for entertainment or simply to know what’s going on. We keep our opinions about tragedies to ourselves, or only share them with people we know aren’t deranged. But most people can’t help themselves. They turn their online presence into culture wars and conspiracy theories, and they’re descending into madness.
On January 24, 2023, Lindsay Clancy strangled her three children to death with exercise bands. The trial regarding her postpartum psychosis is still ongoing. The story is such a horror that it’s painful to even think about. But the response wasn’t anything like the Sandy Hook shooting. Instead of a shared silence through national mourning, everyone became Alex Jones. These are our new rituals. This is a new American tradition.
To be fair, a tragedy of such magnitude is bound to generate discussion. Postpartum mental health is a legitimate issue and isn’t merely tribal. Lindsay was prescribed 13 different psychiatric medications over the course of 4 months, by multiple psychiatrists who weren’t communicating with each other. Regardless, she still strangled her children to death and we’re trying to run a society. It’s not as black-and-white as most people want it to be.
But these nuances aren’t discussed. People aren’t interested in what happens to someone when they’re taking antidepressants, benzodiazepines, anti-psychotics and sleeping pills. They aren’t interested in the testimonies. Neuropharmacology is less engaging than gender war slop. On one side, you have women who donated over $1M to Lindsay Clancy’s parents. On the other side, you have men saying all women secretly want to kill their babies. As women line up outside the courthouse to support her, men are posting about how postpartum depression is fake. These people are terribly lonely. They don’t care about Lindsay Clancy, her children, the father, or America’s mental health. This is about them. They now have an excuse to express their rage about how boring and unfulfilling their lives are. People with interesting lives aren’t participating in this internet circus.
This is going to get worse. America is heading in a more insane direction, not a stable one. More and more people are living their lives vicariously through others, becoming more conspiratorial, and more tribal. There will be more and more situations like this, and you’ll be tempted to join in. If you don’t have the right mental armor to shield yourself from such insanity, you might become one of them too.
I spend a lot of time online. Too much. I think everybody does. But I’m dispassionate as I watch these freaks use the internet as their personal punching bag. They have no idea what they’re talking about. They don’t have the experience or wisdom required to help anyone. They’re desperate to make a name for themselves. Culture war lunatics have their own mental health issues they need to resolve.
If your sentiments about the opposite sex are swayed by scripted TikTok videos and online culture wars, then you don’t have the experience to have an informed opinion of them yet. If you can follow a national tragedy without descending into madness, you are one of the good ones. You are ensouled.
