With the election only a month behind us, and the level of ignorance raising steadily, yet another boorish quality of our nation’s voting population has made itself evident: the idiocy of sore losers.
Incoherent, illogical, and absolutely ignorant comments about the election’s outcome have been posted on almost every form of digital media available to the public. Whether it is a video on YouTube calling all Obama supporters “racist or black” or a tweet talking about leaving the country because of Obama’s re-election, the plain stupidity of the American public will not stop.
One particular Twitter post in this barrage of stupidity stood out like a bright neon sign on a dark cloudy night.
Kristen Neel, an 18-year-old from Georgia, tweeted that “I’m moving to Australia because their president is a Christian and actually supports what he says.”
First of all, Australia has a prime minister. Secondly, she is a woman. And lastly, she is an atheist. But honestly, the pure absurdity of this comment isn’t what bothers me the most, it is the fact that someone can be partisan to the extent that just because their candidate didn’t win, they would suggest something as extreme as moving out of the country.
Talk about being unpatriotic.
However, Neel isn’t the first uneducated teen to make a comment like this. She’s just the tip of the metaphorical iceberg of ignorance.
Another result of Obama’s re-election is the massive storm of blatantly racist remarks against him and his supporters. Racial slurs and derogatory slang words were thrown around like confetti on social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook.
Leslie Bennett tweeted “Obama said, ‘we have to go for the Stupids – Vote Latinos and blacks and all lazy people!” It is comments like these that truly show just how uneducated the people making them are. If racism is the only response you can think of to justify your discontent with the outcome of a major election, then maybe your opinion was backwards to begin with.
The scary thing is that these ignorant “sore loser” commentaries aren’t just coming from obscure Neo-Nazis and uneducated hicks. They’re right in our own backyards. On the night after the election, as I was appalled to find my Facebook newsfeed plastered with countless posts from my friends and family saying things like “Looks like I’m moving to Canada” and “America has just caused the end of the world.”
Whatever happened to good sportsmanship? I understand and completely agree with the right people have to express their opinions, but being completely anti-America just because the person you hoped would win lost is ridiculous, especially if the only arguments you can come up with against said candidate is that “People only voted for him because he’s black.”
Valid arguments about President Obama’s policies, or social views or anything relevant to his politics make perfect sense to debate on message boards. If you can justify why you are so unhappy with something with strong evidence or support, then you have every right to go ahead and plaster your friends Facebook newsfeed with complaints about it.
Freedom of speech is a luxury most Americans take for granted and abusing it to say racist, ignorant things about the leader of your country not only makes you look bad, but also makes your country look bad to the rest of the world.
I’m not saying stop posting your opinions, (that would put me out of a job) but I am saying that before you go and post that you’re moving because of how unhappy you are with your president, at least research the country you’re moving to.
