Did anyone else notice how all of the Russian Collusion drama has died down recently? Sure, the nomination and hearings and confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kanavaugh has taken center stage, with the networks couching most other issues in order to focus on how to get the best ratings during this time, but with everything all said and done, where are we as a country?

Prominent figures on the left are using powerful and “strong” rhetoric that sounds like they’re trying to rally their base into starting a civil war, but they’ve assured us it is all just talk and all they really meant was “get out and vote.” The problem there, even if there is no genuine call for violence and it’s all just attempts to motivate their base to vote, is that we’re kind of forgetting that in the wake of doing so, a bunch of Republican senators got doxed, Rand Paul’s wife now sleeps with a gun on her nightstand, and they’re saying these things to groups of young people who think the President is a White Supremacist Nazi looking out for his rich billionaire buddies and who just nominated and confirmed a serial gang rapist to the supreme court. A friend of mine once told me that “half of the population is retarded by definition” in reference to IQ scores, (misunderstanding of the bell curve and objective intelligence aside), and I struggle to see how one could think so low of people in general.

Then came the outrage over a mob being called a mob.

Then the outrage over the “NPC” meme that originated on the Chans.

Then outrage over outrage over outrage.

At that point I then turned off the TV, got off of social media, and struck up a conversation with a stranger. Nothing important was said or exchanged, there was no animosity or anger, but I’m certain that that stranger wouldn’t have started to harass me if the subject turned to politics; I’m certain they wouldn’t have punched me, I’m certain they wouldn’t have gotten violent if I disagreed with them, and I’m certain the last thing they would want would be Civil War II.
However, I am certain that that stranger would have gotten angry if I started to insult them; they would have gotten violent if I kept going, and they would have gotten violent if I became violent.

Yet here we are. All of the major news outlets making it seem like we’re on the brink of some catastrophe, everyone on social media fighting each other, television shows getting taken off the air due to public backlash, protests in D.C. with accusations of Soros funding making mainstream news, comedians worried about their jokes offending people, every little thing being analyzed and scrutinized to see if it fits whatever is considered “socially acceptable,” and those who aren’t are getting doxed and having their lives ruined. Why?

Let’s get real here: it’s all a farce. You’ll go out and protest for whatever cause you want to protest for, and that’s fine and good, but you won’t take up arms against your fellow man, much less over a supreme court nominee, much less because the former “man” is telling you that the current “man” is Hitler, and even less than that because you want to be under an economic and governmental system touted as the step before the actualization of communism. You do not care enough to put your life behind your values and principles, you are not willing to die for what you believe, you probably aren’t even willing to kill someone for your beliefs.

It’s funny how the terms “mob” and “NPC” are making the rounds together; in an RPG, “Mobs” are NPCs that you, the Player Character, fight for loot and experience points. A literal mob of people do not want you to call them a mob, and you’ll probably get in trouble if you fight them. If you approach them for conversation and it turns political, will they be able to have an actual debate, or will they follow a similar script of unoriginal thought, parroting the headlines from the news outlets they consume? Will they respond in a predictable way?

To quote Aristotle, “it is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.” Have you thought that perhaps you’re the ones being used? That maybe you’re the ones being played? That perhaps your internet-outrage over everything is what’s fueling this media frenzy for more sensational headlines? That maybe you’re the ones who have bought into a lie and are denying reality? Ask yourselves these questions and come up with good answers, before Eric Holder ends up having to clarify that a call for a “Civil War” is just a joke.