Wednesday, October 3, 2012

The Politics of Tweeting


When it comes to politics, I lean pretty far to one side of the aisle. Which side? Doesn't matter. If you know me personally, you know whether I'm a Democrat or a Republican, but otherwise you may not. This is because I very rarely blog, post, or tweet about politics. Why do I refrain from weighing in on such a rich topic? Is it because I don't have strong opinions? Is it because I don't think the issues are important? No. It all boils down to one simple fact: I don't know all that much about politics.

And neither do you.

I remember my first meme
I feel like this is a simple truth which many people refuse to accept. Obviously, I'm not speaking to everyone. There are a lot of folks out there who know politics inside and out. They've devoted an extensive amount of time to learning about government, economics, society, etc. and have informed and well-founded opinions on politics. You're probably just not one of them. I'm know I'm not. I'm not saying you're not smart -- you're probably very intelligent. I mean, you're reading this blog aren't you? But being intelligent and having a working knowledge of the issues doesn't make you a political expert. Now, you don't have to be a political aficionado to tweet your opinions, but don't make the mistake of thinking that you are one. If you're going to post an unfounded opinion or knee-jerk reaction to a quote or a debate, don't get all upset when people poke holes in your argument.

So funny I almost fell off my platform
Unintelligent tweets aren't even the greatest offenders; it's the uncreative ones that really get to me. I mean, I understand that NObama is a catchy slogan. Kudos to the first person who thought of that phrase (probably an eight-year-old in Barack's 2nd grade class), but it's a little played out... and it's not helping your cause. When I read #NObama, I read it like this, which I guess is fine if that's what you're going for, but don't expect anyone who is actually on the fence about who to vote for to see it in a positive light. Same goes for the other side. I get it. Mitt Romney is a rich white guy. We're all familiar with First World Problems. Next. I'm not saying don't make jokes... I'm saying make better ones. Just don't regurgitate some tired hashtag and expect it to be funny or poignant and don't couple it with a serious statement and expect it to be taken seriously.

In the end, I don't think it's wrong to tweet about politics, I just think you're setting yourself up for failure if you do. When it come to politics, the layperson just usually isn't informed or witty enough to tweet anything worthwhile... but hey, what do I know? I voted for _______.