So my little brother is really sweet and great and has the best intentions of any eighteen year old man child I've ever met. However, he is always posting these ultra-opinionated, single-minded memes about religion and politics and they drive me crazy! Normally, I ignore them in the hopes that this is just a phase he is going through and he will find a different direction to apply his passion at some later time, but the other night I just couldn't let it go.
I had just returned home from taking my last mid-term in the testing center and felt like some form of zombie.
In this numbed state of mind I went on to Facebook and the first thing I saw was this meme my brother posted comparing Hillary Clinton to Adolf Hitler:
I was immediately infuriated.
Now, I am by no means a Hillary Clinton fan, but I am not a hater either. Honestly, I don't know enough about her political stance to have any sort of opinion about her. But, I also don't think she deserves to have her ideals compared to those of a man who committed heinous acts against humanity. It is also helpful to know that the midterm I had studied my brains out for was moral development, I had been sick most of the week, and I felt completely drained so my judgement was perhaps impaired? Here was my commentary:
This is an unfair comparison. According to Kohlberg's theory of moral development they are both operating at a Level 2, Stage 4 moral reasoning which is actually where most of the world operates. Including you. It is called "Conventional, Social System Morality." Very few people reason above this level and even less act higher. Facts of life. It's the application of reasoning that is different. Please don't compare someone who is trying to do what she honestly feels is best for her country (aka her society) to a man who acted out of hatred and pride. I am in a moral development class this semester and find finger pointing like this quite disparaging. Who are you to judge someone else's moral standing? At least she is trying to do something to change the world on a grand scale. That's more than most. Whether or not you agree with her political stance, it isn't fair to compare her character to that of Hitler's.
Now, I stand by the content of my post, I just think a better thing to do would have been to call my brother up and explained my feelings to him rather than making it a public thing. My brother never responded to my posts, however, my sweet mother did in an attempt to smooth my "attack" over:
Oh, politics! I made a Hitler comparison today to someone else. We are all imperfect in our views even when we are compassionate about our feelings and feel we have all the facts. I love that my kids are trying to educate themselves and form opinions. Luckily our views change and develop until the day we die. Then, we learn the real facts and know for sure how right and wrong we were in our judgements and views. Keep growing kids!
Isn't she great? :)
Has anyone else ever been in a similar situation where you used the ambiguity of a screen or website/a lapse in judgment as an excuse or justification to post something out of character on social media? Like I said above, I stand by what I posted, just not that I posted it over social media allowing a difference in familial opinion to become public...but then again, if he wasn't my little brother, I don't know that I would feel so bad about posting it. I am actually really glad if as a result of my post or my sweet mother's someone else's world view or perspective was slightly expanded.
C'est la vie!
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