Our society is becoming something I'd hoped we'd never see.
It is becoming overridden with racist slurs, violent outbursts, overly-offended pansies and judgmental beliefs. It's taken me awhile to comprehend this, but the fact of the matter is, while it may seem like our society is changing, it's not changing THAT much. The thing changing dynamics the most is the media.
Here's the deal about the media: they prey on naive and sensitive people.
They know which groups of people to target in order to make the largest impact. They know which groups will keep up with the Kardashian's, which ones get their panties in a bunch over political disagreements and they which groups will be especially bothered by a violent or criminal event.
In light of several events in recent years, most recently the senseless massacre in Las Vegas, I feel it's important that we, as a society, reflect on our behaviors and our roles in society.
We, as Americans, go to school, then we go to work, and we abide by laws set by our lawmakers and we do our best to be the model citizens we were raised to be.
Unfortunately, more often than not, there will be bumps along the way. Unfortunately, some are experiencing violence as one of these bumps. Violence such as assault or battery or domestic abuse is nothing new, and to be frank, neither is gun violence. The only reason our world seems so much crueler than a decade ago is that the media has stepped up and filled a large role.
The media 10 years ago wasn't half as prominent as it is today.
Americans get "news" updates way beyond television or radio, and now as Snapchat stories, Twitter updates, Facebook trending topics, mobile application notifications, and text messages that spread like wildfire. The mediums in which information can be delivered today is abundant, and the media milks those opportunities like never before.
And sometimes, they're far from trustworthy sources (shoutout to Buzzfeed).
I fully blame the media for the current political tensions, worries of war, and fears of violence that Americans today currently experience. The media has this tendency to warp your beliefs into something way different, even when you are completely unaware of it.
The Las Vegas massacre, in particular, has the entire country on high alert for how our government will handle the war on weapons, especially guns.
The media fails to inform that this situation was insanely planned and executed, and unfortunately, Stephen Paddock would've hurt a large group regardless. It was just announced that he had planned to do the same thing at Lollapalooza in Chicago in August 2017, but thankfully never followed through.
People are forgetting that PEOPLE kill people, NOT GUNS. And those who kill people are MENTALLY ILL, and not just "an average person with an unforeseen motive." We as a society are failing to help those who need help the most. We are ultimately failing to help the future of our great country as a result.
My wish is for Americans to stop being afraid of guns, Donald Trump, and other buzz-worthy topics. They need to weigh the facts and be kind to thy neighbor. Maybe if we had more kindness and less haphazard emotions or opinions, there would be less gun violence, and less innocent people dead.
