Archive for October 2009
In Defense of the Unpopular Opinion
The so-called “Balloon Boy” non-story has now been deflated so thoroughly that a steamroller couldn’t flatten it further if you tried. Yet since the public still seems fascinated, the networks continue to cover it, because where there are eyeballs, there are ratings.
The latest wrinkle comes from one of the supporting cast members, Larimer County Sheriff Jim Alderdan. CBS News, rather than living up to the second half of its name, has discovered that the Sheriff apparently has a blog. On the surface, this seems like a rather uninteresting side plot to this ongoing non-saga, but as CBS points out, the Sheriff blogs about controversial topics, including gay marriage, gun control, and the separation of church and state, and isn’t shy about his opinions.
By all accounts, Sheriff Alderdan is a popular, well-respected law official in a very conservative district who does his job and does it well. It is questionable that the sheriff uses what appears to be a domain that seems to be paid for by the sheriff’s office to host his opinions, but the talk on Twitter and the blogosphere really hasn’t focused on that point. Instead, there has been much discussion, both pro and con, of his writing itself.
At this point, I think it makes sense for me to point out that I don’t particularly agree with the sheriff, coming from a POV that is more Bill Maher than Bill Safire. And while I don’t think it’s right for him to be using a publicly-funded medium to espouse his views, that’s an opinion not based on politics, but on the idea that the job of sheriff shouldn’t be used as a bully pulpit, regardless of beliefs.
But much like little Falcon himself, these are all non-stories getting away from the heart of the issue. There is a growing movement across the board for people bite their tongues in the social space, whether on blogs, forums, Facebook or Twitter. Hardly a week goes by when a request doesn’t come across HARO of a journalist looking for stories of people fired for expressing an opinion on a social media site.
This is where the lines are getting fuzzy. Plenty of people have done plenty of stupid things on social media, and rightly gotten fired for it. But there’s a difference between calling your boss a jerk, and calling out your personal opposition to gay marriage.
As more people use the social web, users also become more adept finding out what others are saying in their off-hours. And unfortunately, it’s inevitable that we’ll soon be hearing stories of people losing their jobs simply because they’ve expressed opinions unpopular with the powers-that-be.
A social web ruled by fear of expressing oneself isn’t one that’s social. Instead, it becomes simply a broadcast medium for major blogs on one side of an issue or another, or worse yet, a place divided by artificial color lines like “red” and “blue,” where two sides can’t discuss things together, move forward, and possibly change minds.
One could argue that the social web–and the real world at large–hasn’t been one of much civility of late, and that argument would probably be right. But the flip side of the end of anonymity online is that users may find a stronger impetus to learn that level of civility that seems to have disappeared in the last few years. After all, it’s one thing to express an unpopular opinion–it’s another to express it like a jerk.
Sheriff Alderdan may be strong in his opinions, but he hasn’t really crossed the line into jerk-dom. And as long as he doesn’t, then it’s imperative that we all protect his right to say it, even if we don’t agree it. Without that, the social web is just as hostile as anywhere in the real world.
