Catholic Response to Call-Out Culture?

[Beryllos]

The problem isn’t only cultural but also commercial.

A good point. Commercial entities could be held responsible and would quickly learn what is acceptable. Not so with the average social media user.

 

[adgloriam]

adgloriam:

The problem isn’t only cultural but also commercial.

A good point. Commercial entities could be held responsible and would quickly learn what is acceptable. Not so with the average social media user.

The latest controversy that brought this spectrum of issues to the limelight was the “fake news” circulating around election times in several countries. Eventually something will happen about that, it’s a question of when.

 

[blackforest]

New media outlets are certainly a commercial entity. Have all of them as forthcoming as this journalist? Julie Irwin Zimmerman: I Failed the Covington Catholic Test - The Atlantic

I’m not challenging you - just saying that the media should be awash with apologies, corrections, and retractions. This should have humbled journalists. But unfortunately, watch as these journalists try to shift the blame and play the victims. https://www.washingtonpost.com/tech...rump-internet-pounced/?utm_term=.46fd25fba36a

So much can be learned from this and other examples of Call-Out Culture.

“Thou shalt not bear false witness” comes immediately to mind.

 

[0Scarlett_nidiyilii]

“Hold on everybody! We don’t have all of the facts yet!”

“I agree that what happened was horrible, but we should let our courts sort out of the consequences.”

Then suddenly you are at the bottom of the dogpile. And you haven’t done much good because nobody is listening and everybody has made up their minds what they want to believe.

Which is what happened because everybody was tripping over themselves to distance themselves from the Evil Villians, the kids were left out to dry before the facts were in

 

[Cirdan_XII]

My point is that for better and for worse, we live in an age when anyone can film anything at any time and share it publicly. We can – and all too often do – rush to judgment, (usually siding with our heavily entrenched political, religious, and moral biases), and have turned moral outrage into a national past-time. What’s worse is that those who shame, harass, humiliate, name-call, and dox others feel morally vindicated in doing so.

I think this has always been the case. Lynch mobs and crowds with pitchforks have occuirred in every era of history. There have however been prolonger periods where there was only one predominant opinion and virtually everybody agreed with that so nobody saw it fit to ask whether the lynch mob was indeed doing the right thing.

It is only when we disgree with the lynch mob that the injustice of it becomes obvious. You normally don’t question those who agree with you, or who you think agree with you, , however vile their methods or intentions. You either look away or justify what they are doing. We are living in a time in which parallel opinions are emerging. So the injustice of the other group becomes obvious from our perspective, while we fail to see the similarities to our own group. Probably this is only a temporary and passing phenomenon and as is usual in history, one opinion will ultimately prevail and the other will vanish. And of course both sides want to be the one that prevails which is why the fighting is so intense.

 

[Cirdan_XII]

A good point. Commercial entities could be held responsible and would quickly learn what is acceptable. Not so with the average social media user.

I think this is the beginning of a dangerous wedge.

OK, let’s shut down any site that published anything that isn’t factually true as determined by experts.

So if I write a negative report on a hotel on tripadvisor, they can have that deleted becsue I don’t have the facts to back up that the staff were rude.

Maybe even the Catholic Church as a whole could be shut down because some atheist expert determines the Resurrection was a hoax.

Where does this stop?

Freedom of expression should include the freedom to opinions, even if these are not totally fpuunded in totally provable fact.

 

[Pattylt]

This is an interesting discussion! One of the biggest issues is the rapidity with which a story is spread…and when more evidence is brought forth, the rapidity with which THAT is also spread. I think the younger generation has the advantage here. The youth are saturated with rapid information and most? many? are far more sceptical than us older geezers.

The gorilla story is a prime example. Had that happened 20 years ago, no one would have even heard about it for several days. Because news disseminated so much slower there was time for the story to be investigated and nuances to be brought forth. Now, we know these stories in less than 20 minutes but rarely anything about the full circumstances and absolutely no nuance.

We need to learn these lessons. We need to practice withholding judgement. The problem is, people are judgmental. We are biased. We want to believe our side is always correct. We want confirmation of our biases. How do you fight human nature? All we can do is learn lessons and take them to heart. Actually, more cases of the type like with the Catholic high school can be seen as lessons for all of us. As more of these types of wrongful reporting ar exposed, we learn caution. We are trainable!

 

[blackforest]

Absolutely. I’m a little miffed that the Diocese in Kentucky hasn’t outright rescinded its first statement. There’s no harm in apologizing for a knee-jerk response.

They’ve put out a second statement, but there’s no gee-sorry-we-spoke-too-soon. https://www.covdio.org/

 

[adgloriam]

just saying that the media should be awash with apologies, corrections, and retractions.

In some countries if a newspaper falsely accuses someone according to the law the person has a right to publish an article in that same newspaper defending themselves and reestablishing the truth. I’ve seen hundreds of those articles going back&forth, trust me it rarely amounts to much and hardly anyone reads it. Damages payments attributed in court for such cases are rare and low -as it stands- fact is, the most moral option is to boycott media that goes down that road.

 

[adgloriam]

One of the biggest issues is the rapidity with which a story is spread…

The likes of twitter and Facebook could easily put some filters in place if need be…Take out the keywords and there’s not much left.

 

[adgloriam]

We need to learn these lessons. We need to practice withholding judgement. The problem is, people are judgmental. We are biased.

The one piece of news I’ve heard this week was the richer getting richer. Perhaps that kind of news is good if it contributes towards ending off-shores and fiscal paradises. Think about it: tax the right 500 guys and the rest of the world population gets free college and health care, not a bad deal right?!

 

[blackforest]

“Internet shaming” isn’t some big new different thing. The use of video to make someone look bad has been going on since Huntley-Brinkley, and the use of print media (often biased) for the same purpose has been going on for decades before that.

Oh, public shaming has gone on throughout history, and the mob mentality has resulted in a number of atrocities.

Social media, however, has facilitated it to a degree never thought possible. That places us in a position to be even more vigilant and responsive. I started this thread because I’m not sure specifically what that vigilance and response should look like . . .

 

[blackforest]

I hope you’re right.

 

[Joe_5859]

So in light of Church teaching on charity, how should we, as Catholics, respond to call-outs? When the circumstances warrant, how should we go about calling out sin and injustice? What can we do to push back against the evils of Internet shaming?

Great topic for a thread.

Honestly, my response is mostly not to respond. At least, not to those who are all amped up and ready to storm the town square with pitchfork in hand.

When I see these stories, it mostly makes me drop to me knees and thank God that I am not going through high school and college with today’s technology at everyone’s disposal. I mean, I was always the “good kid.” When reading Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar in my high school English class, I substituted the word “donkey” for the “a” word in order to avoid swearing. I didn’t have my first alcoholic drink until I was 25. I have always been a rule follower.

And yet still, even I can think of some things in high school and college that I said or did that I would be mortified to see plastered over social media never to be forgotten. And I can think of things that—taken out of context, or even taken in context—would not reflect very well on me. Moments that I would be loathe to have define me for the rest of my life.

Such is the danger of social media. There are good things, such as being able to participate in this conversation with you fine folk. But I see such a lack of mercy. With regards to this Covington thing, I saw a tweet from some Hollywood director that said no one need ever forgive this MAGA hat wearing teen. What a truly reprehensible thing to say. Even if the teen were guilty of the worst of what has been insinuated, why is he uniquely guilty of an unforgivable sin? Because it got caught on video and shared a million times? How many of us would come away smelling like roses if our worst moment was captured on film and shared with the entire nation?

So I don’t want any part in those scapegoating games. I’ll abstain, thank you very much.

 

[Joe_5859]

Absolutely. I’m a little miffed that the Diocese in Kentucky hasn’t outright rescinded its first statement. There’s no harm in apologizing for a knee-jerk response.

I wondered that, too, but in fairness, I can see how they want to avoid waffling back and forth if for some reason their investigation were to reveal that the teens were doing things they shouldn’t be doing. I am holding out hope that, once they are done investigating, then they’ll apologize.

 

[blackforest]

It is only when we disgree with the lynch mob that the injustice of it becomes obvious.

This is what scares me. When the rubber meets the road, will I join the mob - especially one that seems to validate my values and beliefs - or recognize and stand up for what is right? It’s the ultimate challenge we could face as Christians.

 

[Cirdan_XII]

This is what scares me. When the rubber meets the road, will I join the mob - especially one that seems to validate my values and beliefs - or recognize and stand up for what is right? It’s the ultimate challenge we could face as Christians.

This is why the Christian message is to be humble and modest and to forgive rather than to judge. To love rather than to hate.

I hope that when the critical moment arises, that sufficient numbers will remember that.