By Michael Corcoran
They couldn’t make “Blazing Saddles” today. Not in this vitriolic racial climate, where a Super Bowl quarterback can’t even get a backup job because he wouldn’t stand for the anthem, and owners are afraid of offending fans. This culture would be less without “Blazing Saddles,” my vote for funniest movie ever made.
I’m troubled by what’s happening on social media, which is influencing- dominating, even- the minds of the world like nothing since religion. Facebook and Twitter are like a church service, where both sides of the aisle bicker back and forth at each other. They each have their own priest/website. Also, their own ministers of propaganda. But nothing gets done really, but the shouting. After awhile it becomes a drain.
Harmless (though offensive) posts are sucked into the agenda and contorted into mobilizing shapes. “This is an attack on our values!” It becomes a war for a few hours and then everybody moves on to the next thing.
If I was a young writer today, not one eligible for Social Security next month, I’d be wrist slapped away from any outrageousness. Taught early on to comply to accepted notions- lest the fury of the Internet strike me down. I’d try to be the most colorful journalist on the party line, not the guy who wrote a column for the Austin Chronicle during the AIDS epidemic that belittled guys who used condoms for hetero-sex. The Chron never got more nasty letters than after the “Die Like a Man” column, but they didn’t come for a couple days- not a thousand in 90 seconds. Maybe a few phone calls went around, but nobody boycotted the Chronicle. Nowadays- boom!- 100,000 people think you’re a piece of shit.
I’ve always been a contrarian: ask my sisters. I try to find the angle that no one else is using- for reasons I would soon prove! My goal as a writer has never changed: Be Interesting. To me, there’s nothing to everybody repeating the same opinion. What do you learn from that?
I’m not very well educated, but I’ve got a masters degree in arguments. Taking the wrong side, I’ve found, is how you learn the most. There was a time, when SXSW was small, I made some flippant comment around a couple of Boston guys, that the Celtics always drafted the best available white guy. It almost came to violence when I called Larry Bird overrated and Kevin McHale all elbows. But after things calmed down, these guys gave me a lesson on McHale’s value that “30 For 30” couldn’t match. I really had no idea. We shook hands and went our ways, though I couldn’t resist a “Celtics Suck!” from the distance.
If we had that dispute on Twitter today, they would’ve gone through all my posts of the past couple years, screen-shooting the most ridiculous. They would’ve twisted what I said (“Larry’s afraid to play D? This asshole’s from Austin, TX”) They would’ve mobilized their network of Celtics fans and told them where I worked, what kind of car I drove. It would’ve been brutal.
The Internet won the election for Donald Trump and it’s dividing our country like no one person could. But it’s also an amazing tool for the times. I keep telling myself I’m done with social media. Just too much twisting, too many people trying to bring each other down. It’s home of the new witch hunt, only this time the witches are doing the hunting.
But I can’t turn away. It’s too informative (if you weed out the bullshit sites), too engaging, too fun. I’m not going to sacrifice all that because people can really be bullies on social media.
It’s not my time anymore, as a freelance provocateur. I can’t take all the negative shit like I used to. My days are limited and not to be used for explaining myself (or “mansplaining”). I’m just a guy with opinions and a laptop. I drive a beige 2015 Kia Soul. And I write about Texas music.