Everyone’s a tough guy on the internet.
That’s what life is like in our tech-driven world of ever-increasing online communication these days. You can say virtually anything you want on the internet, and the benefit is that you’re unlikely to receive any sort of true comeuppance.
I mean, unless you’re Roseanne Barr, but let’s not go down that particular rabbit hole this week.
I’m sure there are many labels for these kinds of people, but I’ve always known them as ‘keyboard warriors’; those who talk big through the anonymity and safety of the internet and who likely wouldn’t have the stones to spew the kind of verbal diarrhea in person that they’re so fond of unleashing on an online platform such as social media.
Maybe I’m coming at this a little aggressive because there are certainly people who actually write constructive criticism in online circles, so I’ll tell you why I’m a little hot under the collar about this subject.
Last week, the Saskatchewan RCMP posted an update on the investigation surrounding the bus crash involving the Humboldt Broncos hockey team from April 6, in which 16 people were killed and the lives of many were changed forever. I’d seen a million of these kind of updates before, and admittedly, it was a lot of "police speak" that may not have said anything of true substance when it comes to how the investigation is going. I think it was just something that the RCMP felt needed to be shared with the public, even if it just meant reminding us that this is a very complex case that needs to be handled with the utmost due diligence.
I completely understood that, and having been privy to all sorts of crime and court matters in the past myself, I honestly wouldn't be surprised if it were still a matter of months before we get any true answers on what happened that day.
What really angered me was when the RCMP decided to post something for the curious public, many of the people who make up that public used it as a soapbox to spew all sorts of criticisms about the investigation, share their "infinite wisdom" about how the crash happened, and demand conclusions that haven't been reached like a bunch of ravenous vultures.
I understand the desire for answers in a case such as this because obviously we’re all curious as to what happened, but this is precisely the kind of case where every sort of due diligence has to be done the right way. The investigators need to take the time and do it all right, no matter how long it takes to get answers for the endless questions that this horrible tragedy left us with.
The people, sorry, I mean “experts” that use posts like the one by the RCMP to criticize the investigators are keyboard warriors in every sense of the name; the ones whose opinions "just need to be heard" despite having no true connection to the subject matter. In my book, unless you're personally connected to what happened with the crash, you can go ahead and stop with all the dramatic grandstanding. The families of those who were on that bus are the ones who are owed answers first and foremost; not you or your friends who need something to gossip about at coffee row.
This is just one example of keyboard warriors are at their finest. You can easily find them in every sort of review section on the internet, especially when it comes to restaurants and the general food service industry. People would rather leave a scathing review online, which are often only one side of the story. We’ve become a society that would rather potentially harm the reputation of a business by way of a bad review rather than make our concerns known in-person.
I even see it at the local level sometimes. There’s a page on Facebook entitled, ‘Outlook Bulletin Board’, and I just have to laugh at some of the activity on there. I’ve seen conversations in which people ask for someone’s profile to message rather than pick up a phone, even if a phone number has been provided.
“Oh no, I can’t do that! I can’t call that person or business! I’d rather just send a message and say whatever I want and have the convenience of avoiding what this person says in response if I don’t agree with it!”
In the end, we need to adopt a better way of dealing with our problems or letting our opinions be heard instead of believing that we can say whatever we want on the internet because in this day and age, that simply isn’t true anymore.
No one is going to pick you to ride into battle with them, Brave Keyboard Warrior.
For this week, that’s been the Ruttle Report.
