The Big, Bad Three [Updated]

The death of conversation in the advent of social media and it's political encouragement.

Ah, conversation. That thrilling interplay and exchange of ideas that make all parties involved that much more adept at navigating the complexities of life.

Who doesn’t relish this time spent with peers over a steaming mug of coffee or an icy beverage? How many problems have been solved and mysteries unravelled by simply opening oneself up to new ideas or patterns of thought?

Surely the ancient Greeks were masters of this art as well as being masters of the thought process that accompanied it.

My, how times have changed…

These days I often find myself amused when in discussion with certain types of people on social media. I suppose it could be argued whether that should even be considered “conversation” at all. Regardless, in matters of politics or religion (and sometimes it’s difficult to tell where one ends and the other begins) it’s common to see both parties take very strong positions (obviously). Anyway, it seems that sometimes at least, there is a brief moment of respectable dialogue where each party makes some manner of effort at stating reasonable sounding points. Then, (and remember I’m talking about a certain subset of people here) from out of nowhere come the BIG BAD THREE and you know they’ve completely run out of intelligent sounding things to say.

The BIG BAD THREE are words or phrases that are meant to simulate the proverbial “mic drop”. An answer that is so complete, so final in its judgement as to be without equal in the realm of conversation or debate. The BIG BAD THREE are swift and lethal, a complete dismissal of all things contrary to humanity and intelligence. To drop any of these truth bombs is to verily assure instantaneous and resounding victory.

So, without further ado, here are the BIG BAD THREE in a commonly occurring order:

1. “Conspiracy theorist”

Often this one is used in conjunction with “Denier” and sometimes is just implied because the person is not sure if they really want to commit, although quite often these types of people will skip right over the usual pleasantries such as asking for clarification, or finding out what the hell you’re even talking about and go straight for the kill shot with this gem. You can read more about these "deniers" here.

If that one doesn't wrap things up right away, then you can expect them to move to the next stage:

2. “White Supremacist”

Often “white privilege” is substituted for this if the person is still feeling their way through the conversation. Really, “white privilege” is the more common version, but it generally means almost the same thing to the person using it, even though they are obviously not the same thing. What this does is let you know in no uncertain terms that the person knows exactly what colour your skin is and that they’re not afraid to use it against you. Usually this word is used right after you provide facts or a credible news article to back up what you’re saying. If you'd like to read about my privilege, you can do that here.

Then, if you’re still there and haven’t gone running back to your evil lair, you can pretty much count on them pulling out the big guns. That’s right - the R-word and I’m not talking about the musical term that means “to gradually slow down”.

Yup, it’s:

3. “RACIST”

This is undoubtedly the most powerful of the BIG BAD THREE because it’s arguably considered to be the absolute WORST thing a human could become. This mic-dropping bomb of truth is generally reserved for the end of the argument and usually shows up after the second or third time you present actual facts or a peer-reviewed study to support what you’re saying. The beauty of this one is that it can pretty much be applied in any circumstance because most people don’t even know what it means anymore due to its overuse and broad application. The word “racist” rarely means what you think it means these days. While real racism is a serious issue, it’s main purveyors may not be who you think they are either. I wrote about this a while back in a post called The New Racists which you may find interesting.

I’ve found that it really doesn’t matter much what the topic of discussion is, these words are all zingers. They’re versatile and malleable enough to pretty much cover it all - especially since even the ones that actually have a real definition have been essentially stripped of any meaning due to language dilution. You can read all about that as well in The Language Hijackers.

So there you have it - the BIG BAD THREE.

Guaranteed winners when you run out of facts.

Addendum in the aftermath of the Freedom Convoy

I had originally written this piece in early January of 2022, just before the Freedom Convoy began making plans to head to Ottawa. Imagine my amazement (or lack thereof) when less than a month after I finished writing this, I read that our Prime Minister had gotten up and used all three of these in one sentence and in precisely the same order in referring to what later became the Freedom Convoy. The quote was actually from the previous September, but only got a lot of publicity once the convoy landed in Ottawa and let it be known how offensive and divisive (not to mention wildly inaccurate) those words were. It's very possible that this one sentence was the catalyst that brought the whole thing to a head.

On the extremely remote chance that you may have forgotten what was said, here is Justin Trudeau speaking about those who were against his mandatory vaccination:

“They are extremists who don’t believe in science, they’re often misogynists, also often racists. It’s a small group that muscles in, and we have to make a choice in terms of leaders, in terms of the country. Do we tolerate these people?”

Okay, so he substituted “misogynists” for “white supremacists” on that particular occasion, but there were enough suggestions from the Liberal government that the whole convoy was a white supremacist gathering because of a couple of questionable connections that we can easily fill in the blanks.

It's hard not to overstate the importance of the words and actions of the leader of a country when they so closely match the vile and thoughtless interactions that is social media today. Sadly, “thoughtfulness” is one accusation that has never been levelled at Justin Trudeau.

True to form, although the convoy protesters had more science backing their claims than the Trudeau government had for their own, and although the protest was probably the most racially diverse protest in our nation's history, these facts were conveniently lost on our Prime Minister when he hauled out the Big, Bad Three. Once again, this merely solidifies his position as the poster boy for all things Woke and social.

It's one thing for you or I to follow the crowd and join the mob as it seems so many people are apt to do today. It's another thing entirely when it's our Prime Minister who ends up not only being one of these people, but also the one they can look to for encouragement and validation of this kind of irresponsible behavior.

I'm sure we can do better.