Every time we have a disturbing event such as a mass shooting or a natural disaster we get a lot of couch toxicity. We see people sending prayers, thoughts, leprechauns... and of course changing their profile pictures as if that means something. Surely, there is nothing wrong with an act of pointless compassion but this form of ethical charade is part of the problem we have drowned ourselves in online douchebaggery.
The world has problems. Real problems. Likes, profile picture mods or any other positive thinking act doesn't do shit to change this. These acts serve more like a thought experiment, a make-up that aims to cover up our laziness and apathy. They aim to provide each other with a pointless ethical fulfillment, a self delusion. They are making us the exact opposite of humane. They render human action into a pop-cultural meme that as it gets repeated, it fades into oblivion along with the other bullshit around us.
If anything, this demonstrates how palpable our ethics are and how vulnerable we become when it comes to social trends — no matter how fucked up they are. When we have degraded a profile picture, an act of 2 seconds into a meaningful effort for assisting someone in need (or in pain) then we have redefined the meaning of psychopathy. In every other age of human history this would be similar to a sick joke among friends. To us, it serves more like a hybrid mechanism for attention in order to increase our ethical status while at the same time offering us a good night's sleep. "John is a good guy, look he has added a flag, let me add a like". Yes John, you are a real fucking inspiration for us all.
If this was not enough, these people also have another touch of bullshit in their repertoire. The "positive energy" mantra —as if it means anything other self delusion and misunderstanding about how the real world works. How it is possible to believe that if you are "positive" about something it will somehow manifest itself? What kind of fucked math and statistics have you applied and seen this work in the past?. How would you explain this theory to a starving child in Africa or a mother that has seen her child blown to pieces by a grenade? The positive energy movement has become the very definition of toxic because it has no basis to how the world works. It only applies to close privileged western environments that has more and more douchebags reinforcing its dogma. It is as delusionary and illformed as any other cult preaching.
It often slips our mind how messed up life is for many people on this earth. We lose touch with reality because we stare our screen for so long — everything becomes entertainment with an expiration date. Our reactions to these events have been reduced to a few clicks of a mouse or some paragraphs of text. There is nothing more toxic to the human existence other than the distortion of reality for the sake of personal distinguishment. There is nothing more toxic than rejecting those who see things how they are in an effort to relinquish one's bullshit. Realism is not toxic. Living in a privileged bubble that jerks inside an echo chamber is.
