I was just looking at my Facebook newsfeed, and saw the sad story about a young boy who was shot multiple times by his evil stepfather because the boy was trying to keep him from raping his 6 year-old sister. There was a picture of a young African-American boy on a hospital bed all bandaged up and looking to be in extreme pain.
My response was “meh”.
I am not a heartless person, but I already had my visceral response the first time I saw this story. There was a picture of a young White boy on a hospital bed all bandaged up and looking to be in extreme pain. When I first saw this, I was sickened and saddened. However, this reincarnated version did not give me a single stir.
Every time I see one if these being passed along, I can pretty much tell that it is all made up. But, there are those that come through that make me think, “This really happened!?OMG!”. When this happens, I feel like I am one of “those” people that could be made to believe that some exiled prince randomly emailed me asking me for help. Well, he did offer to spilt those millions with me. All I had to do was pay a small amount upfront for bribing government officials, taxes, etc.
I am ashamed to admit it, but I have been emotionally Catfished multiple times by these FB sob stories. I was a little more savvy, and a lot more smug, when the political stories were going around. “Illegal immigrants will be able to vote for Obama! It is an outrage!” I was functioning under the assumption that every person over the age of twelve knew the basics of the Constitution and that it was a non-issue. Again, I was wrong on this also. If there could be actual debate around if someone born in Hawaii is a citizen, it was not out of the realm of possibility people would believe the stuff about voting.
So, back to my point. There are many heartfelt stories out there about soldiers, children, mothers, etc. Some may be based on fact, most are not. Though, there are those very good ones that despite questionable authenticity, will inspire people to do something good. Donate to the USO, read an extra story to your child at night, or call your mother just to say that you love her.
I will try not to be so cynical and jaded about these stories on FB, but I am still recovering from the election.
