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∫ Schoolkids mercilessly teasing one another as they look to secure their social standing.
∫ Athletes taunting, trash-talking, and grandstanding opponents when they do something exceptional.
∫ Videos of verbal fights, physical fights, and road rage incidents at every turn.
∫ Stories of anger toward customer service personnel becoming commonplace.
∫ The "I do what's best for me" philosophy running rampant, producing selfish behavior that affects others.
∫ Political culture being forged on division and almost cartoon-like bluster, all centered on conflict.
∫ People building their morals and identity based upon those conflict-fueled political norms, using the word "hateful" to shut down anything the "enemy" disagrees with.
∫ "Cancel culture" voraciously seeking its next victim without a care for contrition or atonement.
Is it just me, or have we rapidly become an unkind, unpolite, and unforgiving society?
In the past few years, I've noticed a type of person that I'd never noticed before. That person, often a colleague, doesn't accept what you are saying at its face value. You must deeply defend your point and engage in a few rounds of high-volume verbal tennis before the conversation ends. Then the person shows almost immediate respect. It's almost as if you had to fight to earn it.
I believe we are a society quick to draw weapons and quick to let our lips fly. That is all encouraged by the messaging all around us -- "Find your voice," "Stand your ground," "I know what's best."
Brashness, it seems, is rewarded. May the loudest person in the room win.
To me, it's a little hypocritical. The anti-bullying movement is something we've all seen during this generation. We say we are hyper-sensitive to bullying and we are more tolerant as a society to those who don't fit norms, but, going off our social cues, it doesn't add up.
It's cool to be sarcastic. Telling jokes at the expense of others is positively rewarded. Unloading upon the stupid telephone sales representative is celebrated.
No wonder we are so screwed up.
I'm not the only one onto that.
A story in The Atlantic called "America's epidemic of unkindness" hits on some of the themes I've mentioned.
To nobody's surprise, technology is not always our kind friend.
"The internet is largely a cesspool," Daniel M.T. Fessler, director of theUniversity of California-Los Angeles' Bedari Kindness Institute, said in 2019. "If there is one thing we know, it's that anonymity invites antisociality."
He went on to say it's "easier to be a jerk hiding behind a Twitter profile or gaming handle."
All I know is this: My children are growing older, but they aren't far from being young. I liked to observe them around others.
When a child, let's say younger than 8, is placed into a social situation, they do not question what another child is wearing, what they look like, or their views on politics. They simply tell each other their names and they play.
Something happens that changes that beautiful picture.
When children are thrown into society, they slowly lose their innocence, their trusting, their kindness. They begin to, well, act like the rest of us.
I'm concerned we are becoming an increasingly Darwinian society.
Yeah, there are platitudes and buzzwords that may indicate otherwise, but the best-case scenario is that we are receiving constant, confusing mixed messages.
And the worst-case scenario?
We're no smarter than a toddler when it comes to being kind.
In fact, we're quite inferior to the little ones.
Alpena native Jeremy Speer is the publisher of The Courier in Findlay, Ohio, the Sandusky (Ohio) Register, The Advertiser-Tribune in Tiffin, Ohio, the Norwalk (Ohio) Reflector, and Review Times in Fostoria, Ohio. He can be reached at jeremyspeer@thecourier.com.