A Webtastic Story, Internet Drama and New Conservatism

Every week there is some new controversy in the world and communities. And 95% of these controversies can be summed up in the old “Culture War” con that TwitterBrains parrot all the time. “Their side is destroying everything we hold dear, and we have to stop them!”

Perhaps, I need to define what a TwitterBrain is.

TwitterBrain (n)

Someone who creates their worldview and beliefs on what they see on their social media feeds, either partially or fully.

You know these people because they are arguing every day! Those conservatives “right-wingers” are the worst. SJWs are evil and are destroying our hobbies. The New World Order is out to destroy our culture, and we have to resist them. Resist Trump, Resist Biden, Resist Trudeau…

Recently, some of these TwitterBrains decided to spread some “dark humour” about StrixHaven. Tweets about blasting them with magic missiles and fireballs while they “detect pronouns”, because they are “Edge Lords”.

I want to emphasize a TwitterBrain is just a TwitterBrain. They can not be anything other than what their social media feeds tell them. They are “Followers of Christ”, smiting the non-binary folk, leaving them with salty leftist tears because they are righteous!

Whether they believe they are conservatives is immaterial. They are not.

Once I realized social media warped my and millions of other people’s beliefs, I had to go back to square one. I had to figure out what it meant to be many things.

1. What is a conservative?
2. What is a liberal?
3. What is this culture war?
4. What is it to be a Christian?

I will confine this blog to the first question – what is a conservative.

The definition –

1. commitment to traditional values and ideas with opposition to change or innovation.” proponents of theological conservatism”

2. the holding of political views that favour free enterprise, private ownership, and socially traditional ideas.” a party that espoused conservatism”

My goodness, this is what Google and the dictionary tell us, again, more TwitterBrains… sorry, we have to go deeper than that. Because, opposition to change or innovation, is that true?

So, what does it mean to be a conservative? And why edge lords can not be conservative?

I realized there are four keys to being a conservative.

Self-Ownership (v)

1. The ability to take responsibility for your life and actions.
2. The ability to allow others to take responsibility for their lives and actions.
3. The ability to make your decisions and ideas.

Self-ownership takes self-awareness and an honest look at your life. The edge lords certainly do not do that. “Let us blast the alphabet people with fireballs and magic missiles, hahahahaha!”

Not only do they not have self-awareness, but most of their beliefs also come from being TwitterBrains, with 1000s of posts, videos and memes telling them what to believe and how to behave. They have already given up taking responsibility for their lives by passively accepting what others talk about on social media. Who needs to figure out what to believe in life when someone on social media can tell me!

And of course, because they do not have agency, they do not give agency to others either. Those “stupid pronoun people, why can’t they know the truth like us?”

So, no, they do not pass the first block, let alone the other cornerstones of being a conservative.

Self-Discipline (v)

1. The ability to focus on what you want to create the life you want.

You can not be haphazard; you have to make plans and execute them. Conservative thought focuses on what builds your life and the lives around you, and you need to create that life. You can not be thrown to and fro because of social media drama this week.

Self Discipline leads to the next cornerstone.

Self-Control (v)

1. The ability to control yourself.

With social media pushing controversies, having some self-control helps you with self-discipline. You stop reacting to BS controversies and creating new ones to bother others. 

“Joking” about killing fictional characters to bother people in the real world shows a remarkable lack of self-control.

Sometimes, you have to sacrifice instant gratification, like making off-hand jokes like that, if you want to get anywhere in life.

Self-Sacrifice (v)

1. The ability to sacrifice to create a better life.

We know our priorities to our lives and fighting on the internet is never one. Our generation will be the first generation, who will say, I wished I did not fight so much on Twitter on their death beds. Internet Drama is never the way to a better life.

This culture war has killed all these attitudes. Fighting like pavlovian dogs over controversies has destroyed our ability to think long term and make better decisions. Most people are in a blender that goes so fast that most people are in constant pain.

I always ask the following questions with every controversy –

• Who benefits from my anger?
• How does this build my life?

People on all sides want you to give up your agency and “fight” the other side, but it rarely ends well for anyone. It is time to create a better world by redefining what things mean.

Let us start with Conservatism.

Conservatism (v)

1. The belief that you own your life. The quality of your life is up to your Self-Ownership, Self-Discipline, Self-Control and Self-Sacrifice. The more you take control of your life, the better it will become for you and others.

Thanks for reading, and let us take a step forward in the world by embracing some conservatism – oh my, a conservative who is not opposed to change and progress, lol!