crumpled paper with the word rubbish

“la plus belle des ruses du Diable est de vous persuader qu’il n’existe pas!” – Charles Baudelaire, 1864 [“the Devil’s finest trick is to persuade you that he doesn’t exist!” via Google Translate. If you want to see someone turn themselves inside out, simultaneously proving and disproving the provenance of this quote, go ahead and put the french words into Google and read any entry from a “quote expert” website. Cripes!]

[Ed: I would have also included a quote along the lines of “Don’t repeat what your opponent says, lest you do your opponent’s work”, but I couldn’t find one. I know it’s not a sentiment that I came up with, so I’m not claiming that.]

Lately, the culture of the Internet suggests that a person should try to belittle a public person who has said something obviously ridiculous.

I argue instead that such behavior actually gives the original speaker undue access to an otherwise unwilling amplifier: Your Voice.

Let’s say that Sgt. Robert Stuffmuffin, a TV pundit who is on the opposite side of every issue you care about says something really ridiculous, such as “Every frog eventually has its day”.

And you, dear viewer (though, why?) hear this and you want to use the malapropism as proof not only of Sgt. Stuffmuffin’s lack of intelligence, but simultaneously as your own surplus of self-same. So, you text all your friends and say “Did you hear what Stuffmuffin said?” and you include a link to the internet video of his saying the wrong words. “What an idiot!”

Now, let’s take a step back. You claim to despise Sgt. Stuffmuffin, yet you would share his words to your friends? You would literally send his voice and appearance into your friends’ hands, eyes, and ears? Now suppose that such an utterance was planfully made, solely for the purpose of getting his opponents to parrot his words (any words). Aha, now we see the danger!

Instead, and I know this isn’t easy: hear the words. Recognize them as utter foolishness. Let the words slide out of your brain, and get on with your life. If you wouldn’t make a verbatim declaration of Sgt. Stuffmuffin’s earnest comments otherwise, don’t repeat ANYTHING he says.

To do more than that makes you an unwitting puppet. And, you know, you’re not that. So, See Nonsense. Recognize Nonsense. Release Nonsense. Never Repeat Nonsense.

And that, dear friends, is today’s mantra.

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