R.I.P.
Why do we constantly try to rip each other apart? What kind of grudge do we hold against our peers that at every corner we are so ready to tear them down from the smallest, most insignificant mistake? What makes it popular to insult our friends and our family for obviously unimportant reasons? How do we allow ourselves to judge others without truly getting to know them? Our insults based only on the assumptions that we hold of them?
I'm no angel; I've judged, bad-mouthed, and gossiped about others just as everyone else has (if you haven't, props to you). I understand the allure and the temptation to target the flaws in somebody because otherwise all we would be able to witness is the alleged perfection that no one wants to see flaunted. But recently I'm trying to change myself to stop and to think about the people that I'm judging because of a single action or my first impression: what right do I have to categorize them from such a fleeting experience? I don't know their background, their experiences, or how their day went. Honestly, I don't think we have the right to judge anybody because we'll never be able to understand what he/she has gone through in life: what trials, what tribulations... It's unfair to begin to categorize and to ostracize someone because of an assumption that was made outside of his/her control because one mistake set it all off. But it's not just me: insults have become a social norm and thus a way to become accepted because it's "cool" to tear down someone together, to see them fall, to see them break down... Isn't it? Isn't that how it seems to some? Just a past time without any obvious consequences? The consequences don't have to be obvious to exist: each word, rumor, or comment that these victims hear are devastating to them no matter how trivial they may seem to the perpetrator. I know because I speak from experience.
I know how horrible it feels to hear your friends talk about you behind your back because of a phase in your life, a mistake you made, or a decision you regretted. Life isn't perfect so why are we expected to be?
I want to say that if we don't like someone, so be it. Why does this hatred matter so much that we have to go out of our way to insult, to hurt those around us when life could have continued without it being said in the first place? And when they are defended? The defender becomes unpopular and shunned because s/he was able to shed light on the perennial, social issue that attacks us all today. "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say it all": as cliche and as trite as this phrase may be, it is thus for a reason - because there is so much negativity in this world, and every extra insult and drawn out flaw become an addition to this exponentially increasing darkness that we cannot shake as a community.