Some people think that the Fediverse is some kind of “holy ground”, where people shed their skin, left all toxicity at Facebook and Twitter and its all roses now. Well, it is definitely not. Just because we left Twitter, we did not stop being human beings. And it seems that social media as a whole, no matter what platform, makes jumping to conclusions easy – and we automatically assume the worst. Jumping to one-sided conclusions based on a couple of lines, based on a picture. I wish the world was that simple…

I saw a lot of posts today that showed a picture of a beach. In the front people sitting on the beach and bathing in the sea, while we see debris, burned down trees and vegetation in the background. No other context provided. Of course, people immediately jumped to conclusions. First to respond were the quickly and always offended, no skin in the game but always vocal in every conversation to “fight for the good cause”, quickly to tout the usual remarks:

• “What a dystopian and cynical world we live in! They are vacationing during a catastrophe. What garbage human beings”
• “Everything is burned down but of course these people are insisting on their vacation - how tone deaf can you be”
• “People like this are ignoring the climate change, how despicable”.

Funny though, how skewed the view can be when you are possibly hundreds of miles aways and do not really know what you are talking about.

Are there “disaster tourists”, really despicable humans beings who do not give a shit about their fellow human beings and just care about themselves? Sure thing, absolutely. You have assholes like this in every population, in every group of people. But these people are the minority!

But the people in the picture must surely belong to this minority, this group of horrible, despicable people and we can hate them now, right? Well… maybe. There is no additional information provided about the picture. But I highly doubt it.

Why? Well, there are currently a lot of journalists covering the fire and the are talking to the tourists and to the locals. The majority of the tourists are horrified and devastated about all the damages and suffering and are considering to cancel their vacation and go back home. Many locals are pleading for them not to leave though, as the local economy is based on tourism. They need the visitors and their money to make a living and sustain their businesses and livelihoods that are (still) safe. They say, without their money, rebuilding will be so much harder.

The tourists are now stuck between a rock and a hard place. Damned if they do, damned if they don’t. There is no right decision and someone will always be angry.

That being said, to those who are always eagerly and easily offended: Instead of writing petty little posts on the Internet, maybe you should invest that energy and start a charity, collect money to help rebuilding or assist one of the many disaster relief funds and charities out there. Or fly down to Italy or Greece and grab a fucking bucket if you really want to help.

I am well aware of the irony, as I am doing the same right now, writing a petty little post in my part of the Internet. But I am so very tired, and I am so fed up with all these always ever present tiny outbursts of outrage about every fucking thing – just because our lives got so fucking meaningless and uneventful that we became addicted to it.

“Be curious, not judgemental!”

We all would be smart to remember these wise words a bit more often, don’t you think?