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  2020-05-09

  Comment Section and Human Nature

  I'm a member of several community (some smaller, some wider) Facebook groups. I am not overly active, especially when discussion occur that get heated. In this screenshot, someone asked if anyone actually knew anyone with Covid-19, as opposed to just a friend of a friend. Within this particular group, there is a large contingent of people that refer to the pandemic as "plandemic" and sincerely believe that the government, or the left, or whatever, are using this pandemic to further control the public and ruin the economy. Many of the respondents to this question (over 200 at the time I took this screenshot) emphasized that they knew of no one, and it was being blown out of proportion. I found this particular interaction in the comments interesting, however, because the first person that, in all caps, stated that it was a sham, immediately offered condolences to the person who's friend almost died. It reminded me that people will say- or yell in caps- in social media and get all worked up, but they can be kind. I don't know if this person changed their mind about it being a sham after "hearing" about a near death, but it shows how crazy comment sections can be.