The mid-term elections are over.
Most of the candidate’s yard signs are in storage, and we’re no longer getting political calls and text messages on our phones.
I’m still wondering how these political pollsters have my personal cell phone number since I’m not a volunteer nor have I ever posted my number on any political site.
My dad would have the answer: communists.
He was convinced the communists were around every corner and the culprit behind every political fiasco.
It didn’t help that we had random air raid drills at our elementary school where we were supposed to crouch underneath our desks when the atomic bomb was dropped on us by the Russians.
Now it seems ridiculous to think that hiding underneath a school desk would shield us from radiation, but the fear of the communists was so high, we did anything to escape their evil clutches.
To add to the paranoia, there were posters all over the school walls to be on the lookout for the, yes, evil communists.
We no longer have to worry about the communists, or any other shady shenanigans, slipping by unnoticed. These days, people, robots or trolls leave comments on every online news story, blog and video.
Frankly, they’re fun reading for a variety of reasons.
First, the comments reinforce my belief that there are really stupid people out there. I used to wonder how these ignoramuses maneuvered through big words like “economy” and “deficit,” but then I realized that they weren’t reading the story.
They were simply restating the rhetoric they’d seen somewhere else, copied the words and pasted them in the comments section. That’s the reason why so many comments spout the same political garbage post after post.
Some of them reflect the writer’s intellectual level, especially their writing skills. The ability to spell and capitalize words has atrophied in direct relation to the growth of the Internet.
Not only do hot-headed posters misuse “you’re” and “your” – excuse me while I put on my Grammar Police hat, but “you’re” is an abbreviation of “you are,” such as “you are screaming in print when you type in all caps.” “Your” should be used when stating “your opinions are pointless.”
Some of the comments make good sense, especially when calling out ridiculous “breaking news stories” that are often no better than “The National Enquirer” headlines or stories out of a dime novel from the 1950s.
Witty, snarky commenters have a field day with ridiculous stories, and that’s when I applaud the freedom of the press on the Internet. These writers make me laugh out loud, especially those who have an acerbic wit and the English skills to match their right-on-target comments.
There are often intelligent and lucid points of view from both sides of the political table. Even when I don’t agree with what the writer states, if their comment makes me stop and think, that’s a great brain exercise.
This newspaper encourages and runs signed letters to the editor. I especially applaud these people because they can’t hide behind some cute or clever online persona. They allow their opinion to be printed in the newspaper with their named signed at the bottom in the town where they live for everyone to see.
I read each and every letter because they make me think and applaud the writer, even if I disagree with their position.
My dad loved reading the opinion page in the newspaper, and I know he’d love reading all the online news and political comments. He’d tell anyone who’d listen where these far-fetched beliefs come from – yes, the communists.
This column was originally published in The Fort Bend Herald.