Here is an editorial from Katherine Freeman……..Recent Spotsylvania School Board post-election meetings have shown us that words do matter. Publicly elected officials should exhibit qualities of self-restraint when the urge arises to express personal opinions.

The current climate we observe across the globe concerning any affair may have some of us scratching our heads as to why we as a society react the way we do, at the individual or group level. Take for an example the “burning books” scandal or health mandates forced upon the populous. Social media platforms have been the catalyst, a start of a journey to which we can seek instant gratification and validation of our opinions and experiences. The power of the thumbs up, heart, laugh emojis.

Extensive research of big tech companies’ social media platforms has shown efforts to entrap the customers, tapping into human behaviors to make a profit. It is the reason most social media executive elites do not allow their children to have phones. It is unhealthy, but knowledge is power, and a well-informed citizenry is a threat to these elites.

So here we are in Spotsylvania County with an animus displayed for all to witness. Teachers Unions and local “journalists” partnered years ago and have taken it upon themselves to partake in a “resist-at-all-cost” movement. Why? Social media has curtailed the face-to-face interpersonal relationships. We can say whatever we want on an app or in an editorial. Mix in a pandemic with draconian lock downs and virtual learning for a year to which adds more to disassociation.

Depending on the side you take on any given issue you dig in and will only hear what releases the good endorphins like an emoji on your app. No one likes to lose an election. Even more so the majority. It has to be frightening for a lack of control is the dilemma.

Maybe you are the type who has maintained critical thinking throughout the mass formation psychosis the masses have been engineered into long term (social media + pandemic). These types are the really bad people, the greatest threat to democracy because you didn’t jump into the fray online and argue to no end.

There is money to be made and you are not to witness the ingredients of the recipe. You have been labeled as a domestic terrorist because you expressed your feelings in public. You have had enough of the echo chamber cocoon some comfortably live in, those who are inconsiderate of other’s genuine concerns.

Sorry, no heart emoji exists in the real world when you look up from the app on your phone. But if you get into lock step with the teachers’ union you can get a red shirt and jazz-hands approval. Maybe even a Free-Slant Star article of your own. Bonus!

This pandemic has been the greatest exploit and experiment of social engineering witnessed in history since Germany in the late 1930s. The pandemic was the tripwire to remove the remaining personal communication skills we had that social media couldn’t finish off.

Go to your corners, hyper focus on it and fight it out while the elites rob the reserve. Yet the parents across the nation have awoken from the great social media slumber. The experiment failed and it is time for realistic expectations and sensibility to return.