The Sweetness of Soda and Social Media

1 Peter 4:8English Standard Version (ESV)

Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.

I made  a quick and not highly thought out comment on Facebook on Tuesday morning at 5:30. The early bird gets the worm and I got my share of worm Likes and several snakey ones too. So, the above picture was posted on Facebook with an NPR article on food and water supply. The article referenced Coca-Cola not building a bottling plant in Southern India because it would have diminished the water table.

Here is my comment. I was hoping to break 200 Likes but came up a little short, peaking a 191.

So, I made the simple and simplistic observation that Coke was not food. It was sloppy of NPR to pair the picture of Coke with the article about food and water. So far, so good I thought. There was nothing profound here. Several commenters called me out for some reason pointing this out. Things like soda is not food which is what I said. 

The second piece of my comment was more an intentional slam on that waste of water of a beverage Coca-Cola. Soda is culprit numero uno in the metabolic disorders endemic in our country. Any chance I have to diss Wal-Mart. Comcast, or Coca-Cola (and their type), I am going to take it. The corporate emperor has no clothes. I don't think corporations are people and can be critiqued as an entity harshly if they act in fundamentally hegemonic and highly unhealthy ways for our culture.   

In general, I have to think people appreciated the encouragement to quit soda. However, some dude (not shown) sarcastically thanked me for letting the world know that soda is bad for people. I don't doubt that most of us know that soda is bad for us, I just don't think we know how bad. My comment was meant to spur perhaps those out there who drink soda (sugared, Nutrasweet, Splenda) to quit. That's all. 

Another lady (not shown) pointed out to me that soda was made of water. Hard to fathom that point as a great mystery. Another person threw in a comment about Hitler (shown) which I suppose was his opinion that advocating quitting soda must involve Nazified government enforcement. Although I did hear that old Hell-Burning Adolf had a sweet tooth and was a vegetarian too. 

Another pleaded that people need to read the article before commenting (I had quickly scanner the article beforehand to make sure I got the vibe). Not sure who he was commenting upon. Moi?

The snarky, rude, and off-base comments really made me wonder about people and their need to make a mark, try to draw blood, so that it can be posted onto some imaginary Social Media Scoreboard of "I showed him."  I mean none of the negative comments got any bat on the ball. None.   

Since the recycling bin showdown (see blog of two weeks ago) I have tried to rethink some things, anticipate reactions, and prepare my approach considering possible responses and eventualities. I really wasn't expecting the general smart-assness swings. 

I decided that to reply created the conditions for retaliation, revenge, and reviling. I settled on not trying to charm that Social Media Snake. I let the inappropriate comments die on the vine for I saw it as poison. If people thought I was bested, so be it. 

On the web, it is said, "Nobody know you are a dog."  That is not necessarily true. I have seen such a unleashing of fangs recently in the comment sections of Facebook posts that I wonder where the rabidity will end. The Baltimore fiasco really showed a lot of frothing disease all around and these comment sections are starting to resemble snake pits. Of course, ISIS using Facebook and Twitter to recruit fellow crescent lunatics isn't helping establish that Social Media is more good than bad.

I recall back in the day I thought message board technology, before FB, really promised a collective community to provide various perspectives and how that could be really helpful. Now, I am fairly convinced that it is bring out the bottom feeder of human nature.

I try to read an essay of Kierkegaard once a week. It is heavy stuff. As it turns out, today Soren had some thoughts very applicable to this Social Media Age and how Christians should act and respond. It was his discourse on 1 Peter 3 and love covering a multitude of sins rather than uncovering them. 

'Pagan love was beautiful, more beautiful than anything, but revenge was sweet, sweeter than anything...the power of Christian love is not great because of spectacular achievement but is great in its quiet wondrousness...a heavenly power that starves the multiplicity of sin."  

Starve the taste of sugar for revenge.