Member Mumble #3: Berfin Kaya

One of my main occupations in life is looking for controversial articles and corresponding comments. Luckily, I encounter a lot of heated discussions in the Facebook comment sections. You’re probably wondering why the fuck I would purposely search for those heated discussions. Well, it has become a habit, a hobby, an interest, some kind of anti-boredom therapy. I’ve been looking for these discussions for the last three years with an exponential increase, and in the last three years my faith in humanity got destroyed quite often as well. Some comments are so disheartening and often, excuse my French, plain stupid. I often end up angry instead of amused.
“Read books by people you disagree with.” (Facebook comments are obviously not books, but you get the idea.) Even as I looked up this quote by Brandon Stanton, I ended up reading an article called “The Problem with Humans of New York”. Again, both the article and comments were very hateful towards something so guiltless. Why would you want to live a life resenting other people who have done nothing to you or others in any way? I ask this question all the time. However, opinions might differ and people might find some kind of issue with it. It’s just that I can’t see it.
I’m a massive advocate for freedom of speech and press, so to say I hate people who express their opinions just because I disagree with them, would be out of character and hypocritical. I just wish that people would more often think before they talk (or write for that matter), that people would genuinely listen. Moreover, that people would feel more empathy for each other. I just wish that people would use Google more often to gain information on subjects, instead of using their family and friends. Don’t get me wrong. These are all useful sources, but it would be nice if arguments would be backed up with legitimate research. Lastly, I wish that people would perhaps consider one’s own ideas being at fault, before bashing each other. If someone has a totally different ideology than I, that’s fine. It doesn’t mean that this person has absolutely no chance of having something worthwhile to say. Of course I don’t always agree with someone whose opinion differs from mine, but yes, I can learn and I have learned from criticism on my own ideology. This doesn’t mean I drift away from my ideology when I hear some criticism I agree with, it just means that I try to improve it. And then, I’ll improve it in my own circles; the rest of the world comes thereafter. World domination. Just kidding.
Or not.
Oh Lord, this Member Mumble is at this point a mix between a stereotypical Miss Universe contestant’s speech and some psychopath’s revelation of a master plan (a psychopathic Miss Universe?), which is not a problem, obviously, but not really what I intended to.

Written by Berfin Kaya