Shall We Make Decency Cool Again?

hey there everybody it’s David H
Lawrence the seventeenth I’m getting
ready to go to a voices Anonymous meet
up at the claim-jumper here here in
Burbank I but I had a chance to watch a
TED talk that was really inspiring not
because of the talk itself to talk
itself and I got a link to it below the
video the talk itself was about was by a
reporter who had spent some time with
internet trolls trying to figure out why
they do what they do why did they try to
stir up controversy why what what what
is in it for them what’s their big
payoff in being a troll and he had some
suggestions about what to do about the
idea of trolls and so on at the end and
I found one of them really inspirational
all by itself I think it was the third
tip if you go watch the video you’ll see
it but his was let’s make decency cool
again and it got me thinking you know
it’s like people will often write me and
say I can’t believe how patient you are
with people I can’t believe how nice you
are with people I can’t believe how you
rarely you lose your temper in in forums
and even when people are are making fun
of what you do and how you do it which
isn’t very often but sometimes that
happens and there have been times when
I’ve lost it but it’s not pretty but
most of the time you know one of the
other videos I did on this was about
killing people with kindness you know
it’s really frustrating to people that
are trying to get you all ticked off
when you’re kind to them but this tip
about making decency cool again really
was inspirational to me it was like what
if that became our mode as opposed to
hey I’m allowed to say anything I want
some gonna say what I want and that
further got me thinking that if we
decide that we can do something about
internet trolls and about people who
pick on us online and bully us online
and we simply choose not to be bullied
not to
be picked on not to be trolled by making
decency the cool thing to be like being
decent and you know basically saying
look you do what you want to do but it
doesn’t bother me it means that we are
taking a right that we have the right to
say whatever we want to whomever we want
remembering that there are consequences
for exercising that right right the
First Amendment isn’t about conversation
between us it’s about the government
stopping us from having those
conversations that’s what the First
Amendment is but it made me think about
the idea that sometimes we have a right
and we have a choice as to whether or
not we exercise it so sure we have the
right to call people names we have the
right to say nasty things about them we
have the right to tease them and bully
them and make them feel awful we have
that right and I wonder if making
decency cool again means we have the
right and we know whether or not we need
to use it and we choose not to we choose
not to exercise that provocative nature
that being in a free society gives us
because it’s not nice and yeah there are
people who are going to constantly push
that boundary constantly test those
rules because they can and they want to
make sure they still can and nobody’s
gonna stop them from doing it but what
if decency was the cool thing
what if being nice was the cool thing to
do the awesome thing to do the admired
thing to do as opposed to being a jerk
being dangerously negative being a bully
being someone who doesn’t add to the
public discourse in a way that promotes
positive things but does so just simply
because they can what if that was uncool
I don’t know it got me thinking and I
wanted to share with you and I would
love to continue the conversation with
you so please give me a comment about
this on the
in the comments below I realize that we
have the right to say whatever we want
to whomever we want and face the
consequences of that but what if we just
chose to be decent what if that became a
thing and I want to thank the TED talk
speaker for for inspiring this give me a
comment let me know if you want to know
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when these videos come we’re gonna do
one a day for the rest of the year I’ve
had some people that have unsubscribed
going too many videos I’m getting a
video from you every day what the hell
is this and it’s people that showed up
during the launch during my getting
started in voiceover course last week
and they’re not used to this daily video
thing so I get it I get it but I’m glad
you’re here and I thank you so much for
watching I’m David H Lawrence xvii I
will talk to you tomorrow