How to ruin your life, as demonstrated by Kathy Griffin
1- Firmly take a position held by some and rejected by others.
2- Surround yourself with people who agree with your position.
3- Only read news reports and websites that share your view.
4- In private and with your friends mock and belittle those who disagree with you.
5- Tell yourself that those who disagree with you are not just wrong, but evil, bad, stupid, and less than human.
6- Take your views public, assuming that everyone agrees with you.
7- Blame others for the backlash when it comes.
It is easy to say that Kathy Griffin deserves all of the consequences from her symbolic beheading of Donald Trump, to shake our heads and wag our fingers and say she should have known better. The truth is that we are a lot like her. Almost all of us follow the first 5 steps on the list. The difference is that we do not have as big of a platform on which to display our ignorance and arrogance.
If there is a lesson to learn it is that we should question ourselves more and attack others less, and that we should strive to treat everyone with respect, especially those with whom we disagree.
- Bart