#CatPix4Peace!

I know a lot of folks prefer to keep social media for sharing pictures and videos of children, their beloved pets, celebrating birthdays, and posting humorous reviews of airport bathroom facilities…in other words, no politics please. I get it. We’ve all gone through those stretches of scrolling that just make you seethe. Who needs that when you’re looking for a smile or a laugh or something cute like this?

But imagine for the sake of discussion something totally not cute. Picture every orc in every Lord of the Rings movie x1000 appearing over the horizon and that’s about the size (and smell) of the army of malicious trolls and bots descending on social media as the election approaches – spreading lies, stoking grievances, and spewing hate, with the obvious intent of setting Americans at each other’s throats, of transforming our civil society into a big ugly vicious mud fight. Cui bono?

One thing those trolls and bots definitely won’t do is hold back for the sake of decorum.

And one thing we should never do is engage trolls on their own terms. That’s like shooting lasers at Godzilla – it just feeds the beast. If their objective is to “flood the zone” – spreading so much dis-and-misinformation that people give up trying to understand and just go with the (insane) flow – I wonder if we can’t do a little zone flooding of our own.

That’s the idea behind #CatPix4Peace. Rule #1 is that the only appropriate response to a troll is a deluge of cat (or other cute pet) pix. Actually that’s the only rule. Whatever hateful, racist, sexist, misogynist, fascist, inhumane, Republican BS they shovel your way, “alternative facts” they inject, rabble they rouse, pots they stir, the only response should be wave after wave of cute critter pix. Don’t argue with orcs – bury them in Tribbles.

It’s a silly idea, stupid, corny, naive, all of the above probably. But the one thing it has going for it is that it’s easy to do. Worth a try maybe? Why not? Meow? #CatPix4Peace!

OP – 2/12/24