Arguments Against Hashtag Prayers
Hashtag Prayers
The death tolls for gun violence is rising and the only thing standing between us and yet another violent mass killing is #thoughtsandprayers. From the 2017 Las Vegas shooting at a concert venue with fifty-eight people killed, to Sandy Hook with twenty seven children and teachers killed, including the gunman’s own mother, these mass shooting sprees seem to pop up indiscriminately. As this is being written, amendments had to be made last minute to include the latest loss of life coming once more out of Texas, after a man open fire on a church just after Sunday school. So far the newest death toll is twenty six, and all over the internet the cries for “thoughts and prayers” is clogging every Twitter and Facebook newsfeed.
For every post of “thoughts and prayers” you have a dozen people racing to alert the “clearly clueless” but more likely compassion fatigued poster that their thoughts and prayers are worthless. Their prayers are useless because prayers aren’t going to stop radical Muslims. Their thoughts are useless because thoughts …show more content…
Shortly after the attack there was talk of making them harder to obtain, but as the days have gone by and one mass shooting has already replaced another, progress on bump stock legislation has stalled. "This bipartisan legislation will block the availability of these and other dangerous devices, and demonstrates a serious bipartisan commitment to keeping our communities safe," Fitzpatrick said, but the NRA claims the bill is overly broad and can mean regulated add-ons that many gun owners use. So we’re back to hashtag prayers, and politicizing on social media, as we try to digest the new horror of a man opening fire on a church, killing families and Sunday school children. In the absence of real change, we must keep our hashtags fired up and ready to go, for it is not a matter of if, but when we’ll be using them
The death tolls for gun violence is rising and the only thing standing between us and yet another violent mass killing is #thoughtsandprayers. From the 2017 Las Vegas shooting at a concert venue with fifty-eight people killed, to Sandy Hook with twenty seven children and teachers killed, including the gunman’s own mother, these mass shooting sprees seem to pop up indiscriminately. As this is being written, amendments had to be made last minute to include the latest loss of life coming once more out of Texas, after a man open fire on a church just after Sunday school. So far the newest death toll is twenty six, and all over the internet the cries for “thoughts and prayers” is clogging every Twitter and Facebook newsfeed.
For every post of “thoughts and prayers” you have a dozen people racing to alert the “clearly clueless” but more likely compassion fatigued poster that their thoughts and prayers are worthless. Their prayers are useless because prayers aren’t going to stop radical Muslims. Their thoughts are useless because thoughts …show more content…
Shortly after the attack there was talk of making them harder to obtain, but as the days have gone by and one mass shooting has already replaced another, progress on bump stock legislation has stalled. "This bipartisan legislation will block the availability of these and other dangerous devices, and demonstrates a serious bipartisan commitment to keeping our communities safe," Fitzpatrick said, but the NRA claims the bill is overly broad and can mean regulated add-ons that many gun owners use. So we’re back to hashtag prayers, and politicizing on social media, as we try to digest the new horror of a man opening fire on a church, killing families and Sunday school children. In the absence of real change, we must keep our hashtags fired up and ready to go, for it is not a matter of if, but when we’ll be using them