Let’s be honest — you didn’t read it, did you? You saw the headline, felt a flicker of outrage, and bam! you went straight to the comments to bless the internet with your “wisdom.”
Congratulations. You’ve just fulfilled the internet’s design brief: react fast, feel righteously loud, and never let context get in the way of a good performance. You didn’t engage. You didn’t reflect. You didn’t even scroll past the first sentence. But you did make sure everyone knew how clever and morally superior you are. Bravo.
The Art of the Knee-Jerk Reaction
We live in an age of headlines engineered to poke feelings, not minds. They’re bait, and you’re the fish. You don’t just bite, you leap out of the water, type a 300-word takedown, and then swim off certain you’ve won the debate.
Meanwhile, the people who actually read the article are left wondering whether you realise how ridiculous you sound. You’ve mistaken the headline for the argument, the teaser for the truth. It’s like reviewing a book after reading the back cover copy.
Look, It’s Not About the Topic (It’s About You)
Here’s the uncomfortable truth: your knee-jerk comment isn’t about the subject. It’s about you. You’re not entering a conversation; you’re performing. You’re the main character in a one-act play called “My Opinion Matters.” When someone points out you didn’t read the article, the reply is inevitable: “I don’t need to, I already know.” Of course you do. You’re omniscient. The rest of us mere mortals need context; you have feelings.
The Price of Pretending to Know
The irony is delicious: you try so hard to look informed that you end up looking foolish. Not the charming kind of fool. You're the self-centred type that assumes their hot take is more valuable than the author’s time, effort, or actual words. Reacting to a title doesn’t make you bold. It makes you lazy. It makes you predictable.
This is not an argument against disagreeing. Disagreement is valuable. But disagreement should be informed. Want to be persuasive? Read first. Then speak.
Take a breath. Read the piece. Then, if you still disagree, by all means comment. I’ll read it, maybe even reply. You’re, of course, free to comment on this post but to prove to everyone that you did indeed read it, include the word narcissism in your comment. Think of it as a secret handshake for people who actually paid attention.
Or don’t. As the tagline says: agree or disagree... I dont care. Just don’t embarrass yourself by proving you never read the article in the first place.
