commenting on social trends responsibly

Commenting on social trends is unfortunately a job and it isn’t an empirical one. The job of social commentary used to be limited to opinion columnists, then the bloggers joined them, and after that the social media users and YouTubers followed. What do they all have in common? They generally lack the expertise to have the nuance to speak on most of the topics they crown themselves experts in.1 While it is of course that not everyone falls under this umbrella of incompetent commentators, it is a large enough group to warrant criticism. This competence deficiency needs to change! Personally, I don’t pay much attention to opinion columnists unless an opinion essay covering a political event on the national or global stage written by someone with the credentials to discuss such a topic in a reputable outlet catches my eye which isn’t that often these days. I began digging into opinion columnists, their stylistic choices, and lack of evidence in identifying trends after watching Sex and…