The other day I responded to someone’s ridiculously outdated
and historically inaccurate meme on Facebook. The meme’s main goal was to bash
organized religion and promote a non-working scientist to heroic status by
blaming the fall of Rome on Christianity. I merely responded that it had less
to do with God than it did the high oil prices and a recall of certain chariot
models at the time. I assumed she would get my joke, but she didn’t, and
instead pointed out that Christianity and a more general belief in “god” has
been the cause of the decline of civilization everywhere it went. I countered,
again joking, that she may have been confusing Christianity with the British
Empire and that they even colonized religion, creating their own version of
Christianity in the name of “God”. At this point, she realized I was a “close-minded,
ignorant, fundamentalist,” with “little to know knowledge of history,” “probably
Republican, homophobic, racist,” and she went on in her rant, so I stopped
counting all of the typical bulletin points that define her two-sided
categories people fall in. I apologized for only having a minor in history and
openly admitted that I only took a few courses in world history and that my
professors, and the books we read that were written by historians, were
obviously incorrect and disproven by the meme she found on the internet. I went
on to include that the fall of one of the largest, most powerful, and probably
successful empires of all time obviously only had one cause for its collapse,
since there is usually only one cause for pretty much everything, like wars.
Then I was also labeled a war monger, which went hand in hand with my worship
of the “christian god.” When I asked how she gained such powerful perception
and insight into me, she responded that she could tell because I capitalized the
word god, and Christianity. Before I was blocked, I merely asked her if she was
aware that, in the context she presented it, God is a proper noun, just like
Christianity, and the basic rules of English grammar demand they be
capitalized, like the first word of a sentence, which she also repeatedly put
in lower case.
I’m not really a grammar Nazi, and I get that some devices
don’t auto capitalize (or that you’re a fan of e e cummings), but your grammar,
spelling, etc. is a measure of your level of education. I’ll ignore typos and
even the fact that you can’t type complete sentences, since grammar and
education may not be your thing. No judgment at all. But do us all a favor,
especially if you’re going to rewrite history, and learn what to capitalize.
Also, making assumptions based on nothing at all makes you look like a complete
ass. The world is a large place with lots of people that don’t fit so neatly
into groups. The only assumptions you should have made about me was that I am a
smart-ass, dislike, or at least don’t take seriously, poorly researched memes
that have been posted way too many times, and have been classically educated in
both history and English. Or maybe I’m wrong?
