If you’re active online, then you’ve likely encountered so-called keyboard warriors. You have read unsolicited comments on almost every article you’ve ever decided to pause for, and seen how narrow-minded total strangers are. It can be disheartening, if not a little annoying. A woman in North Carolina has decided to address the problem by calling out ignorant commenters with an online PSA.
Liz Pardue went on her TikTok to address what she refers to as ignorant people saying different versions of the same comment:
Well, I’ve lived here my whole life, and I’ve never met somebody who [fill in the blank].
The North Carolina influencer feels this trending sentiment is very problematic and claims that it’s simply untrue. Regardless of the topic, Liz states that being unaware is not the same as being completely unacquainted. In other words, she guarantees the commenter does, in fact, know someone with the given issue. Others just haven’t entrusted them with the information.
She puts it bluntly when she says, “Yes, you do. You do know somebody who has been whatever it is you say you’ve never met. They just don’t feel safe to tell you.”
North Carolina TikToker Breaks Down Ignorant Bias
While some may think Liz is arriving at her conclusion based on an assumption, her statement brings up valid points. Most people we meet don’t divulge their life story. As trust builds, we often learn more about another person’s background, including past conflicts or traumas.
The well-known quote that warns us not to judge a book by its cover? That’s the same premise this North Carolina TikToker bases her words on. We simply have no way of knowing we’ve never met anyone else who has been through the issue at hand. Apart from ourselves, we have limited knowledge of anybody else.
Liz tells her viewers that others tend to confide in her often. She feels those who challenge the validity or frequency of any problem amongst their own friends and acquaintances are telling on themselves. She calls those people “unsafe” spaces, and insists that the issues she broaches in any given TikTok are issues she runs into among the southern population on a routine basis. Lastly, she believes that a nonjudgmental, open-minded person would not question diverse or complex circumstances as fallacies or lies.
Most viewers seemed to agree, applauding Liz for giving an accurate assessment. One person even referred to the root cause of ignorance as “hasty generalization.”
While it boils down to a matter of opinion, you don’t have to specifically be in a North Carolina TikTok thread to know that narrow-mindedness is an issue that runs rampant in the online world.
