It must be an exhausting life to wake up every morning, scroll through social media and decide what your object of hate should be for the day. Your next step is to then fire posts targeted at the usual “enemies”.
A few years ago, someone on X used to ask a pertinent question: “What are we angry about today?” He knew that we now live in a world that seems to be on the edge every hour. It is a society mired in anxiety, pessimism and insecurity. The glue – the consensus – that holds communities together has been broken. In the emerging void, anything goes – vulgarity, slander, gaslighting.
Let’s talk about some of the haters by category; they fall into groups such as political agitators, sports pundits, xenophobes and ethnic chauvinists. I have no kitty to defend myself in a court of law, so I cannot mention my litigious Zimbo compatriots.
The political agitator
Some cap-wearing fellow executed a perfect heist and took over a party called Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC), which had been formed by someone else who saw what was coming and called it quits. But there is no honour among thieves. The self-proclaimed secretary general is now in battle with his comrade-in-arms, a certain professor-cum-farmer. Some clever hyenas that were part of the plot have kept in the shadows, waiting to see how matters unfold before showing their true hand.
You would have expected daily outpourings of outrage at this betrayal of the “democratic project”. But no – the focus is on the victim of this cash-in-transit robbery. The vitriol against the wronged party instead of the perpetrator is mind-boggling.
One fellow – a dude with an ego the size of the “giant” National Sports Stadium – has argued that the focus on the one forced out is because he won two million votes in the 2023 general elections. The former CCC leader, goes the argument, is duty-bound to take on the Vene regime head-on given that mandate. From the safety of foreign lands, Big Ego and his allies, go further and DEMAND that the ousted leader align with some aggrieved folks who belong to a faction of the ruling party.
To be clear, our inconsistent and taciturn comrades have every right to discuss any politician’s limitations. It just seems strange to reserve a special kind of bile against a victim of a ruthless and unethical political system whilst turning the gaze away from the real betrayers of erstwhile CCC voters. Two power-hungry beings are at the helm of the discredited outfit, and they have fashioned it to be the perfect vehicle to access cars, cash and land.
Last question: why does the professor-farmer get a free pass in the media and on social media?
The sports pundit
Let’s leave our teapot-shaped country now and speak of haters elsewhere. Jamie Carragher is a former Liverpool player. Although he only ever scored five goals in the 737 games he played for the Reds, he is considered one of their greats. Like many of his colleagues, Carragher has transitioned into football punditry. The white English privilege that this numbskull parades week-in, week-out, can only be tolerated by his equally daft broadcast executives. This is a fellow who had the audacity to belittle the Africa Cup of Nations and still poured fuel into the fire when challenged on his assertion. A real brick head, if you ask me.
Across the Atlantic Ocean is ESPN’s sports anchor, Stephen A. Smith. Smith never played professional basketball in his life, but that is fine – we all cannot be as talented as one LeBron James. The only problem is that Smith loves Michael Jordan so much that he must belittle every milestone that LeBron reaches. Facts are sacred. Opinion is free. However, when a so-called journalist becomes so obsessively personal and disparaging, it is pathetic. I no longer watch ESPN’s First Take – it won’t affect their profits, but I believe basketball deserves better analysts.
The chauvinist and the xenophobe
The last type of hater is the one who pretends not to understand the causes of the problems in their society. They will flash any convenient card – race, gender, ethnicity, nationality… A South African hospital without medication? It is makwerekwere who have eaten up all the aspirin. Traffic lights not working? Again, our neighbours from the north of Limpopo have stolen the cables.
There are several X accounts which deliberately place a Zimbabwean at every crime committed in South Africa. Facts do not matter. Just whip the emotions, sit back and enjoy the flood of comments. Incitement. Hatred. What is the value of the life of an undocumented migrant?
In Zimbabwe itself, we have failed dismally to deal with ethnic chauvinism. One manifestation of this is in the argument that the people of Matabeleland have no grounds to demand truth and justice on the Gukurahundi genocide because of the Ndebele-Shona hostilities of the 19th century. Vociferously on X, the pure blood supremacists declare that actions attributed to King Mzilikazi justify the killing of civilians in an independent Zimbabwe. Gobsmacking balderdash.
The clickbait: when negativity pays
The gallant and hardworking social media provocateurs understand that negativity generates engagement. Narcissistic, and obsessed with being validated, their adrenaline pumps when they post something that stirs the dung. They are our Azealia Banks, who, as one magazine noted as far back as 2014: “she gets more attention for her public feuds than she does for her music.”
What a sad life.
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