They say that if you close your eyes and really try to concentrate, you may begin to see the lines of binary code running this Matrix we’re living in. Because how else would you be able to explain all the absurdities we have to deal with today? In this latest episode of ludicrously bizarre things that can only happen on the internet, an influencer is using school shootings to promote a beauty product.
Yes, you read that correctly. A viral TikTok video is spawning a heated debate for making light, inadvertently or not, of a problem that doesn’t get nearly as enough attention as it deserves.
Just as I couldn’t believe what my ears were hearing the first time I watched this, a lot of people are having trouble taking this seriously. On the one hand, it is utterly absurd, but on the other, this is no joking matter, so this video is doomed either way.
it’s not even funny but my body started laughing?? it’s just so surreal that it feels like satire pic.twitter.com/p07pMnJ4Yt
— Virgo Lunaris ☽ (@positively_thru) May 19, 2023
jesus this is grim
— father figure (preacher teacher) (@zestydaddy) May 19, 2023
To think that we’ve come to a place where even past trauma is capitalism fuel is disturbing.
The future I wanted: universal healthcare, a spacefaring + scientifically literate civilization, progress in the arts
— Madison S. (@MudPuddleMaddie) May 19, 2023
The future I got: everyone has to either work themselves to death or turn their entire personality into a brand. Also rampant illness, fascism + guns guns guns
You could find a lot of dystopic things about our society, but this was just on a whole other level.
Every fucking day I see something that’s the most dystopic but THIS beats it all by MILES
— batmans raging hog (@BatmansHog) May 19, 2023
Barring the obvious implications — and those that aren’t so obvious but we’d rather not think about for the time being — this is also raising another debate about the understated trauma of school shootings and what has been done to help its survivors cope.
In 2023 alone, there have been more than 25 instances of gun violence on school grounds, and every week seems to bring with itself the grim possibility of another tragic incident. Not to get all preachy here, but perhaps we could muster the courage to talk about this more often — and in a serious context that underscores the true gravity of the situation — lest we indirectly enable such insensitive balderdash as the promo above to flourish in an environment where no meaningful debate takes place.