Age of the Geek: The importance of context

    I know I said I was going to review the Democratic primary contenders this week, but the tragic shooting in Charleston has brought up an issue that I strongly feel needs to be addressed.
    Not about race, or gun control, or even flags; but about context and how it gets lost in people's haste to be righteous.
    Such is the case of Kurtis Cook, now a former volunteer firefighter of Mabank, TX.
    On the Facebook page of a South Carolina newspaper's story on the Charleston shooting, Cook wrote, "He needs to be praised for the good deed he has done."
    That sounds pretty terrible, and it didn't take long for Cook's statement to spread across the Internet like wildfire. If you Google "Kurtis Cook Screenshot," you'll find a screenshot of his Facebook post followed immediately by somebody posting Cook's personal information and a caption that says "This man is praising Dylann Roof. Let's call & get him fired!"
    And that's exactly what happened. Within a matter of hours Cook was dismissed from the fire department and the rest of his life got turned upside down.
    I'd say it was just rewards for somebody posting something so terrible during a time of national tragedy, but it's not entirely clear that's what happened.
    In an interview with his local TV station, Cook says that he was responding not to the news of the shooting itself, but to another comment in the thread about somebody donating money to the victims. If true, that puts Cook's statement in an entirely different context. One that people should have looked for before ruining a man's life.
    "He needs to be praised for the good deed he has done," are the exact words Cook posted. Neither the name of the subject nor the deed in question are specified and anybody that has ever spent time on the Internet knows that conversations can be like a puzzle you put together after the fact.
    Unfortunately for Cook, the thread itself has been deleted and it seems nobody bothered to screenshot anything but the supposedly offensive comment.
    So now we're left with two equally plausible scenarios.
    1. A racist firefighter said something horrific during a time of a national tragedy and is now facing the consequences of his actions.
    2. A perfectly nice guy wanted to encourage support of a good deed and has had his whole life destroyed because he wasn't specific enough with his nouns.
    I know nothing about Cook to make me believe in one over the other. Neither do any of the people who have never met the man, but have called for his head based on the assumed context of an eleven word sentence. But that's not stopping them.
    Nor is it stopping the clickbait Internet news sites from posting headlines like "Texas Firefighter Fired For Praising Accused Charleston Shooter Dylann Roof." You'll notice that while "accused shooter" Roof is still presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law, no such courtesy is given to Cook in the court of public opinion. Instead, a potentially out-of-context post is shaped to fit a pre-established narrative and unleashed onto the web for maximum outrage (and web-traffic) potential.
    Thanks to the outrage machine jumping the gun, we'll probably never know what Cook's true intent was. What we do know is that, once again, Internet mobs will stumble over each other to demand justice for their righteous cause, whether or not it's actually necessary.
    There's no shortage of terrible people willing to post horrible things on the Internet, but there are also plenty of people out there with nothing but good will for their fellow man. It shouldn't be too much to ask that people stop for a moment and take the time to figure out which is which.
    Which brings us to the next absurdity. The Confederate flag.
    Now let's make a few things clear here. The Confederate battle flag is a symbol of racism, designed by what would today be considered a white supremacist, and flown in a Civil War that was absolutely about maintaining slavery.
    On the other hand, and this is certainly a terrible week to point this out, but it's not as though there haven't been some truly atrocious acts committed under Old Glory. American history is not all Liberty Bells and cherry trees. When we fly the Stars and Stripes, we have to take the bad with the good, and try to be better in the future than we were in the past.
    I assume that at least some of the people with a fondness for the Confederate flag feel the same way.
    I can understand why some people want to take the flag down because of its negative connotations, but I can also understand why some people would like to leave it up, in spite of those negative connotations. I don't have a strong opinion on the subject either way.
    But Apple apparently does, because they've joined other businesses in pulling everything that might display the Confederate flag from their stores.
    Including a series of Civil War based mobile games.
    Once again, context gets thrown out the window in favor of a mindless, reactionary judgment.
    I understand Alabama Governor Robert Bentley's decision to remove the Confederate flag from capitol grounds. It only took 150 years, but it looks like at least one southern state is finally willing to admit that they lost the Civil War.
    I can even understand why Warner Bros. would decide that future "Dukes of Hazzard" merchandise will no longer feature the flag design on the roof of the General Lee, even though I'd personally give higher priority to staying true to the source material.
    But to remove a game about the Civil War because it displays the Confederate flag is throwing the baby out with the bathwater. It shows that Apple decided to do something without understanding why, and as a result they inadvertently attempted to whitewash away a history that should be remembered and studied, not hidden away and forgotten.
    This obviously didn't happen because Apple thought that denying the existence of the Civil War would somehow improve race relations. It happened because somebody hastily acted without thinking things through.
    Simply targeting the flag was the easy way out. They boiled down a complicated issue to "flag = bad," which let them skip critical thinking and make a blanket judgment without further inspection. And, like every other shortcut to otherwise noble goals, it failed spectacularly.
    (In between writing this and it being ready for print Apple as reinstated some of the removed games, showing that critical thinking can overcome thoughtless reaction, it just takes more time.)
    At the end of the day, a flag is just a flag. It's what you do with it that matters. Important issues cannot be solved with quick fixes and even in matters of race, the world isn't black and white.
    Travis Fischer is a news writer for Mid-America Publishing, but you don't have to be a reporter to make sure things are put in their proper context.