Fake Outrage: Social Media Overreacting to Innocuous Carson Wentz Quotes
This article is borderline straw man territory, but we’re gonna do it anyway because it’s a good example of how crap news and opinion spreads on social media.
Last Friday, you might recall Carson Wentz went on Pat McAfee’s show to talk about his move to Indianapolis. He was much less formal in that setting and dropped some interesting quotes about his time in Philadelphia.
At Philly Voice, Michael Tanenbaum did a writeup of Wentz’s appearance on the show, inserting a handful of quotes into the story. One of the topics covered was Carson moving back to the Midwest, and he basically said he was looking forward to it because Indy is close to where his wife grew up and shares cultural similarities to his home state of North Dakota.
Problem is, people were sharing only half the quote on Twitter, which looked like this:
I hope this dude is booed every single second he is within a 200-mile radius of Philadelphia pic.twitter.com/rIi76ttlrp
— Patrick (@Oh_HelloPatrick) March 22, 2021
Yeah, that’s great, but here’s the full portion of the article that wasn’t being shared:
Here's the full Carson Wentz "family" snippet, for better context, since people only seem to be sharing half of it: pic.twitter.com/MAiNOPg5Xw
— Kevin Kinkead (@Kevin_Kinkead) March 22, 2021
Now that we have the full portion and full context, some thoughts:
- RE: the Midwest and Northeast, Carson says “it’s very different.” Fact check – true! These are two different areas entirely. Different cultural vibes, different pace, different outlook on a lot of things, politics and religion included. Most Philadelphians would experience similar discomforts or an adjustment period if they ever moved somewhere else.
- Carson goes on to say that he loved Philly and loved the area, so I guess he does not hate the Delaware Valley.
- The irony of talking about “cultural” fits is that Nick Foles was an uber-religious Texas kid and Doug Pederson was ‘looking forward’ to visiting Trump’s White House. Typically, we’re talking a lack of congruence in a region where it’s mostly Democratic voters and religion is less prominent, but Eagles fans only seem to care about these things when they are down on a player and want him gone. None of it matters when the Birds are winning.
- God forbid Carson and his wife look forward being closer to her family in Kentucky.
- It doesn’t matter that he lived in rural Salem County, away from the city. A very large portion of athletes who move to this region buy in South Jersey and do not live within the city limits. Most of the ones who live in Philly are single and younger, while athletes with families go to the ‘burbs.
And look, here’s the most important thing –
If any Eagles fan is truly offended by this perceived slight, then shouldn’t we grow up a little bit? Seriously. We need to grow thicker skin. Nothing he said is remotely dismissive or insensitive. It’s just people looking for something to be angry about, when it’s really not that big of a deal.
For one final exercise, I edited the Wentz quote and just reversed the geographic references. Now read this and tell me if any sane person from Indiana would claim fake outrage the same way Eagles fans are:
So yeah, breaking news! – a Midwest kid is looking forward to moving back to the Midwest. You and I would feel the same way if we grew up in Delco and one day moved back home.
Anyway, this is how dumb narratives and trends begin on Twitter. Somebody takes a three-day old article, shares a snippet that lacks full context, and then people snowball it into some big issue that’s not even really an issue.