First of all, let’s all acknowledge the one thing I KNOW on which we can all agree: our nation’s “leaders” are acting more childish as of late than a class of second graders trying to decide who gets to pick first for their P.E. class’s dodgeball tournament.

That is to say…they’re embarrassing us.

For the longest time, I’ve been trying my absolute damnedest to discern who the hell actually cares about any of us, and who’s just in it because they obsess over ego, control, and attention. Because by now, I’m pretty sure we all get it; the vast majority of “public servants” gravitate toward the field merely due to the fact that their fundamental character traits drive them to seek out such things. I mean let’s be real here…if any of these embarrassments to humanity were sincere and honest about their desire to help people, they’d be more focused on actually bringing us together rather than incessantly berating everyone who disagrees with them.

So I thought about that for awhile. I wanted to try and figure out who really is doing this for the right reasons. More than anything, I wanted to find a tangible, observable reason that helps me believe that a person actually means what they say.

At first, I was like “well that’s an enormously stupid idea, considering the fact that the entire game is to make sure everything about you screams sincerity, which ironically is one of the least sincere approaches to all of this since it’s just a facade (which is the antithesis of sincerity), but I digress. Point is, I wanted to try and come up with a way to tell who’s who.

So after making many trips to my mind palace in search of this theoretical metric of not-full-of-shittedness, I finally came upon an idea. An idea, at least to me, that could somewhat accurately make such a distinction.

To make a long story short, I decided that I would dig deep into these folks’ online rhetoric. Because if you read the subtext and actually try to peel back all the layers of human interaction, you’ll find that it’s actually quite easy to discern whether or not someone means the things they say, or if they’re just saying what they think will make them sound more appealing.

Basically what I’m saying is that this helped me gauge whether a person is driven by genuine conviction (which is good), or their own self-aggrandizing ego. The rules are simple: listen to how they speak to and address other human beings.

Really, that’s all there is to it.

You see, at the end of the day, we should want our representatives to embody all that is good in us, right? Which, of course, means that our “leaders” should be spending their time relentlessly trying to find a common ground, rather than berating the other side for fostering beliefs that conflict with their own. That’s the whole point, is it not? Of government, I mean. We didn’t just magically come up with the concept of a single entity to dictate proper behavior out of nowhere, right? Of course we didn’t. So if the masses are expected to honor this contract we created so long ago (and btw I would love to know who originally came up with the idea so I could punch them in the face, but w/e), shouldn’t they be acting the way we elect/tell them to act?

Anyway, back to the point. Basically, I realized that learning who a person really is can be somewhat accomplished by their dialogue with people. And the formula is wonderfully simple: if they speak to people disrespectfully, condescendingly, or in an otherwise smug fashion, they’re more than likely the bad type I aforementioned. Because a smart, sincere person would realize that no benefit, at all, comes out of treating people like crap. Literally the only thing it accomplishes is the satisfaction of one’s ego.

So let’s look at some examples, shall we? Here are some honest-to-god, objective opinions I’ve formulated based solely on their social media habits (sorry, but if we aren’t able to know them personally, that’s pretty much all we got in terms of material we can use to position our perspectives of them).

Let’s start with Trump, because duh.

Look at that first sentence. The “incompetent mayor”. Now ask yourself…was it really necessary to belittle him in such a way? How, exactly, does that type of statement serve to unify people? A point, by the way, we need to all grasp:

Leadership, by definition, is about bringing people together – not separating them apart.

And that’s exactly what that pointless jab in the ribs does. It splits people apart, because now, anyone who might support the mayor is now being alienated by a completely useless insult.

Let’s move on.

Oh yeah. You knew she was coming, I know. So let’s apply the same logic here.

“Try to keep up.”

Um…okay? Let’s give her the benefit of the doubt. Let’s say her main point was a solid one. Now tell me, what good does it do to add that little wrenching fingernail at the end? Don’t answer that, because I’ll tell you: none. The answer is none. No good at all comes from such an obnoxious, inflammatory remark. And this girl’s feed is loaded with these types of examples. To be totally honest, she’s kind of an asshole if you look at things objectively (which you should always do).

For the sake of brevity, I’ll just do one more. And believe me, this is one of those “practice what you preach” moments, because I personally get annoyed af by this chick. But, as I said, we must remain objective if we are to be fair.

I thumbed through her Twitter pretty hard, and to be totally honest, the overwhelming majority of her posts were catered toward actual policy and her own convictions. So as much as I’m sure plenty of people will disagree, my unbiased opinion is that she really does want to do the right things. Sure, we might disagree with her as to what those things are, but imo she isn’t as married to her ego as the other two dunces I mentioned are.

So that’s basically it. I know this will likely seem stupid to many of you, but I really do think that you can learn a lot about someone based off their online interactions. You just have to make yourself aware of the message behind the message and see who actually respects humankind.

Above all, please put an effort into using your best judgment. Don’t just listen to what you’re told to believe.