Whitlock: NBA Finals and Mark Jones served me a social media red pill

The problem with Northern California’s social media apps is that they reward the inept, the dishonest, the insecure, and the power-hungry. They incentivize values and characteristics that contradict America’s best ideals for success.

There’s no advantage to proper grammar and punctuation. The same can be said for informed opinion or researched information. The apps embolden the illiterate and uninformed. They bait illogic and deceit.

The platforms – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, etc. – are stages which induce performance. Performance is an inauthentic act disguised as an authentic one. The lifeblood of social media is inauthentic acting, which is another way of saying disinformation.

Chew on that for a moment. The apps trying to police disinformation depend on it.

Social media is the matrix, the Wonderland dramatized in "The Matrix" movie series

I started thinking about all of this late last night during the final minutes of the Boston Celtics’ 12-point victory over Golden State in the NBA Finals. Boston guard Marcus Smart drained a baseline three-pointer to give his team a 114-103 lead, provoking ESPN broadcaster Mark Jones to shout: “The Celtics have stormed ahead. This insurrection has them leading by 11.”

I was peacefully watching a basketball game. Why would a sports broadcaster calling the NBA’s most important event inject divisive politics into the broadcast? Why would he in any way take the viewers’ minds away from the players on the court and divert attention to politics?
The only explanation is the social media matrix. Jones cast himself as Neo or Morpheus or Trinity in the latest "Matrix" reboot – "The Matrix Insurrectionists," if you will. In Jones’ version of "The Matrix," he chooses the blue pill and remains in the fantasy world maintained via Twitter.

Like many public figures, content creators, and influencers, Jones prefers the matrix over reality. He’s insecure, phony, dishonest, and power-hungry.

The social media matrix blesses and curses his career.

Without it, Jones would not be filling in for COVID-positive teammate Mike Breen during the NBA Finals. Because of it, ESPN surrendered to the diversity, inclusion, and equity gods and paired Jones with Mark Jackson and Lisa Salters for an allegedly “history-making” all-black broadcast team for Thursday’s Game 1.

The matrix rewards racial politics.

But at what price? The price is the curse.

Jones has had to abandon reality and adopt a racially and politically polarizing persona that betrays his real life. Jones’ Twitter bio reveals the identity dysphoria the social media matrix has wrought on his life.

His avatar is a Black Lives Matter fist. He’s another "love the fruit, hate the tree" BLM supporter. He’s married to a white woman. I don’t point that out as a criticism. It’s an observation about many of the most passionate BLM supporters. They tend to love the black lives that exist outside their home and bedroom as a way of compensating for moving to all-white neighborhoods with their all-white wives.

I’m not criticizing their choice of partners. I’m questioning their authenticity. The people most determined to stamp out “white supremacy” love the fruit of white supremacy (white women) but pretend to hate the tree that produced the fruit. It’s the equivalent of loving the big mac and hating Ronald McDonald. I don’t buy it. Ronald McDonald is a damned good man.

BLM is a Marxist organization and promotes Marxist principles. Marxism is hostile toward religions, particularly Christianity. Jones’ Twitter bio lists a Bible verse, Psalm 110:1: "The Lord says to my lord: 'Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.'"

We can assume Jones is a man of some religious faith. That faith should cause him to reject Black Lives Matter. All lives matter to Christians. The Bible never addresses race or racism. Race should be inconsequential to a Christian.

It appears Jones struggles with idolatry, the root of all sin. He suffers from racial and political idolatry. His dominant Twitter image is a picture of himself with President Barack Obama.

The social media matrix has tortured Jones’ mind to the point of delusion. Two years ago, at the height of the Saint George Floyd celebration, Jones tweeted: “Saturday at my football game I’ll tell the police officer on duty to 'protect' me he can just take the day off ... I’d rather not have the officer shoot me because he feared for his life because of my black skin or other dumb ish. I’m not signing my own death certificate.”

He followed that doozy of a tweet with another one: “Police never saved me.[ ]Never helped me.[ ]Never protected me.[ ]Never taken a bullet for me. (They’ve pulled guns on me)[ ]Never kept me safe in a protest. Never stopped the racist from taking my Black Lives Matter flag off my house. I could do without em. fr. #BreonnaTaylor. #Defund12.”

In previous years, before the death of Saint George Floyd, Jones had tweeted out pictures of himself with white police officers, thanking them for providing him escort to and from games.

Mark Jones is a social media actor-vist. He performs for social media clout. The apps are the enemy of truth and authenticity. Disinformation and division fuel the platforms.

That’s what I was thinking about at the end of Game 1 of the NBA Finals.

I’m clearly weird.