Recently, something’s come up: The stupid question. Quite honestly, I ask it a lot — and have since I first started getting sharp as a journalist. As a daily news reporter, I often would go completely cold into different environments. Events would come up and breaking news would happen. Multiple times in a day. Every day. And I learned to ask the most basic questions that I (as well as my readers) would want to know — but might otherwise be too shy to ask.
The stupid question. I still ask it often. In its most pure, the stupid question sets up a prompt on a batting tee for the subject of the interview to espouse on — all in their words, not mine. These questions establish a baseline for any given subject, leaving no stone unturned, and allowing the subject of the interview to take the floor — all without the taint of someone else’s outlook or opinion on things, not some highfalutin talking head, half-baked crackpot, or even mine.
Recently, someone I know posted to social media on a subject personal to him. Then there I went, teeing up a juicy, stupid, baseline question — one that I was genuinely curious about. But it also sat there like a slow lob, served up and hanging for him to knock over the fence. I was surprised though. He didn’t even swing. Didn’t even answer. Just insisted, instead, that I view the link to some video included in his post — before he would entertain my question.
I shouldn’t be surprised. For years, every now and again someone online has and evidently will continue to take exception to direct questions. And often deferring to some link to some article or video or meme — which not ironically is quite literally and too often written by some journalist, not unlike me. And I’m left somewhat… is stupefied the right word I’m searching for? And with more (stupid) questions. Is this a social media thing? Is this a Millennial thing?
It feels little bits arrogant and passive-aggressive, if you asked and put a gun to my head. God only knows, but I’ve seen it enough from enough people to generally wonder. Irrespective, yes, there seems to be a level of arrogance that never existed prior to the advent of social media (and for that matter, before the advent of Millennials): The demand that we read up on our homework — before our questions will be dignified by an answer.
Maybe. But really, I think most of these people are simply afraid to state their own case. Too timid to dig in their heels on anything and hold an original thought. Mister, madam, buddy, sweetheart — maybe it’s the byline I’ve published under for so long now that has gotten me accustomed to standing by what I write. But if you have something worth saying, stick to your guns, let ‘er rip, and just say it. Let them chips fall where they may, and try without propping it up with someone else’s thought. Try having an actual dialogue. I all but guarantee the world won’t fall down around you. And if you get stuck, be smart. And maybe start with asking the simple, stupid question.
Jason James Barry is an award-winning journalist and essayist. He is the author of “A Season in Madness: Essays on the Year of Isolation, Introspection, and Closed Schools” and “The Midnight Coffee Club: A Memoir of Grit, Glimmers, and the Pull of Police Life”. Follow his work on BuzzardDigital.com and elsewhere in print and online.
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