Jessie Robins displayed real courage today when she posted what could have been a slightly controversial opinion on Facebook for three whole seconds before deleting it.
Jessie had been waffling on whether or not to post her thoughts on gun control for days.
“It feels like a risk to speak up when there’s going to be backlash,” Jessie told us. “But it felt good to stand up for what I believe in, even if it was for less than a minute.”
Jessie diligently labored over the post for hours, crafting and refining it to be as nuanced and respectful as possible, without compromising her actual beliefs. Then, much like a brave firefighter willingly entering a burning building, Jessie took a deep breath and hit “Post”.
“I felt really powerful,” she says. “But then I was immediately like, fuck this, I’m not ready to spend the rest of the day fighting online with Libertarians.”
In the end, Jessie’s tweet was visible on Facebook for 3.1 seconds. Incredible!
“I don’t think of myself as a hero,” Jessie says. “But I do think that at least a couple people saw my real, controversial beliefs on the need for gun control in this country, and that at least makes me kind of a hero.”
This isn’t the first time Jessie has posted a controversial opinion. Earlier this month she tweeted her thoughts on the newest season of Stranger Things.
“I got five death threats in two seconds,” she says. “And the crazy thing was, I basically enjoyed the show. Yeah, not wading into that again.”
So what advice does this temporary truth-teller have for others out there who would like to be more candid online?
“I think just challenge yourself to leave your thoughts online for five seconds before the fear overtakes you and you ultimately delete it.”
Jessie took some time to express her admiration for women even braver than her. She spoke in awe about women who are able to leave social media posts up for hours, even days. She told us in a hushed voice she had heard rumors of women who are able to post their sincere beliefs online and leave them up permanently.
“One day I hope to be like them. Until then, I’m going to try to leave a controversial post up for at least one whole minute!”
