2017 is showing us just how distracted and divided people can become: how intense a media frenzy can become, and how far the radius of discordance can radiate out from it.

Recently, something happened that some might argue no one should pay any mind to at all: people started smashing their Keurig brand coffee machines, and these tweets went absolutely viral.

Look what I found #BoycottKeurig #Keurig pic.twitter.com/P2BVRoxOjb

— Reverend Bob Levy (@TheRevBobLevy) November 12, 2017

Liberals are offended by this video of a Keurig being thrown off of a building.

Please retweet to offend a Liberal.#BoycottKeurigpic.twitter.com/0qbHlmyqcA

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) November 12, 2017

I pulled an “Office Space” with my Keurig… Would be a shame if everyone else joined me in the Keurig Smash Challenge #BoycottKeurig #IStandWithHannity #SundayMorning pic.twitter.com/yEADeRC006

— Angelo John Gage (@AngeloJohnGage) November 12, 2017

Deplorables back @seanhannity ? @Keurig is junk anyway pic.twitter.com/aHOT06pcm8

— Proud American (@montgomerychamp) November 12, 2017

Fans of Fox News are smashing their Keurig brand coffee machines because Keurig dropped their sponsorship of Sean Hannity, for Sean defending Roy Moore, an accused sexual predator.

According to the Anti Media:

“A lunatic by the name of Roy Moore is running for the U.S. Senate (surprise!) in Alabama — and he’s a lunatic even by 2017’s political standards. He literally thinks Sharia Law is taking over America and has already been implemented in Indiana and Illinois (it hasn’t). He more or less hates Muslims and their religion. He thinks the U.S. government should be run by Christianity. He thinks being gay “is an inherent evil against which children must be protected.” He was suspended from being a judge in Alabama because he’s a prehistoric dickhead who refused to allow gay people to get married. According to Slate, he has even argued that “the government should seize the children of gay people and send their parents to prison.” Wow he really, really cares about conservative family values!

He also thinks grown men engaging in intimate relationships with 14-year-old girls is perfectly fine — and he should know — he’s being accused of doing it. Another woman is expected to come forward Monday claiming he sexually assaulted her when she was a minor. Just to reiterate, former Judge Roy Moore thinks gayness is “an inherent evil against which children must be protected,” and he thinks 30-something-year-old men having sexual contact with children is… not an inherent evil against which children must be protected?

UPDATE: The woman expected to come forward today has given a press conference alleging Roy Moore groped her when she was 16 years old and she thought he was going to rape her.

Right now, you may be asking yourself, “how does this have anything to do with Keurig coffee machines?” Don’t worry, I’m getting to that.

As if Roy Moore’s dickheadedness and hypocrisy weren’t bad enough, the reaction from people coming to his defense is arguably even more despicable. Alabama state auditor Jim Ziegler invoked the bible to defend his colleague Roy Moore’s contact with children. “Take Joseph and Mary. Mary was a teenager and Joseph was an adult carpenter,” Ziegler explained. “They became parents of Jesus.”

Jerry Moore, Roy’s brother, has gone as far as comparing his brother’s recent trials and tribulations in the media to the persecution of Jesus Christ. Yes, that Jesus Christ.”

On one hand, people should be aware of the culture that would defend someone as ridiculous as Roy Moore. That’s true: but there is so much nonsense to wade through, so much noise, and so many bigger enemies facing humanity that no one knows anything about, this type of thing sounds like a distraction to me. People need to aim higher.

People do need to consider that these tweets got thousands and thousands of retweets: that’s surprising. A lot of people are really falling for the great divide.

But people as a whole have a problem with paying attention to what matters, over what is momentarily interesting. If you look at the views articles get when they are about war crimes, drone strikes in Yemen, ect. you will notice almost no one views them. If you look at how many views celebrity related articles get, you’ll see a critical problem with humanity.

It’s like a chicken or the egg paradox: which came first, people’s innate inability to prioritize what is important, or was that inability to pay attention engineered into people? Is it nature or nurture? Unfortunately it’s a mix of both: people are both naturally unadept at sifting through the ocean of disinformation, and being engineered to be.

But as James Corbett pointed out recently, is all of this frenzy not an indication that the powers that be are in fact scared of our opposition? Isn’t it also a sign that they need us distracted and confused?