Watching a video clip and reaching a conclusion about what is happening in the scene has become a unifying American experience. The more shocking or evocative the video is, the more likely we are to be sure we have reached the only possible conclusion. We share it for validation.

From cute kittens to policing the streets, the various video witness experiences spread like wildfire. The videos go viral because they make us all seem so informed and touched with the emotion that has welled up in response. We can even be moved to take or demand action.

Awwww... Kitties are adorable - I love kitties. Look everyone! We ALL love kitties. I want a kitty cat.

Aaarggh... Police are brutal murderers - I hate police officers. Look everyone! We ALL hate murderous police officers. I want justice. We demand JUSTICE! Arrest the police.

This is a recent development in human experience and interaction. It's highly manipulative. It delivers incomplete information, yet feels adequate for reaction. The collective reaction expands at a crazy rate and any lingering curiosity about the scene is set aside and forgotten.

We can experience warm and fuzzy kitten feelings without actually feeding a cat, buying and changing kitty litter, or paying vet bills. There may be consequences to watching viral kitty videos, but if so, they are personal and unimportant.

However, feelings of terror, outrage, condemnation evoked from watching a video clip of an arrest carry an urgency for action that may have dire consequences if realized without the collective reactors being fully informed of the situation first. We are not qualified to act.

There are people with the authority to act who have access to much more information than seen in a viral video clip. We rely on them to inform us, but do we demand more information? No. We demand action. They can reason with us or use us in our easily manipulated state.

George Floyd's death while in police custody was shown around the world in a viral video. The unseen drug overdose was the cause, but watching the viral video was an exercise in jumping to a conclusion. Other video footage did show his drugged condition, but this was withheld.

After months of deadly dangerous destructive reaction to the viral video which proved useful to a political cause, the more informative, complete footage has been "leaked" which evokes a different emotional reaction and intellectual conclusion: Floyd was already dying from drugs.

This video has not gone viral.

Can we learn something from all of this, or is it too late?