Yes, our long national slapmare has now entered its third week and it shows no sign of breaking. Viral phenomena usually subside pretty quickly but Will Smith’s front-hand to Chris Rock at the Oscars has proven to have legs. To show how deep the mania runs, last week I saw an electoral map breaking down which states support Smith versus Rock based on Twitter data. Surprisingly, Arizona rejected Old Testament justice in favor of Rock, though there are rumors of ballot irregularities in Maricopa County.

Elsewhere, The Slap has been held up as evidence of greater divisions in our society. Over at The Atlantic, Jemele Hill sees a fault line running through black America and white America, with blacks more inclined to support Smith and whites throwing in with Rock. Other pundits have bemoaned the death of tolerance, with Howard Stern drawing a line from Will Smith to Donald Trump. The Slap is said to be an expression of honor culture, cancel culture, manhood, toxic masculinity; it’s even, according to one essay so meta it probably tore a hole in the space-time continuum, the end of hot takes as we know it.

And, of course, there was the Washington Post columnist who declared that Will Smith had slapped all African Americans.

Such is internet culture, where every clearing of a throat must be blown up into a greater point that reinforces our confirmation biases. My own opinion on The Slap is that I don’t have an opinion. That isn’t to say I don’t have opinions; I just don’t think Smith’s annoyance with Rock means a civil war is about to break out or we’ve entered the last stage of historical materialism.