As the election season really starts to ramp up, push back on Facebook is already starting to kick into high gear.
You may not have noticed, but the country is pretty widely divided on a number of issues. Depending on your point of view either Fox News or MSNBC are electronic devil machines waiting to pollute the minds of any of the people who choose to select their stations. Wars on Women, Race Wars, Fat versus Skinny, Cola Wars, Fast Food Wars, its enough to make a person’s head spin.
If you use Facebook, at some point you may say something that is “Political” to someone else. It’s at that moment that you will be blasted by that brave poster with something akin to “How dare you violate my Facebook viewing with your politics. Climb back into the slime pit you just crawled out of you monster.”
Hmmm. It seems to me that there are a couple of things that possibly could be going on here. Let’s examine what we do know.
First, you own a computer and you are signed up to Facebook. Second, you have an opinion. Third, the person who just pasted you to the back wall does not agree with your opinion. (There is a slight possibility that they don’t actually like politics but I would not invest any money on that losing bet.)
What they really don’t like is YOUR politics.
So why would they try to shut down your discussion and your concerns? Some thoughts:
They realize the bozo they backed in the last election has no idea how to govern and they have no real defence to offer for their wasted vote
They still feel like their guy was less evil than the previous person or future guy from your party. Admitting anything less would be admitting that their own incredibly biased opinion is even more wrong now than when they pulled the lever for the loser they backed.
Rather than arm themselves with facts, it is easier to just say things like “Shut Up” or “No politics allowed”. The first requires reasonable thought. The second requires little or no thought which fits well with their personal profile.
So what do you do if you like to use very possible means at your fingertips to try to restore America to a land of the free and the home of the Braves, Yankees, Steelers, Pirates and so on???
You help them. Since they haven’t figured out that Facebook has many tools to shield them from other people who have different opinions from them, you can remind them about how to block people. If they were accidentally on your Friends list, you can unfriend them. If you just saw them on a drive by hit, you can really show them what’s up by blocking them permanently and forever more. It’s not that hard, even for Obama voters.
Sometimes you will be blocked from posting on a Facebook special interest site. Sad. Not too worry though because within a short time, someone who like the stuff you said will start a new group and invite everybody that thinks like them to the new group. Within the next eight months, I predict that Facebook will actually be two separate camps anyway. Why should they be exempt from one of the most divisive periods in recent American history?
