Two things are very evident to me today:
1. Politics--especially the presidential election--brings out the worst in most people.
2. Facebook is beating me down.
Now combine Facebook with politics (in this case, the 2012 presidential election) and you have a perfect storm of BS. And the BS storm of Facebook is beating me down. Well, Facebook itself isn't beating me down. The people on it are. It seems that I can't log on these days without seeing at least 100 negative political posts in my news feed at any given time. Ok, I exaggerate. But it's A LOT. And by 'negative' I mean the posts that involve name-calling and finger-pointing. You know, general third grade behavior.
Now don't get me wrong, I'm not speaking to all Facebook users who post entries that are political in nature. In all fairness, some posts are genuine attempts at providing facts about the candidates, their policies, etc. and are what I consider to be fairly innocuous (as innocuous as a political statement can be). Some people are even willing to concede that their candidate of choice may not have all the right and/or best answers. These folks don't seem to be out to attack any one person or group of people. They are passionate about their beliefs. But they are passionate and respectful at the same time. And I respect that. And I have no problem with these people. In other words, there is some intelligent, thought-provoking political commentary out there.
But finding those little nuggets of sanity is like trying to mine for social media gold.
Most of what I see is what my very good friend calls "political vitriol". Anyone with a Facebook account knows exactly what I'm talking about. There's nothing redeeming about these posts. They're full of negativity, nastiness and in some cases, downright hatred. I think more so than promoting their political philosophies, these hateful people are just trying to appear intelligent and satisfy their overweening egos. And politics is just as good an excuse as any to spew their arrogance and hatred. They bait their Facebook status "hooks" just daring someone with an opposing opinion to bite. And when someone is foolish enough to take the bait, a back-and-forth Facebook duel begins. Sometimes words are spoken with such venom and anger you can feel it. Why all the anger? Each person tries to outwit the other with his/her vast political knowledge but really most of the time they just end up looking like jerks because they've resorted to name calling, cursing and other childish behaviors. Makes me tired just thinking about it.
While I'm on the subject, what I've never understood is why people even throw out political opinions in general on a social media outlet like Facebook--as if anyone cares what they think. Most people out there are probably already rooted in their political beliefs, right? So what any one person has to say contrary to those beliefs isn't going to change the other person's mind--especially on a forum like Facebook. So what's the point? Just for the sake of the argument? I think part of it is that it's easy to go toe-to-toe with someone when you're essentially arguing with a screen instead of a person. And if you've picked an argument with someone you don't know, the veil of anonymity allows for safe arrow slinging. And what's actually comical to me is that people are SO convinced that their candidate is the better man and the other is evil. They are adamant that their candidate is brilliant and the other an imbecile. They swear that their candidate's ideas and policies are the answers to the country's problems and the other's are merely fodder. Do they not realize what they are saying about their golden boy are the exact same things that "the other side" is saying about their golden boy? Makes for a pretty flimsy argument if you ask me. But I digress. Such is the typical mess that goes along with an election year. This part--the "my-party-is-better-than-your-party" attitude--never changes and I can accept that. I can also accept that more often than not, it's going to show up on Facebook. But the outright nastiness and hatred I've been seeing for the last several months, I can do without.
So to all you Negative Nellies, Naysayers and No-Wayers out there: stop using Facebook as your political soapbox--especially if you're going to act like my 11 year old nephew when you do it! But now that I think about it, to make that comparison degrades my nephew. He's not mean or hateful, just merely a child. So people, try having MATURE and INTELLIGENT debates and discussions with your adversaries during a phone conversation or (gasp) face-to-face. Verbally duke it out via text message if that's your thing. Just leave those of us who do not go to Facebook to get our political information out of it! Thank you!
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