Sometimes looking at the updated feed from my Facebook page is so cringe inducing that I can barely stand it. Occupy Boston was a large 'offender' today - since they were holding up traffic and making people late for their football games and date nights, and God forbid some of the people on my friends list can't get their drinks immediately following the end of their work day. I really only have two or three highly offensive friends - people whose politics and world views are so far afield from my own that I have trouble remembering why or how I ever liked them in the first place. The worst offender, by far, is my older brother's childhood best friend, who, previous to Facebook, I was not aware was a right-wing, "anti-PC" (meaning totally pro-any ism you can think of) windbag. I only follow him so I can see pictures of his adorable children, although even that makes me think: "oh crap, those kids are going to be haters, later." I even have a cousin who is on Facebook, and I am friends with his wife, but... I know that if I ever want to be able to speak to him in person again, it's better for both of us that we're not FB friends.
Those two or three fanatically off the deep end friends though, they have friends, and usually, those people's comments are even worse, and I have to just deep breathe and press the little x. Spraying the Occupy Boston crowd with bullets was suggested, as was that they all get jobs and stop wasting tax payers' money, and my favorite was the suggestion that it was "just an excuse so that the rapists and pedophiles can hang out and rape people and kids." Yeah: I don't understand how I live in this country, and that there are people who think that protesters, who have specific (and, in my opinion legitimate) complaints about the way our country is run are the same as pedophiles or rapists. Or that we should just line them up and execute them as a way of "thinning out the herd".
Seriously?
Do not comprehend.
Let's take a pretty realistic example: I do not (as previously discussed) find much/any value in the Tea Party movement. I think it's run by corporations looking to avoid paying taxes or acting as responsible members of our society, and that most of the people (not all, but the majority) are not just ill intentioned, but ill informed. That's my opinion, and I have a right to it. When they were here protesting, which they've done numerous times, I have rolled my eyes at their comments, signs or behavior; laughed out loud, sometimes at the complete ignorance when it comes to the issues; and done my best to ignore their existence. That's what you do - you complain on Facebook about the inconvenience of the rallies, or the lack of spell-check on the signs, or their unapologetic hypocrisy or display of privilege ("there's no such thing as racism anymore," I remember hearing that come out of some (obv. white) Tea Partier on the news a while back). It's ridiculous, literally: worthy of ridicule, and so I feel free to ridicule away.
But I've never said - or thought, even - let's "mow them down, while they're all in one spot". Or that, for sure, the Tea Party was just a cover for NAMBLA. It's just not something that occurs to me, to be honest - the reality of the situation is bad enough, so why think of ways it could be worse. I get being opposed to what a group of people are doing, and saying so, vociferously, wherever possible. But when I see all of the vitriol directed at the protesters that many consider too liberal, I wonder a couple of things -
A) When did so many of my friends become friends with douchebags?
B) Isn't it amazing that other people are so against a group that has done nothing besides say "Hey: we think this is broken?" They have done nothing - which is part of the reason I am not 100% behind the movement, I feel like there needs to be some actions involved - and yet they are mistreated by the police, falsely portrayed by the press, largely forgotten by the public, and that's just accepted
and, sadly
C) Remember how naive I used to be about our society, and how we were all working toward a common goal? That we had unalienable rights (not saying that being an asshat on Facebook is a violation of those rights, just that it reminds me of all the violations that nobody else seems to care about)? That people weren't just mean for the sake of being mean? Yeah... let's be 9 again, shall we? I think I need a refresher course.
Anyways, that long rant about Facebook and cretins, and of course the solution is very simple. And topical, as it turns out, because today just happens to be National Unfriend Day, which I swear I didn't even know until I just heard this song on another blog (Synergy!) So it's time to clear out some of the unwanted friend clutter, if you've got some. Scumbag former acquaintances, who will never even notice that I'm not your friend anymore? Adios.
Lovely readers of my unusually curse-heavy today blog? Please to enjoy this song, in honor of National Unfriend Day
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