The only way to beat those people is to be MORE.
Liberals more likely to unfriend you over politics
- Thread starter { Emilia }
- Start date
I've never unfriended anyone for politics specifically, and have only unfriended three people. The first was a poster here who made creepy comments on my photos, I don't think he posts here anymore. I should have looked at his picture when he sent me a friend request, but I just looked at the mutual friends list and thought, "Okay." The first thing he did when I accepted the request was to go and look at all my FB pictures and start making comments, and it just creeped the hell out of me. The second was an asshole who was just a bully, I think maybe a friend of a poster here. The third was my cousin's husband. They are in a cult (a literal, shave your head, crazy cult) and he specifically is mentally unstable. He went on a rampage on my wall once after I spoke badly about Jenny McCarthy's dangerous antivax message. He started posting crazy, harassing shit on things I'd posted months before, so I had to block him.
I've been unfriended twice as far as I'm aware, and both times surprised me and seemed like major overreactions. One was the mother of a childhood friend. She had posted some meme about honey and herbs curing diabetes. I gave a thoughtful, unaggressive response basically encouraging her to research such things and expressing concern about the dangers of that type of meme, and she freaked. The second time was almost the exact same situation: someone posted a meme with disinformation, I politely corrected it, she freaked and blocked me. After it happened the second time I was worried it was me, but others confirmed that my responses were not confrontational, and that blocking seemed an overreaction.
It seemed to me those were perfect examples of people who want to live in echochambers, and it's a shame. At once, I think it's important to have the ability to unfriend and block people because they can be abusive, but it's sad when people use the tool to just bury their heads in the sand. Though more of my friends are liberal than not, I have friends across the political spectrum, and across the religious spectrum. There have been times I've felt the urge to unfriend someone over something they've posted, but I've refrained because I think it would be a shame to lose their points of view, even if I disagree with them, and there have definitely been times that they've posted comments, ideas, and links that made me reconsider my own opinions.
There is this one lady I'm FB friends with that I get the urge to block at times. She's a Redskins fan. We had a polite and brief debate over the team name, and it was a perfect example of someone rationalizing a belief that contradicts their general views: she tends to be very empathetic and compassionate, but she can't get over herself when it comes to the fucking team name. It's not fun to see racist slurs pop up on your wall, and it's even worse when you know it's someone who should know better.
I've been unfriended twice as far as I'm aware, and both times surprised me and seemed like major overreactions. One was the mother of a childhood friend. She had posted some meme about honey and herbs curing diabetes. I gave a thoughtful, unaggressive response basically encouraging her to research such things and expressing concern about the dangers of that type of meme, and she freaked. The second time was almost the exact same situation: someone posted a meme with disinformation, I politely corrected it, she freaked and blocked me. After it happened the second time I was worried it was me, but others confirmed that my responses were not confrontational, and that blocking seemed an overreaction.
It seemed to me those were perfect examples of people who want to live in echochambers, and it's a shame. At once, I think it's important to have the ability to unfriend and block people because they can be abusive, but it's sad when people use the tool to just bury their heads in the sand. Though more of my friends are liberal than not, I have friends across the political spectrum, and across the religious spectrum. There have been times I've felt the urge to unfriend someone over something they've posted, but I've refrained because I think it would be a shame to lose their points of view, even if I disagree with them, and there have definitely been times that they've posted comments, ideas, and links that made me reconsider my own opinions.
There is this one lady I'm FB friends with that I get the urge to block at times. She's a Redskins fan. We had a polite and brief debate over the team name, and it was a perfect example of someone rationalizing a belief that contradicts their general views: she tends to be very empathetic and compassionate, but she can't get over herself when it comes to the fucking team name. It's not fun to see racist slurs pop up on your wall, and it's even worse when you know it's someone who should know better.
I definitely do not live in an 'echo chamber'. I have friends who are liberals. I don't complain to them about it, and they don't do it to me either. I've tried to be the kind of conservative that isn't hated. I don't always succeed, but I'm trying.
The only thing that turns me off is when kids at a college try to shout someone down.
I remember Noam Chomsky speaking on CSPAN 2 at West Point. No shouting down there of course.
I think the Left wanted Nixon's head so bad (deserved or not) that it actually had a conservatizing effect--it made people hate gov't more--and was actually counterproductive.
For awhile, all folks on the right had was Firing Line, Point/Counterpoint--and then the walls started to form to where we don't talk to each other any more.
That isn't good.
Facebook--which I never 'friended" with at all, is just cyber-flight from the community out large.
Now you don't have real communities any more.
You have cysts.
I won't discuss politics with any friends, or strangers for that matter. You can add religion to that list too.
Facebook is neutered for me in a lot of areas because I don't want to get into arguments or upset people in that medium. I have huge areas of interest I never mention on FB because of specific people. So I mostly just post fandom stuff a few times a month and the rest of the time comment on other people's posts. I have blocked a few people who post incessantly about their particular causes/interests but that's for the frequency not the subject matter.
I'm not saying you're doing it wrong (you're doing it wrong!), but doesn't that kinda defeat the point of Facebook "friends"? Why not unfriend them, I mean?
The "point of Facebook friends" is lighthearted patter and sometimes hearing about new movies and music.
I'm pretty into food but I have friends and close relatives who are vegan and vegetarian and frankly if I posted what I wanted to post it would be to them as though I posted a photo of me eating a roasted baby. So, because I love them, I don't wish to upset them with my roasted baby photos and I just avoid the whole food topic. That is one example. People are complicated.
That's a very sensible thing to do, I get it. Point taken!
And really all social mediums don't have to be all things to people. I notice some want Facebook to be everything, discussions, support group, instant positive feedback.
Reviving this thread with a relevant story.
A friend blocked me on Facebook the other day because she came to me expecting me to agree with her that a particular kind of racist humor was not actually racist. When I wouldn't do so and instead explained that I think such humor comes from a place of ignorance, she got upset at the implication that I was calling her ignorant and blocked me.
Incidentally, this friend is a pretty staunch feminist and I'm sure she wouldn't put up with people making fun of women in such a way, so I found her hypocrisy in this matter pretty blatant.
In this case, I got blocked by a liberal over what would usually be a conservative behavior.
A friend blocked me on Facebook the other day because she came to me expecting me to agree with her that a particular kind of racist humor was not actually racist. When I wouldn't do so and instead explained that I think such humor comes from a place of ignorance, she got upset at the implication that I was calling her ignorant and blocked me.
Incidentally, this friend is a pretty staunch feminist and I'm sure she wouldn't put up with people making fun of women in such a way, so I found her hypocrisy in this matter pretty blatant.
In this case, I got blocked by a liberal over what would usually be a conservative behavior.
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