Friday, July 08, 2011

Politics And Facebook

... don't mix for me. At all.

I've got a couple of friends who like to post political videos and comments on their Facebook pages. One of them posted this little video from Robert Reich.


I didn't watch it at the time, but I tuned in long enough right now to watch about half of it and see that Mr. Reich, like Mr. Greenberg, sees only money. Good for him.

In any case, at the time my friend posted it, I wondered how to reply if I did watch it. You could point out Greece as a warning to us against borrowing, marital status and its correlation with poverty and social pathologies and all manner of other things. I didn't post any of that.

To me, Facebook is a way of keeping in touch with friends. Travel photos, stories of my kids, pictures of the family and hobby updates are why it exists. It's personal, not public. Politics doesn't belong there any more than it works well at a large dinner party. Instead of launching on the guy, I changed the subject and gave him some of my favorite personal finance and economics books, starting with Dave Ramsey's The Total Money Makeover. Most of the time I ignore the political stuff on Facebook, but in this case I wanted to reply with something, and that was the best I could do.

7 comments:

Foxfier said...

Facebook can be a real pain. The same people who will jump down your throat for being inflammatory are the ones that post every factually challenged piece of tripe in the book.

I try not to mix politics in, but I am NOT going to let a relative pass on flat out lies without pointing them to actual facts instead of propaganda sites. (Which generally results in the entire post being taken down, although sometimes they'll take the post down and switch sides.)

K T Cat said...

I can understand your point of view, but I just can't bring myself to do it. These are friends from junior high and they live far away. I don't want to get into a fight over politics and lose them as friends. I guess what bothers me is when they unwittingly jam their views in my face.

It's like they assume that everyone thinks like they do and what they have to share won't be infuriating.

Foxfier said...

Advantage of not having anyone from school that I care about losing-- the one drama-unfriend that has happened, the person already destroyed their life with their views and is just lashing out at anyone who might make them consider that it could have been their own fault. (really funny since the root problem is I'm not as easy to bully as I use to be, and that really messed up their plans)


It's like they assume that everyone thinks like they do and what they have to share won't be infuriating.

And you can be pretty sure that those who don't share their views, no matter the situation, are trouble makers who are ignorant, small minded and need to expand their horizons.

Foxfier said...

It's starting to sound like you might want to sign up for Google+. (or hope that Facebook fixes their friend setup so you can group folks a bit better....)

Heaven knows I'd like to be able to post about military stuff or realistic wild animal interaction without having some ignorant person I have to be polite to show up and be rude and fact-free. Some days you can't say "black" because fans of "white" will start shrieking about how horrible you are. (thank goodness I have blogging so my tongue isn't totally bloody)

K T Cat said...

Coincidentally, I just got a Google + account!

Rose said...

I ended up creating two Facebook accounts, one for family, and I do not post political stuff there (had to delete a family member who did, rather than get into a war :) - and the other is for indulging in posting 'Likes" and videos and news stories, most of the "friends" there are liberal, so they get to see some of the other side, sometimes the discussions are fun.

Mys sister and I have a long "do not discuss: list, but when she started posting her political stuff on her Facebook, we took a few stabs at a discussion, and it quickly made us unhappy. I "hid" her posts, but kept her as a friend, but that didn't work, since any of our other "friends" who commented on her posts sent them into my box - so I had to "unfriend" her - we haven't discussed that yet, either.

I will be glad when 2012 comes, and Obama is removed from office, Bush derangement syndrome is over, and - well, Palin derangement syndrome takes hold. It's never gonna end, is it?

I wish we COULD discuss things, I wish sometimes we were like the stereotypical Italian family that just got it all out there and moved on, but we're polite, and we avoid it, but it doesn't go away, it festers.

Or, I could bury my head in the sand, join the Democratic view, and just "be happy." Like impose my own re-edukashun kamp... but I can't, and won't and so it goes... as my dad says, this is as bad as the Civil War, splitting families...

But I agree, KT - don't mix 'em.

Foxfier said...

It's never gonna end, is it?

Fallen human nature, I guess.

Even families that usually get it all out there and then move on have issues with this-- there's ALWAYS someone who refuses to move on. In my family, they tend to spend all the time telling you how obcessed you are, or how you really agree with them on X but you don't realize it. >.<