slamjet Posted September 13, 2012 Report Share Posted September 13, 2012 Ok, ok, this is a pretty heated political time but for the life of me, is it too much for people to behave? I have facebook friends who post political views from both sides of the spectrum. Not a problem. I may not agree but it's good to read them because I get to know not only what others think about issues, but I also get to know the poster better. It's actually very cool. But I just unfriended one because she just kept on posting "are they dumb?" type stuff. The last one was the final straw, it was a rand about how stupid, dumb, ignorant the opposing party is about fiscal issues. Just full of vitriol. I don't need that. So I unfriended her. We'll see what happens this Sunday in church. But man, now I lost some respect for this person. Is it too much to ask my friends to not subject me to this type of rabid hatred. At the least, it's what I don't want in a friends. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NeuroTypical Posted September 13, 2012 Report Share Posted September 13, 2012 Yep - I actually witnessed my conservative catholic neighbor liking a post my athiest anarchist friend made. (For the record - there is one thing universally bringing everybody together - the coming Hobbit movie.) Everything else we fight about. Facebook politicking = Slactivism. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beefche Posted September 13, 2012 Report Share Posted September 13, 2012 Amen to the Hobbit world peace movie. I have one friend who is so one sided that he actually defriends ANYONE (including relatives) who support the opposing party. In any way. If they like an opposing viewpoint posted, he defriends them. It amuses me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iggy Posted September 13, 2012 Report Share Posted September 13, 2012 I get the emails as well as the posts on FB. I really do not like or respect one of the candidates, Hubby & Heavenly Father know my real feelings - no one else ever will! BUT there are a couple of ladies from Church who I now have to sit down and ask them to please not send me any more emails regarding this particular person. Like you Slamjet- I don't want the vitriol, rabid hatred In. My. Face. from emails. Hubby reads aloud to me about political goings on in the US - and I get the gut wrenching, terrified feeling that we are soon to be over run with Satan's minions and will be annihilated - painfully - in the next decade or less. I am not fearful of death, I am terrified of pain! I have asked Hubby to not read it aloud to me anymore. I want to be ignorant of it. I Do Not Like this horrible, sick, feeling of total despair that I get. {sigh ~ time to listen to & get lost in: Bach, Beethoven and Ella Fitzgerald! ~ sigh} Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
applepansy Posted September 13, 2012 Report Share Posted September 13, 2012 Iggy, listen to Come, Come Ye Saints! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted September 13, 2012 Report Share Posted September 13, 2012 Facebook? What's that? Yeah, one of the reasons I don't go in it is because I don't want to experience the disappointment when some relative or acquaintance that I thought was oh, so cool, posts things that are just plain dumb. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Backroads Posted September 13, 2012 Report Share Posted September 13, 2012 (edited) I have stopped posting political things on Facebook. I didn't think I was posting anything cruel--just "yay my views" sorts of things, but after reading a post my friend wrote on the subject, I decided it would be best to just avoid respawning material. Oh, I will still happily "like" stuff, but that's about it.If you are interested in how to get a political discussion really heated...A Template For Every Awful Facebook Discussion You've Ever Witnessed Edited September 13, 2012 by Backroads Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wingnut Posted September 13, 2012 Report Share Posted September 13, 2012 If you are interested in how to get a political discussion really heated...A Template For Every Awful Facebook Discussion You've Ever WitnessedI was tempted to laugh at this, but really, it deserves a thanks more. Thank you for making my life more wonderful today, Backroads! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wingnut Posted September 13, 2012 Report Share Posted September 13, 2012 The only correction I'd make is that the first post should start with "I never post political stuff on Facebook, but I just wanted to share this, and that's all I'll say about it." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Backroads Posted September 13, 2012 Report Share Posted September 13, 2012 The only correction I'd make is that the first post should start with "I never post political stuff on Facebook, but I just wanted to share this, and that's all I'll say about it."Well, this is a rather generic template. Yours would be a perfect example for the politics-specific variation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wingnut Posted September 13, 2012 Report Share Posted September 13, 2012 Well, this is a rather generic template. Yours would be a perfect example for the politics-specific variation.Yeah...I've just seen countless posts (okay, countless only because I've lost count) in the last week or so that have started exactly like that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Backroads Posted September 13, 2012 Report Share Posted September 13, 2012 Back to slamjet's post... I can't blame you. I only unfriend if I realize I have no emotional connect to a person OR if they repeatedly do actions I can't stand. So far the latter has been two... including a close relative. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Backroads Posted September 13, 2012 Report Share Posted September 13, 2012 Yeah...I've just seen countless posts (okay, countless only because I've lost count) in the last week or so that have started exactly like that.I've seen them, too. I die a little inside each time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wingnut Posted September 13, 2012 Report Share Posted September 13, 2012 If it's family, I just hide their posts from my newsfeed. I did that a few weeks ago after my brother-in-law defended the rape comments. That was the last straw for me with him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Backroads Posted September 13, 2012 Report Share Posted September 13, 2012 My close relative was verbally attacking other family members. Never me, but I still didn't appreciate it. I rarely see her anyway, so I unfriended her. I suppose if it were just political or whatever, I would just hide the newsfeed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MorningStar Posted September 13, 2012 Report Share Posted September 13, 2012 I find the whole thing amusing. Anyone really bothersome I can just hide until after the election rather than unfriend them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slamjet Posted September 13, 2012 Author Report Share Posted September 13, 2012 I find the whole thing amusing. Anyone really bothersome I can just hide until after the election rather than unfriend them.First, I didn't know you could do that. And even if I did know, I would have still unfriended them. They have very few pictures, very few "friendly" stuff and the only posts that they have ever posted are political. It just that as of late, they've been more and more vitriolic. No thank you.But I guess if I'm to not be unfriended, I'd better stop talking about hatting/killing/dead cats Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iggy Posted September 13, 2012 Report Share Posted September 13, 2012 Iggy, listen to Come, Come Ye Saints!Apple, the true classics calm me more than Hymns do. They are what my father played on the radio when he went to sleep. He came home from work at 6 AM, helped Mom get all of us kids up out of bed and off to school, then he went to bed. When I got home from school, I would sit in my bedroom, adjacent to his and listen to the classical music. Mozart, Beethoven, Vivaldi, etc. ~ it was soothing, restful. Out of seven children my oldest brother and I share this love of this genre with our Dad. I also love Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong and the Big Band Era. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
applepansy Posted September 13, 2012 Report Share Posted September 13, 2012 Apple, the true classics calm me more than Hymns do. They are what my father played on the radio when he went to sleep. He came home from work at 6 AM, helped Mom get all of us kids up out of bed and off to school, then he went to bed. When I got home from school, I would sit in my bedroom, adjacent to his and listen to the classical music. Mozart, Beethoven, Vivaldi, etc. ~ it was soothing, restful. Out of seven children my oldest brother and I share this love of this genre with our Dad. I also love Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong and the Big Band Era.The "All is Well" is what I was referring to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skippy740 Posted September 13, 2012 Report Share Posted September 13, 2012 There's really an ART to having political discussions - on facebook or anywhere else.Just earlier today, one of the most left-wing people I know of started a thread: Insurance ForumMost other posters just attacked the OP. I decided that I was calm enough to go ahead and address each individual point in his post. (I'm DHK on that forum.)I do a few things differently than others seem to do:1) I don't attack the OP through name-calling, etc.2) I don't use abstract news articles, but identify situations that are easily understood. In this post, I referenced real business scenarios that are found on shows like Restaurant Impossible, Hotel Impossible & other similar business make-over shows.3) I show doubt that I could be incorrect. In that thread I used phrases like: "I could be wrong", "____ is important, but ___" and "according to my limited understanding". I don't have all the answers, and I can admit to that. It also shows that I am open to additional and new information about the subject.4) If I don't have anything good to say, or didn't have a complete thought, I simply stated "interesting opinion".While these ideas aren't spelled out in "How to Win Friends and Influence People", I'd like to hope that I am doing just that.As such, the final post of that thread, he said this:That was an excellent response. I really enjoyed reading it. It was nice to see some intelligent and civil discourse on the board for a change. Yes, we have different visions and I'm sorry you feel sorry for me, because I don't feel any pain or animosity from or toward you. I think we can agree to disagree and see where history takes us. I'm coming up on the back side of my 60s so I probably will have less of it than you! I've seen a lot of change... mostly from your vision to more of mine. I'm not sure that will continue.Thank you again for an excellent, well thought out, and well written response. It made my morning. It's nice to get compliments from people who agree with you. It's even NICER to get compliments from those who fundamentally disagree, but can respect your position - because you respect them.Read the thread. I hope you'll like it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vort Posted September 13, 2012 Report Share Posted September 13, 2012 When "agree to disagree" really means "I have no cogent response to the arguments you have presented, so instead of opening my mind and considering the possibility that I am wrong, I will instead trot out a tired and almost meaningless phrase, thus continuing my belief that you have shot full of holes without having to confront my cognitive dissonance" -- which, let's face it, is almost always what "agree to disagree" means -- I have little patience for those who resort to it. It's fundamentally dishonest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wingnut Posted September 13, 2012 Report Share Posted September 13, 2012 When "agree to disagree" really means "I have no cogent response to the arguments you have presented, so instead of opening my mind and considering the possibility that I am wrong, I will instead trot out a tired and almost meaningless phrase, thus continuing my belief that you have shot full of holes without having to confront my cognitive dissonance" -- which, let's face it, is almost always what "agree to disagree" means -- I have little patience for those who resort to it. It's fundamentally dishonest.Why don't you tell us how you really feel? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mtnbikemom Posted September 13, 2012 Report Share Posted September 13, 2012 When "agree to disagree" really means "I have no cogent response to the arguments you have presented, so instead of opening my mind and considering the possibility that I am wrong, I will instead trot out a tired and almost meaningless phrase, thus continuing my belief that you have shot full of holes without having to confront my cognitive dissonance" -- which, let's face it, is almost always what "agree to disagree" means -- I have little patience for those who resort to it. It's fundamentally dishonest.We'll have to agree to disagree on this one Vort. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slamjet Posted September 13, 2012 Author Report Share Posted September 13, 2012 When "agree to disagree" really means "I have no cogent response to the arguments you have presented, so instead of opening my mind and considering the possibility that I am wrong, I will instead trot out a tired and almost meaningless phrase, thus continuing my belief that you have shot full of holes without having to confront my cognitive dissonance" -- which, let's face it, is almost always what "agree to disagree" means -- I have little patience for those who resort to it. It's fundamentally dishonest.So all discussion is about changing the mind of the other person and if the mind cannot be changed then it was a meaningless discussion? I don't buy that. To agree to disagree is to say "I now understand your point of view, I don't agree with it, but I respect that you don't agree with my point of view. But it was a good discussion because I believe we both learned something about the issue or each other." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wingnut Posted September 13, 2012 Report Share Posted September 13, 2012 To agree to disagree is to say "I now understand your point of view, I don't agree with it, but I respect that you don't agree with my point of view. But it was a good discussion because I believe we both learned something about the issue or each other."Sometimes it's also, "I now understand your point of view, I don't agree with it, but I respect that you don't agree with my point of view. Because I value our friendship more than I value being right, let's end our conversation civilly." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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