Do You Use Facebook or Other Social Media for Political Persuasion?
I purposely constrain myself from commenting on political matters on Facebook. It can make me nuts at times, and I have frequently typed out a deadly riposte only to delete it before submitting. But here's the thing: you only get one chance to offend someone, and I don't want to poison a relationship by offending that person's political sensibilities.
Meanwhile, a dozen Facebook friends spam their snarky Colbert-Stewart-Maher founded opinions with reckless abandon. Jonah Goldberg's latest tome aptly describes their thoughtless confidence, I suppose. I'm not a publicly mousy person; I just try to be judicial in risks to my reputation - particularly from people that assume only Uncle Pennybags could possibly oppose Obamacare unless they are evil or Svengali'd by Karl Rove (<ominous whisper> Rove! </ominous whisper>). "Why do you want poor people to die?!"
Do any of the rest of you wear a political veil online? Who let's it all hang out? Is your impression that the Left is less modest in public than we are?
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Mar '12
Re: Do You Use Facebook or Other Social Media for Political Persuasion?
re #60
Recently a bad situation occurred involving related people. For the sake of amicability and family relations some people DEFRIENDED other people, which led to a new set of difficulties.
What happened was not political in the liberal/conservative sense, but it was political in the family/friends sense. People were divided.
I have been told about this DEFRIENDing thing in the past (noting that I am not a FB user).
I think DEFRIENDing is what is occurring in this country, and has done so from before the beginning of this country as an independent polity. Is it worse than it was when I left the Democrats for the Republicans prior to Reagan's election? I think it is. Reagan could work with Tip O'Neill on several objectives. I don't believe that Obama can work with the Republican house in most instances.
FB is merely another view of the division of people, political or apolitical. We no longer see the same things the same way, if we ever did.
Mar '11
Re: Do You Use Facebook or Other Social Media for Political Persuasion?
I have struggled with this as well. In general, I don't really post that much anyway - I am more of a lurker. I will see a few comments here and there from more distant left-leaning friends and argue with myself about making a comment. What keeps me from doing so is mostly that the problematic comment had been made a week ago and would anyone even care?
I did see a few comments from a dear friend that were so far off the mark that I just had to send her a private message, explaining the other side of her issue. This turned into quite a long series of messages; at the end of which she replied, 'wow, I guess I didn't know as much about this as I thought.' I considered that to be a success and was thankful that this was a way we could grow closer, instead of farther apart. I haven't had the chance to do that again but think that would be the best strategy for me - a private thought-out conversation instead of a trying-to-be-pithy comment that might be taken the wrong way. Relationships are the priority.
Jul '12
Re: Do You Use Facebook or Other Social Media for Political Persuasion?
Every once in a while, I will get worked up and post something on facebook (re: John Roberts), but, too often, I find it just drags me down into a flame war and I don't have the time . So, I avoid it for the above reason and a few others:
-most of my friends know where I stand on the important stuff.
-no one's opinion gets changed on facebook.
-if I do too many political posts, people will just tune me out.
-I don't believe in casting pearls before swine, and some of my friends have worldviews that could be classified as "swine".
As an aside, I view facebook as a place where ever idiot gets a megaphone, myself included. Therefore, I just don't comment on people's posts that I disagree with, I will just block their feed if they say too much stupidity. Some of my liberal friends so rarely encounter a conservative that they have to argue with every thing they disagree with. I'm for not contradicting people's status updates, let them speak their piece and block them. Everyone will be happier. I'm sure some of my friends block me.
May '10
Re: Do You Use Facebook or Other Social Media for Political Persuasion?
I do engage in politics on FB. I only post links to stories that I think, hope, will cause people to think ..... if they bother to read them. And I respond to questions or links that lib friends put up in hopes of laying out an articulate defense even if only for the benefit of other readers. But I do not hold out much hope that minds are ever changed. I imagine that is pretty rare.
Apr '11
Re: Do You Use Facebook or Other Social Media for Political Persuasion?
Not so many comments on Twitter here as about FB. Twitter, as at least one other commenter above points out, seems better suited for carrying the flag for conservative/Libertarian ideas. Use links and sprinkle a decent pinch of humor in. Hashtags are great ways to do the latter.
May '12
Re: Do You Use Facebook or Other Social Media for Political Persuasion?
My biggest frustrations are that my left-wing FB friends seem to enjoy displaying pithy emotional appeals, but don't answer the bell when the argument progresses into uncomfortable (for them) facts.
It may sound arrogant or at least insular, but every day confirms to me the notion that that leftists really don't enjoy arguing with someone with facts at his disposal? Once you penetrate their emotion-ridden cliches, they really don't have much to say. That doesn't stop many of them, even some of my actual friends, from getting pretty angry as the argument progresses.
Hence, I'm trying to avoid actual arguments with my left-wing FB friends. I'll still post the particularly-potent bits of info, but I won't wander down their rabbit hole.
Nov '11
Re: Do You Use Facebook or Other Social Media for Political Persuasion?
From what I have seen, many Ricochet FB users have had a different experience with leftists through social media than I have. Whenever I engage a leftist, they never stop. It is an endless barrage of "facts" and sanctimony until someone has "something pressing" come up and the "debate" stops. That is why I said it is rarely fruitful to post beyond two replies.
Jul '12
Re: Do You Use Facebook or Other Social Media for Political Persuasion?
Most of my FB friends are people I know through my activities in community theatre or the local animal rescue I volunteer for, which means that the overwhelming majority of them are lefties of one sort or another. But they are nice people, and as long as we don't get into politics, I enjoy their company and they enjoy mine. What would be the point of injecting politics into our interactions? I'm not going to convince them to adopt my view, and they're not going to convince me to adopt theirs. So why pick a bunch of fights that are only going to upset people and will accomplish nothing?
Politics has a place in my life, but so do a lot of other things. I'm not interested in trying to politicize every interaction I have with other people. It ticks me off when people spontaneously shove their political views in my face, so I refuse to behave that way myself. If one of my friends is genuinely interested in my political opinions, he or she will ask me. And I'll answer honestly. If they haven't expressed any interest, I don't volunteer my opinions.
Mar '11
Re: Do You Use Facebook or Other Social Media for Political Persuasion?
Well, I only respond in kind. The lefties I know are constantly harping about something, so, as I said earlier, I will call BS when I see it. Sometimes I post conservative articles myself, but most of my friends, I suspect, have filtered me out of their feeds.