Liberals, Intolerance and Facebook
Until the recent mandate from HHS came down against religious liberty, I steadfastly avoided posting about politics on Facebook.
Sounds like I was wise. Andrew Malcolm at Investors Business Daily writes:
In a new study, the Pew Center for the Internet and American Life Project confirmed what most intelligent Americans had long sensed. That is, whenever they are challenged or confronted on the hollow falsity of their orthodoxy -- such as, say, uniting diverse Americans -- liberals tend to respond defensively with anger, even trying to shut off or silence critics.
The new research found that instead of engaging in civil discourse or debate, fully 16% of liberals admitted to blocking, unfriending or overtly hiding someone on a social networking site because that person expressed views they disagreed with. That's double the percentage of conservatives and more than twice the percentage of political moderates who behaved like that.
He has more data on the blocking habits of liberals before concluding his story:
Bottomline, this study is obviously racist.
God bless you, Andrew Malcolm.
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Re: Liberals, Intolerance and Facebook
Here's a question for all of you Ricochet readers, I'm only 26 years old, and have been deeply interested in our political system since the '08 election, has our political environment always been this divisive?
I am a bit biased, I am a conservative, and so I see it more from the left than from the right, but man, these days I notice "politics" in just about everything, which is kind of depressing. I think there's a quote that goes something like this: "to a Marxist everything is political." I don't want to think that way.
And Mollie brings up a good point: when did being of a different political persuasion become grounds for de-friending someone, online or in real life?
Oct '10
Re: Liberals, Intolerance and Facebook
This goes well with the latest episode of Klavan on the Culture. The typical liberal argument in response to opposing viewpoints is: shut up.
Dec '11
Re: Liberals, Intolerance and Facebook
I hide the political stuff my left of center friends put on facebook. For the most part its just childish, poisonous and malicious. The left has no communication other than trolling right now. I dont feed the trolls.
I joined ricochet because I got sick and tired of being trolled.
Edited on March 13, 2012 at 2:58pmJun '10
Re: Liberals, Intolerance and Facebook
It's hard to win debating points with emotion alone. That's why the left doesn't like to debate. Passion is fine, but it's better if there's some logic or facts behind it.
Apr '11
Re: Liberals, Intolerance and Facebook
A lot of what my progressive friends and family post can be frustratingly wrong, but I still take time to read them. The last bevy of posts is hard, I'll admit, as topic has turned towards hearty progressive support towards abortion and that industry.
Re: Liberals, Intolerance and Facebook
It almost reminds me of the militantly anti-religiuos French Revolution. Christianity was outlawed, people were prosecuted (by the state) for their non-enlightened Christian beliefs. They destroyed cathedrals, they took down the Christian imagery in the churches and replaced it with busts of philosophers, and changed the name of the cathedrals to "cathedrals of reason." Now does that sound familiar to our situation?
Jun '11
Re: Liberals, Intolerance and Facebook
Austin Arnold: Here's a question for all of you Ricochet readers, I'm only 26 years old, and have been deeply interested in our political system since the '08 election, has our political environment always been this divisive?
I am a bit biased, I am a conservative, and so I see it more from the left than from the right, but man, these days I notice "politics" in just about everything, which is kind of depressing. I think there's a quote that goes something like this: "to a Marxist everything is political." I don't want to think that way.
Austin, your comment would have made for a good blogpost in its own right.
As for whether the political climate has always been like this, it seems to me the thermostat started getting dialed up at right around the time Rush Limbaugh and Fox News appeared on the scene (in other words, around the same time as the Left's monopoly on "the news" began to erode).
But Leftist suppression of the other side's views has a very long and distinguished pedigree. See, for example, my man Jonah.
May '10
Re: Liberals, Intolerance and Facebook
Yeah. I countered the union propaganda and anti Walker screeds of a facebook friend who was a Wisconsin firefighter and was soon banished for not bowing to the Pravda of the unions.
May '11
Re: Liberals, Intolerance and Facebook
I have blocked friends on Facebook from any political persuasion, including family members. Much of it is amateurish and unstimulating and definitely not worth my name. I keep a strict "no politics" on my FB posts and comments have kept to it. (I admit that the words "Paul Krugman is a hack" may have appeared once or twice in draft form -- but I never posted.)
Can't remember where I first heard the maxim, "Once learns to hate his friends on Facebook and make friends with strangers on Twitter," but politics on FB comes to mind every time I think of it.
Mar '12
Re: Liberals, Intolerance and Facebook
I quit facebook a long time ago, but my husband learned some bitter lessons about who your friends are and who they aren't over this last contraception mandate debate, simply for asking why health insurance covered contraception at all.
Having gone to a famously lefty college, we have to choose between keeping our college friends (and we're young, so that's most of our friends) and being able to speak openly about our worldview. It's all well and good to say we shouldn't have to make this choice, but that doesn't make the decision any easier. It's depressing, because I don't WANT to drop my friends because they are liberals. But apparently, simply being conservative is disrespectful to them, or so they tell me.
Dec '11
Re: Liberals, Intolerance and Facebook
Madcap: I quit facebook a long time ago, but my husband learned some bitter lessons about who your friends are and who they aren't over this last contraception mandate debate, simply for asking why health insurance covered contraception at all.
Having gone to a famously lefty college, we have to choose between keeping our college friends (and we're young, so that's most of our friends) and being able to speak openly about our worldview. It's all well and good to say we shouldn't have to make this choice, but that doesn't make the decision any easier. It's depressing, because I don't WANT to drop my friends because they are liberals. But apparently, simply being conservative is disrespectful to them, or so they tell me. · 3 minutes ago
I'm sorry to hear that.
Mar '11
Re: Liberals, Intolerance and Facebook
It didn't seem to be at the time, Austin, though I was in the process of evolving from an empty-headed liberal to an empty-headed conservative with a cup of coffee as an empty-headed libertarian. Reagan took more than his share of abuse. He was somehow simultaneously stupid and satanic, but the more outrageous of his opponents beclowned themselves.
Through all that, I don't believe I lost any friends. In fact, more than a few of my friends seemed to take a similar journey.
Somewhere halfway through the W administration, things got a lot darker. Tolerance for alternative viewpoints dropped off to the vanishing point.
I don't often post on Facebook, but I did put up one at the beginning of the Obamacare Birth Control mandate in support of the Catholic Church, and you would have thought I was announcing my support for the Nuremberg Laws or something, at least with some "friends."
Jun '11
Re: Liberals, Intolerance and Facebook
I don't do Facebook (please hold the "Neanderthal" comments). But my best friend in the world is a recently retired union business manager. Our wives are also very close. We do many, many things together as couples. One thing we don't ever do is talk politics. We realize that we will not see eye to eye on many topics, so we simply avoid them.
The problem is that the Left's intrusion into so many aspects of our lives is beginning to severely restrict the range of non-controversial subjects.
Re: Liberals, Intolerance and Facebook
I decided that because my Facebook feed is so homogeneously liberal, but I know that many of my friends are indeed closet right-of-center folks, that I'd go out on a limb and be a sole dissenting voice. Someone's got to do it. The bad behavior and insulting stuff that is on display from the leftists on facebook deserves to be countered. If no one does it, then liberals will think that everyone out there agrees with them, and the conservatives —due to of a combination of tact and cowardice— will come to believe that they are all alone in their beliefs.
Aug '11
Re: Liberals, Intolerance and Facebook
Diane, I'm beginning to come to the same conclusion. It may be the passage of Breitbart that has propelled me to this end as well. I should stop being a coward. I should speak up.
What do I fear? That my Facebook friends will unfriend me? Okay, fine. I kind of hate the internet anyway.
Aug '11
Re: Liberals, Intolerance and Facebook
Colin B Lane:
The problem is that the Left's intrusion into so many aspects of our lives is beginning to severely restrict the range of non-controversial subjects.
You're on to something here. This is worth a post of its own.
May '10
Re: Liberals, Intolerance and Facebook
DrewInWisconsin
Colin B Lane:
The problem is that the Left's intrusion into so many aspects of our lives is beginning to severely restrict the range of non-controversial subjects.
You're on to something here. This is worth a post of its own. · 14 minutes ago
Yes, yes, yes. It's a natural side-effect of the collectivist impulse that dissent must be suppressed.
These grand social projects are like galley ships in that just a few rowers pulling out of rhythm foul up the whole system.
Sep '11
Re: Liberals, Intolerance and Facebook
My wife recently shared a post of a friend of hers on Facebook--a link to a list of ways the Obama administration has shown with its actions what it thinks of Christianity.
My lefty brother-in-law went completely, totally, nuts. Not just "how dare you?" nuts--but accusing my wife of being a birther, of thinking Obama a Muslim, of thinking Obama a Satan-worshipper--he went on and on and on. He then demanded she get a grip on reality, and try to find help on understanding what Christianity really meant.
(This to a woman who graduated Magna cum Laude from one of the most academically-challenging theological seminaries in the world--who does her daily devotions in the original Hebrew and Greek.)
I was ready to drive to Washington (yes--he and my sister live inside the Beltway) and punch him in the nose. Mrs. M. pointed out that Facebook allows you to delete comments--which she thought would be better for all concerned.
Feb '11
Re: Liberals, Intolerance and Facebook
DrewInWisconsin
Colin B Lane:
The problem is that the Left's intrusion into so many aspects of our lives is beginning to severely restrict the range of non-controversial subjects.
You're on to something here. This is worth a post of its own. · 26 minutes ago
I definitely agree. I believe that Jonah Goldberg, among others, have made the point that this is uniquely about the left. The belief that government should have a role in improving anything that is not perfect is essentially a belief that everything is the business of everybody. As believers in limited government, the very idea that politics should intrude into everyday affairs is, essentially, alien to us.
In "Canadian Bacon" (yes, Michael Moore's flick), the president was told that most Americans polled believed that his being alive or dead had no real bearing on their daily lives. Gol-dang-it, that's how it should be!
May '10
Re: Liberals, Intolerance and Facebook
Yep, my friend of 45 years hides my FB posts because she doesn't want her leftism challenged by fact.