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When Facebook Reveals that Your High School Friends Have Lost their Minds
Facebook is mostly a way for me to stay in touch with people with whom I wouldn’t make the effort, otherwise. I don’t filter by political or social criteria. (How would I sort my high school friends?) So I just see whatever they’re eager to show everyone. Today, I saw a post that revealed the twisted inner workings of the progressive mind–and it sure put this high school acquaintance in a new mental category:
It’s just amazing to mention Fox News and the Koch Brothers in this context. I won’t respond unless I can think of a really witty way to do so. But I had to tell people about it, and so I share it with you.
This is someone in his fifties. God help us all.
Published in General
I don’t know if this will make you feel any better, but…
You’re one of many people who complain about all the old people they keep in touch with on facebook, and how all their old high school buddies have turned into goofy liberals. But remember: these are just people whose parents bought a house in the same district as your mom and dad. No matter that your yearbook says that you will be “friends forever”, you may have just outgrown these people. There’s a reason you haven’t been in contact with them until facebook came along, and that’s because you really don’t have that much in common with them after all. Relax. This unease is just a strange side effect of social media.
Second, you have to think of these people as having joined a different religion, and realize that what politics means to them is in a different category now, one that is not accessible to reason. This was driven home to me when I read the big expose on the Koch brothers that was done by Rolling Stone a couple years ago. I suggest you read that with what I would call an anthropological eye. Ask yourself, “why are terms like ‘clean’ ‘dirty’ ‘filthy’ ‘polluted’ used over and over?” It’s because they are looking at the world through the eyes of a caveman, where they can never be sure if their water is clean, and they can never be sure if the strangers from the other tribe are going to give them cooties and kill them. So the Koch Brothers and Faux News are just filling the roles of the demons and witches in a Neopagan religion. Your friends have just changed churches.
I last saw most high school classmates over 20 years ago when we graduated. I kept in touch with 1 of them, my only real friend in the class. The rest I happily never saw again. Now through the magic of facebook they have contacted me again, and reminded me why I was never friends with them in the first place. While not unfriending them, I did de-list them so I don’t have to read their idiotic blather. No openness to reason, no change in their groupthink, but oddly they complained at my own political posts while considering their own to be “news” and thus fine. Meh. I can go another 20 years without interracting with them.
Jason,
I agree.
These are not friends, they are “friends.” So I don’t care so much personally, but see it as an opportunity to share old memories. Or in this case, to learn this person I knew many years ago belongs to a different world.
Skipsul,
That’s my general reaction and behavior too.
But don’t we have a responsibility to push back? Do we just let them rant on? Or can we push back not to convince them but to reinforce those who are clear thinkers?
I tried pushing back, but got tired of the idiotic responses. I say “Obamacare is a disaster” and they respond with “why don’t you want the poor to have health care.” That right there shows they are not interested in debating an issue, only preaching. They go on a toot about global warming, but will not even touch the nuances of actual policy. They rant on abortion rights, but will not condone even reasonable restrictions, nor read counter arguments from those who have run clinics and performed actual abortions. They decry gun violence, but will not credit actual statistics, etc. If they would engage it would be one thing, but that they simply scream “SHUT UP” at me, while continuing to send me risible links from The Nation, means that, at least through FB, pushback is useless.
They are interested in rallying the faithful and burning the heretics. As Jason said, it is a religion for them.
1.) You can block linked content from goofy leftwing meme generators.
2.) Don’t post political stuff on facebook.
do those 2 things and generally within a week or 2 facebook will be a tolerable place to exist.
I have concluded that the common democrat is as narrowminded malicious and hateful as the old school Klansman, but this is mitigated by a case of fat/lazy/chickensh**.
Engagement is pointless.
The old school Klansman was a Democrat. Nothing has changed.
Seawriter
“Remember when America exterminated evil instead of tolerating it?”
Evil like Saddam Hussein?
What? They don’t think Obama is proactive enough against Iran?
Interesting that he doesn’t object to all corporate donors just the one and he doesn’t object to all the networks just that one. 99% control is not enough he wants 100% control , the very definition of totalitarian.
For my part I was gratified to find out that almost all of the high school people I reconnected with are conservatives. Even with that being the case we were very circumspect about it, we would have to converse for a while before we picked up each others signals. It’s very worrying that we feel the need to do this while the left is perfectly confident of their right to scream at you or say you should be exterminated. It makes me realize the extent to which they are winning. We are like Christians hiding in the catacombs and sending each other secret signals.
This just reveals how stupid this HS acquaintance (which is how I refer to 90% of my facebook ‘friends’) is.
Got original thought? Ending Fox News and Koch brothers will solve horrific worldwide problems? Riiiiiight.
What this person is doing is bonding psychologically with his peers, flashing a gang sign to his tribe. They like dumb people in their movement.
Unless my ‘friend’ otherwise posts interesting things, I either ‘hide’ posts or unfriend. It’s fun to ‘unfriend’, I have to say.
Comment of the week.
I went to an all male prep school. There were 34 in the class. Between 22 and 25 of us get together about every other year. We have one liberal. He gets less so every event. We treat him sort of like our crazy brother. His redeeming feature is he has a good sense of humor. We graduated 52 years ago.
Do I get a prize?
Seawriter
Drop this bad boy on to his timeline…
Your experience reminds me of the first time I saw my favorite uncle completely drunk.
It’s everyone on Facebook. I was unfriended this week by an old shipmate because of a picture about looting he thought was racist. Sorry George, I couldn’t find one of Chinese looters.
I think it’s more a case of not wanting to mess up the reconnection immediately, or it would be for me.
Of course, I like the idea of having lines I can drop into a conversation and have it go past all but a few people.
I’ve never met a single person who said “Facebook is great!”
Why is anyone on this thing?
Amen!
Very good advice. Your two suggestions have done a good job bringing down the level of craziness.
It is not so much that I want to engage, but to let the others on my timeline know that there is someone else out there who sees this as outrageous as I believe they do. Like Rightfromthestart, many of my high school friends are conservative as a a good number of college friends. I want to offer encouragement, but that often violates rule number two above.
What are love are the “open-minded” “liberals” on Facebook who really let their hair down when they assume they are surrounded by their allies. They write stuff like “unless you’re 110% on board with this, unfriend me now…” Such breathtaking tolerance and willingness to engage in a debate. I feel like a bit of a spy with my “friends” who post this junk. I reserve my politics for people who know me well–but these “friends” let it all hang out. A fascinating glimpse into the “progressive” mindset.
I’ve learned to ignore the “meme of the week,” the latest one being the ascendancy of ISIS is “Bush’s fault.” Crude propoganda completely unmoored from the facts. And before that, a daily auto-da-fe to burn every heretic in Indiana who didn’t get with the program fast enough. I don’t know if they even read half of it before mindlessly posting whatever links they get from The Nation, MSNBC, or Move On. I do check to see if the more unhinged stuff is actually from The Onion. Sadly, most of it is not.
:) Just the admiration of your fellow Ricos. No small thing, really.
I’m fine with Facebook. I’m in touch with a few of my HS classmates: one is fairly radical, but most of his posts are about his musician son. Ironically, he’s radical enough that we have common ground (e.g., free speech and anti-cronyism). And one of the others is a Roman Catholic priest. Most of the rest are personal or business acquaintances who are still friends.
My timeline shows both the good and the bad of Facebook. I got a chance to meet for lunch with a former colleague. Thanks to FB, we were up-to-date on what the other was doing, family, etc. I was much less like a reunion, and more like an extension of our friendship.
On the other hand, the husband of a long-time friend is in sales, but struggles in his career. Sometimes I wonder if it’s because he seems to post every political meme he likes — he’s a fellow RWNJ — and jokes about his customers. Would you hire someone like that to represent your firm…even if you agree with what he’s posting?
At least in my field, that would be a stumbling block. My firm is engaged because of our expertise, discernment, and discretion. As @guruforhire noted, what has worked for me is to avoid being particularly political and hide the annoying.
I originally opened my FB account because my ‘tween granddaughter and her young friends were posting on it. She is older now and rarely posts. I still keep the account as a security measure. If I have it, no one else can co-opt it.
There is one HS friend that has posted some pretty Progressive things. I guess college got to him and he never recovered.
My best friend’s wife posts some pretty liberal tings on her FB page. She thinks Hillary is a great woman. Oh well…
Respond with this.
I had a real problem during the 2012 campaigns. My dilemma then became that I wanted to share relevant conservative news stories with like-minded FB friends, but I didn’t want my liberal friends to have to deal with my political postings any more than I wanted to deal with theirs. I solved the problem by creating a separate group that consisted of my conservative friends and would share things with only that group. (I also have a “family only” group to share obnoxiously large collections of family photos or anything very personal. People I haven’t seen in twenty years don’t care about that stuff.)
Since then it’s been much better. Liberals who post too much offensive stuff get ‘unfollowed,’ and I try to be somewhat circumspect about what I share. I also try really hard to keep Facebook for its intended purpose: keeping up with family and friends out of state, and light social interaction. It’s not really a forum well-suited to intelligent discussion of the issues, but it’s a Godsend in keeping close with my out-of-state family.
My high school friends are mostly conservative-leaning. It’s extended family and local acquaintances who tend to be the most liberal on my timeline.
I haven’t re-connected with very many of my old high school acquaintances. I really only keep in touch with one of them, and even that’s limited to seeing each other at the old home town festival once a year.
However, because I can often see what “friends of friends” post, I have been able to peek in on the postings of those I haven’t officially “friended.”
And I have been surprised to discover how many of them turned out quite conservative. Was it our traditional small-town, blue-collar upbringing? I haven’t noticed any of them going off into lefty la-la land. Perhaps that’s happening among the ones I can’t peek in on, but it feels like everyone turned out okay.
My face book page is public and political. I post everything I can that is negative about progressives, obama, obamacare, and now hillery. Plus I’m linked with several bloggers whose post come up on my page. People who share nonsense, I hide their posts but not unfriend them. Some actually read my post and at least 2 are beginning to move to the left. I’ve unfollowed several radical groups who advocate mayhem.
However, this morning I received a private p.m. from the son of a dear friend I lost track of some 45 years ago. She had searched for me as well. I now have her address, and will spend the rest of the day, writing her a long, long letter. They live in Zurich, Switzerland. This is the young family whose father died after an auto accident on the Hollywood Fwy in 1967. The mother was the friend whom I have recorded several times on Ricochet of intense ESP experiences.
Excellent description of the value of Facebook. It is that light interaction that I value.
I grew up in Seattle, a town that in the 80’s was pretty liberal, but still fairly rational. As I’ve moved away, I still connect with high school acquaintances over Facebook. Most of the those who also moved elsewhere are still capable of a conversation. Those still there have apparently simply gone insane, along with the rest of the city. The other day when the Shell Oil rig arrived in Puget Sound, one of them posted a picture of it with the caption “Republicans at Work.” He didn’t mean it as a compliment. The jaw-dropping depth of irrationality evinced by those three words in his context simply leaves me speechless. How does one engage that, even if inclined to do so?
The problem with not engaging is that there appear to a vast number of people also suffering from the same mental disorder, another symptom of which keeps them from recognizing the hypocrisy of protesting oil exploration while riding in a plastic kayak. And they vote. It isn’t enough to laugh at them, because they’re really not that funny anymore.