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My Dumb Facebook Friends (vanity)
Thought Crimes ^ | 2-10-15 | Chris Shugart

Posted on 02/25/2015 3:01:20 PM PST by Chris Shugart Uncommon Sense

I always find it distressing when a Facebook friend of mine posts something appallingly stupid. It’s one thing when someone you don’t know does it. A total stranger who you’ll never meet is quickly forgotten. Someone you know isn’t so easy to dismiss.

It’s the same sort of unsettling feeling I get when I try to imagine the sort of people who buy those tacky commemorative plates they advertise in TV Guide. I realize there are people out there who have no sense of taste whatsoever. But I’m perfectly happy to remain in comfortable ignorance, knowing that I’ll probably never have to experience the creepiness of walking into someone’s living room and seeing a Prince William Royal Wedding plate adorning the mantelpiece.

On the other hand, when someone I know makes an attempt to inflate a weak premise by providing a link to some ridiculous article fraught with tortured logic and perverse moral equivalence, I’m no longer dealing with a nameless anybody. Gone is that element of anonymity that makes it easy to jump on faceless idiotic bloggers struggling for coherency. Instead, familiarity instantly inserts reality into the dialogue. And it forces me to acknowledge that everyone doesn’t think like I do.

The complexion of the conversation changes completely once you’re in an online exchange with someone you know. I feel obligated to tolerate my friends on things for which I normally have such a low tolerance otherwise. And much as I try to be polite about it, I’m not always so diplomatic.

I suppose there’s a bottom line to my dilemma. I’ll occasionally follow the advice of the late American philosopher, Rodney King, who asked us, “Can we all get along?” It’s a nice sentiment, but one I don’t always subscribe to. The iconoclast in me prefers to challenge the orthodoxies of others. It’s an effort that hardly ever brings about a good result.

There’s another saying which comes to mind, and it might be the best advice of all. It comes from Linus, from the Peanuts comic strip. “There are three things I have learned never to discuss with people: religion, politics, and the Great Pumpkin.” If I were really smart, I’d probably stick with that.


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: dumb; facebook; friends; liberal
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Does anyone else have this problem? I'd hate to think I'm the only one.
1 posted on 02/25/2015 3:01:20 PM PST by Chris Shugart Uncommon Sense
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To: Chris Shugart Uncommon Sense

I avoid my real life friends and family online.


2 posted on 02/25/2015 3:04:25 PM PST by cripplecreek ("For by wise guidance you can wage your war")
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To: Chris Shugart Uncommon Sense

I don’t do facebook.


3 posted on 02/25/2015 3:07:35 PM PST by LucyT
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To: Chris Shugart Uncommon Sense

Of course you are not alone.

I practically worship freedom, and the right to live as I choose. The Golden Rule is to allow others the same freedom. If acquaintances and friends and family post their own opinions online, how they feel, vote, or think, I respect it and stay away.

If it’s an issue on which they have facts wrong and there is something non threatening that I can maybe steer them to, without putting them down or starting a fight, sometimes I do it and sometimes I don’t.

Some people whom I adore are I believe misguided about politics or the world. They get their info from tainted sources. But if you say this, they will say that you get YOUR info from tainted sources. And then there you are.

Enjoy the people you enjoy for what you enjoy them for. Let them be them.

Your coworkers and acquaintances just leave alone.


4 posted on 02/25/2015 3:08:36 PM PST by Yaelle
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To: Chris Shugart Uncommon Sense

Yes. My family and I stay away from politics. It’s not worth the hard feelings.


5 posted on 02/25/2015 3:10:20 PM PST by DJ MacWoW (The Fed Gov is not one ring to rule them all)
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To: Chris Shugart Uncommon Sense

Been there, done that.

I was just told by a friend that Guiliani wears mascara and another one said “he was speaking for the president” when he dissed Obama. What can you say to this?!


6 posted on 02/25/2015 3:12:45 PM PST by miss marmelstein
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To: cripplecreek

I don’t have this problem because I deleted my Facebook account over a year ago. Facebook initially was a fun way to keep in touch with old friends, but the Progressive Left destroyed it with their incessant propagandizing. I got so sick of “friends” posting pre-made memes from Leftist organizations praising Obamacare, calling Republicans greedy racists and on and on. I don’t think I would have minded it so much if these morons had taken the time to express their own opinions, but instead they would just lazily forward all these Leftist graphics and slogans and pollute my page with it.

Beyond that I realized that Facebook has become a do-it-yourself intelligence dossier so that Big Brother doesn’t have to put any effort into knowing who your associates and family are and what you’re thinking. Screw ‘em, they can read my FR posts if they want to know that stuff about me.


7 posted on 02/25/2015 3:13:41 PM PST by Junk Silver
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To: Chris Shugart Uncommon Sense

Never had that problem, because I’ve NEVER used Facebook.

I don’t believe I’m missing anything. I’ve never been the social type anyway.


8 posted on 02/25/2015 3:20:51 PM PST by KoRn (Department of Homeland Security, Certified - "Right Wing Extremist")
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To: cripplecreek

I have a few nieces who “air their dirty laundry” quite often on Facebook. Fortunately, they all have married names which are not the same as my own nor of their parents. I am embarrassed for my sister & brother-in-law(these are their girl’s and the relationship is known by many others on Facebook), and likewise embarrassed for each of the girls by their choice of language and comment content. They were NOT brought up the way the express themselves, nor are they young women. Guess Facebook and other social media outlets bring out a lot of people’s faults.


9 posted on 02/25/2015 3:21:30 PM PST by DaveA37
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To: miss marmelstein

“and another one said “he was speaking for the president” when he dissed Obama. What can you say to this?!”

I am not trying to advise you. I am simply saying what I would say to the person who said the above:

You are a stupid, no good, rotten, dirty, ( expletive deleted ), followed by many other expletives deleted! LOL


10 posted on 02/25/2015 3:22:26 PM PST by spel_grammer_an_punct_polise (Why does every totalitarian, political hack think that he knows how to run my life better than I do?)
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To: Chris Shugart Uncommon Sense

I use Facebook to stay in touch with family - only. When a family member posts something offensive (such as a positive comment on Barack Obama), I lose the desire to stay in touch, and I block them. I don’t benefit from hearing details on why a few of my relatives hate America (fortunately only three out of over 100 have crossed that terrible line and mentioned voting for or supporting the communist).


11 posted on 02/25/2015 3:30:32 PM PST by Pollster1 ("Shall not be infringed" is unambiguous.)
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To: DaveA37

I prefer twitter. I like the anonymity and people can’t put crap in my twitter feed that I don’t want.

I use it as the world’s fastest news feed. Plus I can call Nancy Pelosi an ulcerated toad rectum right in her twitter feed.


12 posted on 02/25/2015 3:30:44 PM PST by cripplecreek ("For by wise guidance you can wage your war")
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To: Junk Silver

One of the best features of Facebook is to stop following stupid individuals you don’t associate with in real life. When the leftist cousin or high school alumni sends the friend request, you can accept and not follow. No insult and they don’t even now you never see their foolish posts.


13 posted on 02/25/2015 3:37:03 PM PST by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer)
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To: Junk Silver
I don’t have this problem because I deleted my Facebook account over a year ago.

IIRC that's not possible, inactivate but can't delete. Maybe I'm wrong because I do not do Facebook even for family.

Some family members spill their guts on it, telling things that should never be aired, get in fights.
Not for me.
I have tweeted a few times though, rarely.

14 posted on 02/25/2015 3:41:22 PM PST by Vinnie
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To: Chris Shugart Uncommon Sense
FACEBOOK I have found most people on facebook are.....
15 posted on 02/25/2015 3:48:46 PM PST by baddog 219
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To: Chris Shugart Uncommon Sense
I feel your pain. I tend to ignore or respond in a nice way which makes them look like jackasses.

One of my niece's is married to a former marine who claims to have PTSD even though he was a office desk jockey reading emails and never saw combat. He even has a service dog. His disability payment is nice and all he does is sit around the house playing video games while my niece works full time. On facebook they have been posting pictures of him at activities put on by the Wounded Warrior Project. I have to really bite my tongue every time I see his lazy mug.

16 posted on 02/25/2015 3:57:41 PM PST by ParityErr (It's impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so ingenious.)
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To: Chris Shugart Uncommon Sense

I have friends who don’t share my philosophical framework in real life and often the same people on facebook. When they talk their stuff (that I’ve heard a billion times, used to live in the SF Bay Area) I just Unfollow them on Facebook. Their stuff doesn’t show up on my wall, I can check in on them if I want to, and I haven’t Unfriended them.


17 posted on 02/25/2015 4:01:59 PM PST by Riley (The Fourth Estate is the Fifth Column.)
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Only Four days to go until March!

FReepers, Let's GIT_R_DONE!

18 posted on 02/25/2015 4:17:16 PM PST by RedMDer (Keep Free Republic Alive with YOUR Donations!)
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To: Chris Shugart Uncommon Sense

19 posted on 02/25/2015 4:22:34 PM PST by Rodamala
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To: Rodamala
Doing it right


20 posted on 02/25/2015 4:36:20 PM PST by Fightin Whitey
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