Facebook and political rants don't mix

The “highly decorated soldier” ABC news reporter Martha Raddatz spoke about at the vice-presidential debate Oct. 11 is not only one who is dismayed by this election.

Raddatz told Democratic Vice President Joe Biden and Republican Vice-Presidential candidate Paul Ryan that the soldier told her on the subject of this presidential election “the ads are so negative, and they are all tearing down each other rather than building up the country.”

I too am fed up especially when it comes to all the negative postings I have seen on Facebook from friends regardless of their right or far liberal left-wing ideals whether I agree with them or not.

To quote a friend of mine on Facebook several weeks ago whose fake name I will refer to as “Silent Bob” based on that silent character Kevin Smith played in "Clerks" (1994), using his exact words and lettering, “If ALL you’re posting is political or religious opinions, I am opting to UNSUBSCRIBE. There is nothing you can say that will change my mind. Honestly, I couldn’t give a shit.”

This posting was followed a couple weeks later by another of my Facebook friends whose fake name I will refer to as “Mace Windu”, the Jedi Knight character Samuel L. Jackson played in the Star Wars prequels (1999-2005). Windu asked all his Facebook friends to post both the good and bad things about both the Democratic and Republican parties. Last week he threw in the towel.

“I tried to get everyone from all political parties to share their opinions with an open-minded approach,” Windu wrote. “What I’m still reading is the same as always. Each post is something bad about the other political party. My goal was to have us view things as a whole and not one sided. Meaning, I wanted you to post the good and bad about your political party as well as the other political party. My intention is not to agree or disagree or even debate on what you post. I was hoping to see how well versed you are in the political arena. If all we can do is post bad things, then we are just like the news media (Fox, CNN, MSNBC, ABC).”

This only proves my theory that social media and political rants, regardless of how passionate one is about President Obama or Mitt Romney don’t mix. If the unwritten rule in the workplace is that employees refrain from discussing politics, race issues and religion with others especially if it’s among those who don’t share the same opinions, the same applies to Facebook.

I have had enough of the US versus THEM attitude people have adopted when it comes to politics where not a single person it seems can come up with just one good thing they can say about the Democratic and Republican parties or about President Obama and Mitt Romney. I can at least come up with two positive things I can say about President Obama though I disagree on 99.9 percent of everything else he has done the past four years. From Congress and talk radio to social media, the bile foul smelling attitude has always been and continues to be “I’m right”, “You’re wrong,” “Liberal is a cussword,” “Republicans are nothing but a bunch of rich, white, racists who want dirty air and water and will do anything to throw grandma off a cliff,” and “I will not rest until every Democrat is voted out of office as per Rush Limbaugh and the conservative right wing.”

I’d much rather see my Facebook page inundated with pictures of cats and dogs up for adoption, updates from newly married husbands who can’t wait for work to be over so they can be with their significant other, trivial postings that say “so-so” is off on vacation somewhere and depressing photos of me in a tux at my sister’s wedding back when I had hair and was 80 pounds lighter, which by the way is the only time you will ever see me dressed in a suit and tie other than at a job interview or at a funeral, be it someone else’s or my own.

The negativity I have seen from friends on Facebook has gotten so bad in recent months that I have gotten to the point of saying to myself, “You know, I like you but if you continue to go on your political pro Barack Obama soapbox and Mitt Romney slam-a-thons then I am going to delete you almost as quickly as it takes for me to either register or drop a course through the Dallas County Community College District’s software program.”

I don’t want to be “that guy.”

For the time being, as the days wind down to election day and as I continue to see friends’ one sided political postings, I’ll just wish how much CEO Mark Zuckerberg and the powers that be at Facebook could come up with a “hide political posts” button so I can still like all my contacts after this election is over to quote that Someecard cartoon I saw weeks ago.

©10/21/12