Please Make It Stop

I find less and less joy when I visit Facebook these days, and you should know that I am one of those weirdos who is intent on viewing the social medium as a place I can go to hang out with friends. Much of the time it is my social life, as pathetic as it may sound. So what has me down in the dumps? Politics. Look, I love a good political discussion. I am passionate about my political beliefs, and I am well informed about the issues. The problem is the complete extremism dominating much of social media these days, and I am not discriminatory in this regard. There are plenty of extremists on both sides that say enough to annoy me. However, if I am being honest, the bulk of the problem comes from the right. The problem is that some of these people are sheep. Rather than consider, ponder, and study out issues and come to their own conclusion, many of these people simply regurgitate the nonsense they stumble upon while surfing the internet. Sometimes they do it without reading the material or doing some of their own fact-checking.

On the other side of the coin, but still on the right, are the people who choose to provide endless commentary using strong words and clever turns of phrase in order to shock or strike fear in the possible undecided voter or in order to affect a certain level of knowledge of the issues. Of course, who could forget those who try to make everyone who doesn't agree with them feel less informed or less intelligent? Oh, the irony, especially considering the research studies that have shown what happens to people who get their information from Fox News. Then there is my personal favorite: using scriptures or the words of church leaders in an effort to prove that your political mind set is the only one in harmony with what God wants. Wait, that actually makes me puke in my mouth a little. It is also the same people doing it over and over. In fact, in the last few hours, I have seen at least a half dozen posts or comments that have more than forced my eyes to roll into the back of my head. I have been tempted to make my own post for every post someone else does, but then I would just be one of them. Of course, that's not to say that I don't post things that prove to be well informed and often well vetted. In other words, yes, yes I am smarter than you, so you should definitely vote for my guy.