Because I am a Texas public school teacher (still employed :D), I’ve had a surplus of spare time for the past few weeks due to summer vacation. I’ve taken care of various minor chores around the house, spent time with the wife and kid, etc. However, I have also spent a fair amount of time on Facebook, SDMB, Gawker, etc., reading and discussing politics.
I am concerned that this activity is making me depressed. I’ve even found that I have trouble getting going to take care of ordinary tasks, like calling DirecTV to come out and fix a problem, or finish up some paperwork with the city that has languished far too long (at their fault, not mine). It isn’t that I’ve lost the will to live or anything. I just have a hard time getting going, sometimes.
The correlation seems to be the conservative politics that is popular with many in my social circle (I do live in Texas, after all). My weakness seems to be when someone says or posts (a la Facebook) something that is patently absurd or untrue. For example, one friend posted that page 272 of “Obamacare” includes language that restricts cancer care for people over age 76 (this friend is 72). I looked at page 272. That particular page says no such thing (it’s not even on a related subject). I posted the entire page for my friend, reassuring him that, if he gets cancer, there is nothing in the PPACA that restricts his care. In fact, I searched the law for every instance of the word “cancer” and there is no language that restricts care by age. In fact, there are a few passages that broaden cancer care.
Of course, my helpful post did nothing to dissuade my friend from the idea that Obamacare is horrible and mandates that he be left to die. (My friend is healthy, educated, and has health insurance.) These sorts of conversations are draining me.
Do any of my SDMB friends have this problem? Does political discourse depress you? How do you handle postings or quotes that are factually incorrect? Do you ignore them, or do you try to fight the ignorance? I have no problem when people have different political opinions than I, but when a person posts something that is simply factually untrue, I have a hard time resisting. This leads to a lengthy discussion that goes nowhere.