We were friends, once, back in high school. Not good friends, but we hung out together and when I got back in touch with you on Facebook it was really cool to reconnect with a part of my past from almost 30 years ago.
I know you still live in Oklahoma. I know you watch Fox News and Glenn Beck religiously. But do you have to post about it every fucking day?! It’s a non-stop stream of vicious updates about how Obama is out to destroy America by spying on us through OnStar or some other similar stupid crap. And every time I read it I want to write a long rebuttal because it’s so stupid and vicious and ill-informed that it makes my head feel like it’s going to explode. But I don’t WANT to get into a long stupid argument on Facebook. That’s what I read The Straight Dope for. I read Facebook to see pictures of people’s vacations and learn what their kids are doing in school and find out what they had for lunch. I don’t want to get pissed off and angry every time I check for updates.
Now, I could just hide your posts. (Like I did with the antisemitic husband of an old friend who wouldn’t stop posting his crazy Bell Curve-inspired race rants.) But I don’t want to do that because when you’re not posting crazy political shit you’re still the pleasant person that I remember. You liked a music video I posted a few weeks ago and reposted it to share with your friends. If you’d just shut up about politics I’d be quite happy to read your other updates about your life and your family and your kids. If we were better friends, instead of acquaintances who just happened to reconnect, I’d write you a personal email and ask you to stop. But why should you? I’m just some random guy from high school. You don’t owe me anything. And I’m sure most of your actual friends these days feel exactly the same way you do, so they’re happy to read the crazy shit you’re learning off the teevee.
Sigh. I’m gonna block you soon. I just wish you’d stop so I wouldn’t have to. Ah, well.
We never friends, I just know you from a message board. I don’t know anything about you and I don’t intend to copy your post verbatim.
But…Grr … stop posting your Obama hate hate crap on the SDMB.
I knew a guy that posted Alex Jones craziness and every time I tried to engage him on it he would make some stupid hippy crap judgment against judging, “Don’t just, just know.”, kind of shit. I told him since we couldn’t really communicate I was defriending him and took him off.
See, if I’d never been friends with this person, I’d feel no qualms about blocking her and moving on. I come here to argue about politics and religion precisely because I’m NOT friends with anyone here. With my actual real-life friends I don’t argue about shit like that because I’d rather not get into anything that could cause a wedge between us.
The great thing about Facebook is that it allows you to reconnect with people with whom you’ve lost touch, and allows them to share their daily thoughts, activities, likes/dislikes, and opinions with you.
The problem with Facebook is that it allows you to reconnect with people with whom you’ve lost touch, and allows them to share their daily thoughts, activities, likes/dislikes, and opinions with you.
Ahh, my friends are largely very politically passionate people so we have political discussions. It can get kind of annoying really.
But yea, I can relate that would be really annoying. I’d say just tell her you’re blocking her because the Obama hate makes you uncomfortable, that she’s still welcome to chat with you about other things and that you’re not unfriending her or anything.
Yeah, most of the time when she posts this stuff she gets flurry of positive comments from her other super-conservative friends. I think that I and one other guy from high school are about the only non-rightwingers she has regular contact with. In her world, we’re the marginalized, fringy ones.
Yeah, I think it’s good to remain in touch like that. The best way to nip this kind of thing in the bud is to just tell her that it kind of offends you and let her realize that liberals are not aliens coming to eat her young.
The OP is not merely describing somebody who has political leanings. It is describing somebody who spews non-stop hate speech in a forum that is ill-suited for such a thing. There is a time (9 a.m.) and a place (AM radio) for that sort of thing.
Skip the “reconnect” part replace the “friends” with “coworkers” - I don’t need to know that John is vehemently pro-Life, that Pat got vomiting drunk last night (which is why they aren’t coherent in the meeting I need them in this morning), that Tim and wife have reconnected in their marriage through Jesus and tantric sex, or that Sara has discovered Ayn Rand.
I’ve begun routinely defriending anyone who makes bullshit hate claims about him on Facebook. I’m not talking about “I supported McCain” stuff or “I don’t think public option is a good idea” stuff (though I really don’t think Facebook with it’s 180 character or whatever limits is good for politics) but the “Obama is Hitler reborn” or “Obama wants to kill our grannies and grind up their bodies for dog food” shit.
The problem is when it’s your aunt, whom you like, and who then goes on to ask all your other aunts and cousins why she was unfriended. And who is going to lie in wait for you at the family Christmas party.
I hide people, instead. I hid my nephew after he said the Liberals wanted to coronate Obama. I then went on to hide everyone under 25, just because. I think my blood pressure has gone down ten points.