A distant relative of a relative recently posted his answer to that Obama shutting down Fox News poll, and added something about how the country was based on the “write” to free speech, then followed that up with a rant about how stupid you had to be to vote for Obama. I was amused.
The vast majority of us are simply not informed enough to hold political opinions.
Can’t have free speech without free spelling.
Of all the things you might see on Facebook, this is the sort of thing that you pit? I have right loony friends that post about the evils of Obama and the Democrats, and I have left loony friends that post about the evils of Bush and the Republicans. I’m not particularly fond of either of them, so I agree with some cricism but do think a lot of the fear mongering is over the top. But you know, I see plenty of other obnoxious opinions posted as well on other things that are important to me, like when I post about music. Yeah, it’s a bit annoying to see those sorts of posts, but it’s an easily handled annoyance that, unless that’s all they contribute, it’s usually worth dealing with to keep the connection.
Do you want to stay connected with him? Treat it like you would a random thread here that you’re just not interested in. When I see the loony people posting random obnoxious political crap, I scan it for a couple seconds, decide if I’m interested, and if I’m not I just ignore the update and move on. Thus, the most this person’s obnoxious updates should cost you is maybe a couple seconds a piece.
You can also block his updates, but you might miss other things he says that you actually would be interested in. Though, quite frankly, most of the people I knew from high school who have friended me, I’ve found I really don’t care about their random updates. So, in that case, you can block his updates so you don’t have to see them, and periodically look at his wall and see if anything interesting is going on. You ought to still be able to get invites and messages from him though.
Or you can just decide that you don’t want to be friends with him and just unfriend him. I’d generally say that’s a bad idea if you happen to have mutual friends or if you hope to reconnect with other people you two may know mutually and it’s simpler to just block him and not follow up with him.
Oh, and as you said in your OP, I would agree that you shouldn’t bother to e-mail him and ask him to stop. Facebook status is, more or less, just a mini-blog. Chances are he’s posting those things because they’re important to him or he’s having discussions with other people that interest him. Even if you think he’s incredibly ignorant about his opinions, it’s there to serve him, just as yours is there to serve your purpose.
Nathan Hale H.S., class of '82?
I just deleted my FB over this bullshittery.
I joined Facebook for the reason most folks my age do - to stalk my children.
In the course of being active enough to stalk them, I’ve gotten friend invitations from a bunch of folks. This including professionals from my work. One was a person that I know because I’ve done work for the company she works for and have a friendship with her boss. I was shocked when I “friended” her to see that her picture on her main page was a picture of her holding an Obama = Hitler poster at some sort of teabag rally. I haven’t gone back onto her page, and it’s turned me off both her and the company she works for.
I’m torn whether I should just let it slide or tell her boss that there are some who find her employee’s politics offensive.
I found that it is much esier just to ignore the news feed entirely. Anyone I truly care about will reach me other way sto pass on anything significant. I just go on to feed my fish, run my mafia and work my farms. That’s it.
I don’t see how it’s any of her boss’s business- although I guess if she’s facebooking business contacts it must be.
Mount Saint Mary’s class of 82. OKC
You know if you defriend them they still stay in your family, right?
*No, I was not whooshed…I just didn’t know if you actually knew this for future reference.