Yet another "Why do right-wingers insist on polluting Facebook with their drivel?" post

[mreilly]

This is actually kind of a sad story which to me outlines the problem with Republicans and their insistence that everyone share - or at least be constantly exposed to - their views. I have a Facebook friend named Dave who lives in my town and is part of the community. Dave always seemed a smart guy; works in technology the same as me, and for a while appeared to be one of the tiny few members of the conservative population who actually showed reason and impartiality. He was in favor of spending on education, "conserving" the environment, and other causes that right-wingers normally loathe with every fiber of their being. He also seemed to be a reasonable Catholic without any sign of intolerance for nonbelievers.

Evidently that got swept away over the past few months as Dave started watching more Fox News/got more wrapped up in the political campaign season/decided there really was something to this "War on Christmas." So began the Facebook updates. Obama did this. Obama's done that. The government is stealing my money. Atheists hate people who disagree with them. And so on and so forth. I simply blocked his posts after this last outpouring. I have no issue with reading ideas that don't coincide with my own, but I don't waste time wading through regurgitated RNC talking points that have been cooked up for the masses.

It's not the Facebook sermons that bug me about Dave so much as the mindset on his part that everyone really, really needs to read these "contributions". The self-righteous attitude that "Hey, I'm going to spread my views, and if you don't like it, tough." I don't bother discussing my political and/or religious views on Facebook since - any right-wingers reading this please repeat aloud - "I AM COMFORTABLE ENOUGH WITH MY VIEWS NOT TO HAVE TO PREACH THEM TO OTHERS CONSTANTLY." Does Dave really think any minds are being changed? That people are going to say "You know, as an atheist I HAVE been intolerant of others. Horribly intolerant! Imagine my not wanting prayer in schools despite the fact not all the kids are going to have the same religious backgrounds and deciding whose prayer comes first isn't up to the educational community!" No, instead of this, people are just going to tune Dave out and dismiss his views, as I have done. My mistake for thinking he was a "reasonable conservative." All he's managed to do is teach me there's no such thing.

I have begun to think there is an exhibitionist mindset in the right-wing community, whereby they have a pathological need to expose themselves to all who will pay attention. Sort of an attempt to legitimize their views by making as many people see them as possible. Is it insecurity? Is it frustration? Is it uncertainty? I don't know, but I do know that NONE of my liberal friends sees the need to proselytize on Facebook. Not even my sister, the most ardent liberal I know. It's ALWAYS Republicans. That's because this party attracts bullying bellowers, whose goal is to simply have the loudest voice in the room.

[RockaFowler]

1. Same for me

Oh and the stupid Ron Paul 2012 posts. That's it. That's all they have - Ron Paul 2012. Nothing of substance.

I do love the conspiracy posts. Stuff that can be proven incorrect in about 2 seconds.

[Lawlbringer]

8. I have a counterconspiracy about those.

That they're designed specifically to give me heart palpitations as I rush to disprove them with LOGIC, even though I'm entering my own logic loop. I know that no matter how many facts I throw in their face, they insist that they're fighting for liberty and are free from mainstream influence...as they parrot everything that's said on Infowars or Naturalnews.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

2. I don't know. I unfriended a couple of guys for such.

It wasn't because they had a difference of opinion. I generally love a good debate (though one of them debated like a six year old). It was rather that was all they posted.

I went on Facebook to reconnect with old friends. I had to sort through all the right wing nonsense posted by these two in order to find everyone else's updates.

[mreilly]

5. That's exactly why I don't bother to debate them

... I also have no problem standing up for my views. If I was at a get-together and someone came up to me and started trying to lay into me for my opinions, I'd throw it back in their face multi-fold. This has actually happened. Online, if I see someone performing the equivalent of waving a bumper sticker around, I don't bother engaging them. Because I know what'll happen: they'll repeat their talking points in the face of the facts; they will sneer you're "drinking the Kool-Aid" and need to "wake up," and anything you present which is based on evidence will just immediately be dismissed as a product of the "elitist liberal media."

Take for example ANOTHER Republican "friend" on Facebook (not a friend, but rather a coworker). He posted one of those charming anti-Obama images alleging how horrible things have gotten since 2009, musing "And people will still vote to re-elect him... amazing." I was tempted to say "OK, please tell us why we should vote for the multimillionaire stuffed shirt Mitt Romney and what he's going to do for us." Keep in mind this "friend" of mine was unemployed for several MONTHS while looking for a job. If the Republicans had their way he'd have gotten NOTHING during his period of unemployment (other than shrieks and tantrums to "GET A FUCKING JOB YOU PIECE OF SHIT PARASITE&quot . He'd have been eating out of trash cans and living under a bridge. But of course that didn't factor into his views. Not at all. Somehow in his world it's perfectly OK to accept unemployment compensation while loyally promoting a party that would herd the unemployed into concentration camps if they could. So, I knew somehow in his convoluted little universe he'd treat me to an amazing display of "Well, it was OK for ME to be on unemployment because I'm deserving, unlike all the filthy lowlives out there trying to leech off us hardworking folks."

But I can't help feeling like letting this garbage go unchecked does in some way help them legitimize it. They may have hours, days and weeks to spend on their little reality-altering jihads against truth (and every single one I've ever debated has immediately gotten so hysterically, obsessively defensive that they MUST be right at ALL COSTS), but for those with the facts on our side; well, we have lives, dammit. Perhaps that says all that needs to be said about who has the upper hand.

[unblock]

3. i think many right-wingers need constant validation of their views because they know they're wrong.

deep down, they know greed is greed and it's wrong, and hate is hate and it's wrong.

but their team has a gazillion catch-phrases and slogans and sophomoric theories about how greed is good and hate is patriotic. but only in approved situations and to an approved extent and so on. they need the social affirmation to know which hate is ok today and how much greed and for whom is permitted, because it keeps changing and their system only works if they all march to the same drummer.

[FSogol]

7. +1. Yup, they know they are wrong. n/t

[HappyMe]

4. I'm pretty lucky.

I have less than 25 friends - just family and a couple of close friends. None of us discuss politics. I do have a female cousin that started posting republiscum stuff. I just unsubscribed (or whatever it's called) without unfriending. I do have my account set to 'friends only'.

[Siwsan]

6. It's the 'repeat the lie to make it true' mind set

I've ended a friendship that went back years because I couldn't take the proselytizing, and his constant denigrating of anything I said. And, it was that patronizing kind of denigrating that told me his right wing infection was to the bone.

Before I realized how infected he was, I had hooked him up with family members in S.Cal, because of their shared love of surfing. Now they have all pretty much unfriended him and the once really enjoyable surfing outings have ended because nobody could ever predict what would trigger one of his tirades. You'd think that they might want to do some introspection, when people start abandoning them in droves.

[99Forever]

9. Had to block ..

.. one that claimed to be a friend of my son, after his second or third long string of "messages" from that fruitcake Ron Paul. I don't need it and won't tolerate it. If I want to talk politics, I go to a political website and have at it. DU if I want a majority of the posters to have IQs above room temp, and one unmoderated cesspool if I want to blow off steam over the mess the righties have made of this once great Nation. I basically only use Facebook to keep up with family and friends too far away to see regularly.

[patrice]

10. For some of us, it isn't about whether we are "comfortable" with our own views or not and that's why

we post them to FB. For me, it's about the necessity of at least posing conflicting ideas together, to create a LIBERAL presence in the zeitgeist. I post Liberal stuff so that people who are neither-here-nor-there can compare and contrast the different positions. Most people are also unaware, or don't care, to think things through very honestly, so it's important to at least engage the chance that you might trigger at least some questions, if not some actual depth of experiential analysis that would NOT have happened otherwise.