Some people just don't get it ... I have a Facebook "friend" who constantly posts

[zbdent]

RW/'bagger garbage.

He also has a son with autism.

And now, he has "passed on" one of those "like if you blah blah blah" things ...

where it says "sign the petition to have" ... you guessed it, "OBAMA and the Congress enact a national forum on Autism".

Oh, NOW he comes begging to Obama???? From what you've posted, you want "big gummint" out of your life. But you'll take whatever you can BECAUSE YOU HAVE AN AUTISTIC SON???

Pretty Portmann of ya, bud ...

[RedstDem]

1. I purged the RW's out of my life a few years ago

I recommend it to everyone, life's too short to suffer fools......

[nxylas]

4. It's awkward when they're friends in real life, though

I have at least one friend who's a completely different person online to how he is in the real world. On Facebook etc, he's the archetypal Paulbot, posting endless birther/climate change denier/black helicopter/gunhugger stuff. In real life, he's a nice guy who has helped my wife and I out on several occasions when we've been in desperate straits. I am reluctant to unfriend him on Facebook, though I have hidden him from my news feed, especially after Newtown.

[SnowCritter]

9. I'd love to

but that would mean purging all of my siblings.

[abelenkpe]

10. My RW siblings

Couldn't stop calling me or my views stupid so it was easy to unfriendly them on FB. Really just depends on the level of their offensiveness. Yours are hopefully much more reasonable than mine

[kyeshinka]

12. Refreshing

I don't have any right-wing friends, mostly because I spent most of the last decade abroad and conservatives don't do things like that, except military. I cancelled my cable for the same reasons. Life's too short.

[OffWithTheirHeads]

20. I purged all of my immediate family and some of my wife's children.

And I regret nothing. They are all rabid teabags. Attempts at rational conversation are pointless and I refuse to waste my time talking to a brick wall. Interestingly, my step daught, who was gravitating into teabag world, went back to collage at the age of 50, graduated magna cum something or another and is now, maybe, more left than me. Amazing what some knowledge can do.

[Jim Lane]

21. You say life's too short to suffer fools on Facebook. I say life's too short for Facebook.

I open my Facebook page about once a month, for one reason or another, and usually don't get drawn into pointless political discussions even when I see them.

OK, I make exceptions. I remember an exchange in which RWer (whom I don't know) posted on the page (the wall? the timeline? whatever it is) of a mutual friend, excoriating the net job loss under Obama. Our mutual friend knew this was bogus because the economy was recovering, so he expressed bewilderment, but he didn't have all the facts. I chimed in to explain that the RWer was counting as Obama's "fault" all the jobs lost in the early months of 2009, when the stimulus was still kicking in and the rate of job loss was declining each month but there were still losses. I provided the "bikini chart" (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Recovery-JobLossGain.png) to show this. The RWer was impervious to facts, of course. I was really addressing our mutual friend and any lurkers.

In general, though, I just don't have the patience for wading through all the trivia on Facebook.

[Sherman A1]

2. Well,

some folks just don't see the hypocrisy of their statements. I would simply block them on FB and you will need worry no more about what they might or might not be posting.

[canoeist52]

3. I like to engage them...

not because I think the facts can change their minds, but they may change the minds of the middle of the road quiet lurkers. I've never blocked anyone, but have been blocked and un-friended by others for stating facts.

[Sadiedog]

5. Thank you for posting this I am enjoying reading peoples comments here about how they have handled

this. I have a friend, actually who is a former co-worker who has just been crazy lately with the anti-Obama everything. Just this morning she posted this awful thing about someone on Food Stamps buying lobsters and steaks. The thing is she used to be on food stamps herself so she knows hard times. The other day she posted this ugly thing with Obama in a turbon equating him to Osama. I wrote under it that I found it offensive and she did take it off but I am just shocked by the change in my once rather liberal friend. I`m thinking about un-friending her. I have considered asking her what is going on as this is a major change in her. I`m just not sure yet. So far I have just been challenging what she posts but I do not know if that helps any it is just hard to let the garbage and untruths stand unchallenged. More than likely if it keeps up she will un-friend me so....

[Victor_c3]

6. There was a thread on this forum related to this phenomenon yesterday

It pointed to an article that discussed how, when they have a gay person in their family, republicans in power suddenly come to a different realization about homosexuality and the rights of the LGBT community.

[Volaris]

7. maybe try to look at it this way:

Now, you have a persuasive argument for the fact that Government is Useful, and you're using HIS argument to make your point. THEN, if continues his nonsense-based bullshit, THEN you can call him a hypocrite and de-friend his fuckwad Teabagger ass.

haha Spellchecker used to ask me if "Teabagger" was a typo, now it doesn't? Does that mean it's accepted as an actual word now? Because THAT would be awesome. Poor 'baggers.

[The Wizard]

8. I often recommend

they try one of the wonderful products offered by Fleet. They're full of shit and they know it.

[Bibliovore]

11. Maybe see it as an opening?

A national forum on autism would not be a bad thing, and unlike what Mitt would have been, Obama really is everybody's president. And if your FB friend has personal reason to approve of autism-related funding, it could be a gateway to talking with him about broader subjects: NIH funding for research into that and other ailments; what health insurance does, does not, and should cover (what happens to his son's treatment programs if this guy loses his job or moves to a different company?); safety nets (what happens to his son once he's grown up and on his own? what if he can't hold a job, or needs more treatment than he can afford?); and so on.

[zeemike]

13. Self interest is a sacrament in their religion

Once you have come to Ayn Rand you can never go back.
And like anyone in a cult facts will never sway them.

But the wrong thing to do is to stop telling them the facts...and NOT ignoring them is the right thing to do IMHO
There are two weapons against this kind of thing...Truth and unconditional love...there is nothing more effective than that.

[samplegirl]

14. I keep fighting them with the facts

that in itself make them look lazy or just plain ignorant.

[ca3799]

15. Same thing here- and what I do about it

I try to respond the way Bibliovore recommends- using the socratic method of asking questions that lead to a conclusion.

My tea party/anti-government FB 'friend' has a severely handicapped child that had been on benefits since near birth, but my FB friend thinks they pay for everything themselves (so wrong), are 'independent', and otherwise 'deserve' the benefits. They just can't seem to see that they are one of the 'takers'.

I talked with this person at length- never being accusatory or hostile or anything negative- to lead them to a more 'liberal' point of view about themselves and how their situation is related to the larger issues being played out on our national political stage theses days.

I'm glad that they get benefits and that their child's severe medical problems have not ruined them financially forever. they are absolutely deluded about how the benefits they get reach them. I just hope to get them to see that many people need the same things they get.

[booley]

16. I have friends who post RW garbage all the time.

However, being an argumentative a-hole, I take this as an educational opportunity.

Frankly I accepted that other people (myself included) have serious flaws long ago and tried to distinguish what is different, annoying, exasperating from what is truly over the line.

In my observation, most of these guys aren't so much "stupid" or callous so much as they simply don't think about what they are actually saying and how it sounds outside the echo chamber.

Crappy argument that a two year old could counter? It's pro gun so it's ok.

Demonizing Liberals as evil? Hey I didn't mean YOU.

Simplistic anti Obama graphic that misses key facts that totally undermine the message of the article? Well if you point out those facts you are being simplistic.

I understand a certain amount of "My Team GO!" ism is inevitable in politics. I am on a site called "DEMOCRATIC underground", after all. But too often tribalism seems the only reason many so called conservatives support any of these conservative ideas.

[mercuryblues]

17. Isn't it amazing

I was blocked by a freind's friend. (she even unfriended him) she was constantly Hillary bashing. She also has an autistic son.


My error was pointing out to her that Hillary Hillary pushed for the Children's health act 2000 with a focus on autism research and environment factors

Co-sponsored the combating autism act of 2006. - Bush signed into law but was never funded.


Co- sponsored the Promise for Individuals with Autism Act of 2007, which died in committee.

Bush vetoed a bill that provided funding for the autism act.

On the campaign trail she promised to pretty much fund the combating autism act and push for the EPIAA to pass.

Maybe it wasn't the facts that made her irate, but when I asked her; if her hate for all things Hillary and democrats outweighed the love she has for her son.

[Quantess]

18. I think you should call him out on his blatant hypocrisy.

Don't be mean or personal, or anything. But really, he has set himself up for a comment.

[zbdent]

22. I posted a message which would have shown that I saw it ...

didn't make a commitment either way ... but he would be able to see the pages I like ... Bill Press, etc.

No word/reply/acknowledgement yet.

[Quantess]

23. Probably grumbling to himself, surprised that someone sees things differently.

On 2 or 3 occasions I have made reasonable, calm sounding, facebook comments to people that were just enough to communicate that I had a different viewpoint than they did.

The only time anybody was at all a jerk on fb was when another DUer (who is a facebook friend) posted something about Rick Santorum's attitudes about gays. I chimed in something about Rick Santorum needs to mind his own business and stop obsessing over other people's gay sex so much. Then some redneck made some really weak arguments that made himself sound like an ass. Oh, well.

Anyway, a reasonable comment can't hurt. If he unfriends you, oh well.

[RoccoR5955]

19. Time to defriend him.

If you can't deal with his carp, then just defriend him. Plain and simple.