I hate/love facebook...

[Cruel2BKind]

I have friends who I get along with perfectly well in real life, and then I find out that they are hate-mongering NRA nutjobs.

Facebook knows... Facebook reveals all...

My christmas card list (and facebook friends) Just got a bit shorter...

Sigh...

[sr71plt]

I've just been to Facebook, and I'll second that.

[NaokoSmith]

What in an interesting twist on the usual problem - that on Facebook people can pretend to be all sorts of things they're not.

Sorry there are less people in your life, and that the world is less populated by those whom you enjoy spending time with than you thought. Perhaps you'll make some new FB friends to replace the old ones.

[sr71plt]

I rather think that on Facebook they are showing themselves as what they really are/believe on topics that haven't otherwise come up in face-to-face discussions.

[DeeZire]

Funny thing. A couple of my studio clients are a hard core Right Wingers. The fact that we have a business relationship means that we have to get along. In doing so, I have discovered that both of these guys are compassionate and caring. One of them even drove me around after I got out of the hospital and wasn't supposed to get behind the wheel. The fact that they've been brainwashed doesn't mean they've been turned into hateful zombies. It's only their rhetoric that gives us that impression. That said, I've unfriended four of five of these people recently, (not the studio clients) with a friendly note telling them I'm supposed to be watching my blood pressure and I can't handle what they post. The one studio client yahoo who does post ignorant crap on FB gets a link or a comment from me now and then, offering information, rather than propaganda, to add another voice to their ill-informed discussion, but even that can be tricky. If it's presented as "have you seen this article?" it's a lot more conducive to maintaining civil dialogue than telling the guy "you've gut your head up Wayne LaPierre's butt and this article proves it!"

We (everyone) can disagree and still get along. Really! Plus, it's more conducive to the survival of the species.

(Keep in mind that they (the Evil They) are familiar with the Divided and Conquer technique. They want us at each others throats so we won't notice they're stealing us blind. And it's working.)

[steve44uk]

Dee makes a valid point.
I have friends who are Tories (the UK analogue of Republicans) and whose political views are diametrically opposed to my own. But they are also kind, considerate, love their kids and have proved themselves true friends in times of need. Sure, I find some of their opinions distasteful, but on balance I'd rather have them in my life than not.

Your ex-friends' stance on the right to bear arms may well be a deal-breaker for you, and completely understand and respect that. But it doesn't necessarily make them bad people.

Originally Posted by DeeZire

Funny thing. A couple of my studio clients are a hard core Right Wingers. The fact that we have a business relationship means that we have to get along. In doing so, I have discovered that both of these guys are compassionate and caring. One of them even drove me around after I got out of the hospital and wasn't supposed to get behind the wheel. The fact that they've been brainwashed doesn't mean they've been turned into hateful zombies. It's only their rhetoric that gives us that impression. That said, I've unfriended four of five of these people recently, (not the studio clients) with a friendly note telling them I'm supposed to be watching my blood pressure and I can't handle what they post. The one studio client yahoo who does post ignorant crap on FB gets a link or a comment from me now and then, offering information, rather than propaganda, to add another voice to their ill-informed discussion, but even that can be tricky. If it's presented as "have you seen this article?" it's a lot more conducive to maintaining civil dialogue than telling the guy "you've gut your head up Wayne LaPierre's butt and this article proves it!"

We (everyone) can disagree and still get along. Really! Plus, it's more conducive to the survival of the species.

[NaokoSmith]

Dee and Steve make a good case.
My partner's granny is racist. She often forgets that I'm not white and makes some mildly offensive remark, e.g.: That Martin Johnson is a half-caste, isn't he. Johnson is a blackie name. (About the former coach of the England rugby squad.) Distracted by watching the rugby I (also a 'half-caste'!) nearly started to say how offensive a remark some might find this and to try to explain that although he is dark-skinned, Johnson is not mixed heritage and that some people of African origin have the name Johnson because they were owned by other (white) people called Johnson.
But I luckily remembered that there's no point upsetting a lady who has managed to reach 90 with her few marbles still rolling about in her head. I pick my fights carefully these days. I work hard enough educating undergraduate students about these matters, the 90 year old generation is probably a lost cause.
And I find the £20 she gives me at Christmas very useful!

Oh God, JBJ is going to come on now. Will he say one of his intelligent things? Perhaps he will even return to the picture of the elephant in the room, wittily covered in a white cloth.

that English rose of the rugby team who had a coach called Johnson is for you JBJ.

[Bramblethorn]

Originally Posted by Cruel2BKind

I have friends who I get along with perfectly well in real life, and then I find out that they are hate-mongering NRA nutjobs.

Facebook knows... Facebook reveals all...

Comment I saw on Twitter: "Hey, I discovered a great app that tells you which of your family members is racist. It's called Facebook."

Me, I'm still refusing to establish a FB presence.

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Just finished reading 2 interesting books. One is about the genesis of Hitler, and the other is about how democracy always fails and how assholes always replace assholes.

The Hitler books alludes to something my grandfathers mother said to him, I DONT ALWAYS LOVE HOW YOU TRANSLATE YOURSELF. The book refers to antisemitism in Germany and the vocational limits Jews were confined within prior to Hitler. The Weimar Republic and Jewish persecution were a perfect storm. The Allies, US-France-Britain, were the new assholes on the block who made Hitler inevitable. They were catshit that begged to be covered.

Everyone I know confuses racism with ethnocentrism, and every human is ethnocentric by default.

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnocentrism

A PSA for all the LIT Niggaz and Socialistas.

[Handley_Page]

I have to confess to using facebook. I don't like their policies about mining information and targeting adverts, etc.. and I'm not keen on the lack of security of my information (to my mind they do not make it clear enough how to set it up).

But:
My family are widely dispersed and I found that using my facebook page as a blog when I was ill did things nicely; I didn't have to repeat myself on loads of phone calls round the country (tricky with a sore throat and them not having e-mail [don't ask].
And it's also very handy for staying in contact with my local Cadet organisation.

I'm beginning to think that the persons you see on the screen should keep their traps firmly shut about things like Race and other contentions issues.
To my mind it is not something to discuss in Public.

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I find it makes life a lot simpler when youre congruent; that is, be yourself and youll repell all the assholes and Faggot Worshippers.

[Cruel2BKind]

The image that set off the flame war was one of Polish Jews getting on trains, with the lovely caption.

'Take away our guns, they said'

"Get on the train, they said'

The NRA and all of it's little trolls found out that Hitler banned guns. So a massive case of 'Godwin's law' is going on all over facebook.

"Take away our 30-round mags, and we will get a decade-spanning world war with millions of innocents roasted in ovens!"

[Bramblethorn]

Originally Posted by Cruel2BKind

The NRA and all of it's little trolls found out that Hitler banned guns. So a massive case of 'Godwin's law' is going on all over facebook.

About that:

http://www.guncite.com/gun_control_gcnazimyth.html
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/...-gun-ownership

[Cruel2BKind]

Originally Posted by Bramblethorn

About that:

http://www.guncite.com/gun_control_gcnazimyth.html
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/...-gun-ownership

Thank you! I need these

[MatthewVett]

I'm in the South now. Imagine how it is for me.

[MatthewVett]

Originally Posted by Bramblethorn

About that:

http://www.guncite.com/gun_control_gcnazimyth.html
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/...-gun-ownership

Wanted to say thanks for the links, and also, I fucking love Oglaf. With Sexy Losers gone for good it seems, it's the best sex comedy webcomic I know of.

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Originally Posted by LiquidMatthew

I'm in the South now. Imagine how it is for me.

So go!

[DeeZire]

The last bit of the Guncite article:

"What must be remembered is that the Nazis were master manipulators of popular emotion and sentiment, and were disdainful of people thinking for themselves. There is the danger to which we should pay great heed. Not fanciful stories about Nazi's seizing guns."

This is what I see on FB. People who can't, or won't, think for themselves. Most of them are on the Right, but the koolaid also comes in a flavor favored by Lefties.

[loquere]

I've just started hearing about this Facebook. Is it like the MySpace?

[sr71plt]

Originally Posted by DeeZire

This is what I see on FB. People who can't, or won't, think for themselves. Most of them are on the Right, but the koolaid also comes in a flavor favored by Lefties.

Agree. We see it here too. The longer this thread spins out the more it seems to apply to the AH as well.

[Blind_Justice]

I still fail to understand what Facebook is good for, apart from distributing horrendous amounts of advertising and spam. I tried it for about six months, by then I was so sick of wading through pages and pages of inane "news" blurbs that I closed my account and was done with it. Now I'm getting spam every other day telling me what I supposedly missed on Facebook. And I absolutely balk at not being able to permanently DELETE my account there. It's like I've sold my soul to them.

[TxRad]

Originally Posted by Blind_Justice

I still fail to understand what Facebook is good for, apart from distributing horrendous amounts of advertising and spam. I tried it for about six months, by then I was so sick of wading through pages and pages of inane "news" blurbs that I closed my account and was done with it. Now I'm getting spam every other day telling me what I supposedly missed on Facebook. And I absolutely balk at not being able to permanently DELETE my account there. It's like I've sold my soul to them.

You made it 6 months?

I didn't last three. Half the people i had on my fiends list I didn't know and of the half that i did, I was only speaking to half of those. So it was a waste of time for four people I see everyday anyway.

As for using it to keep in touch with family.... Why the hell do you think I moved away from them in the first place?

[sr71plt]

One of my mainstream publishers insisted I join to announce my mainstream books, which I did. I do find it gives me glimpses into what some of my relatives are doing--ones who don't correspond much otherwise. But I'm not wild at the number of friends who use it as stream-of-consciousness blog or as a political bully pulpit.

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I use FB as a blog of sorts. I know like maybe 4 of my 47 friends. The rest just came along from somewhere.