Facebook Blocks

I know that I do not have to explain, justify, or excuse anyone that I unfriended/blocked on Facebook.  It is just that I made a public promise, and as importantly a promise to myself, that I would never unfriend anyone solely because I disagreed with him or her. Sometimes that has been a challenge, but I feel that I have stuck to that personal pledge for the most part.

Since I have been active on Facebook, the only issue that has been up for any major disagreement has been the 2016 election cycle.  I have committed most of my posting efforts expressing my opinion about various people and issues during this process, as I still do.  I will continue to do so.

During this process I have heard from several posters who feel that I, and others, have “taken over” Facebook by dominating the postings with political issues.  I believed then, and still believe, that Facebook is what people want to be – good or bad.  For instance, I find it ludicrous that people post pictures of restaurant meals.  Stupid to me on several levels: food is getting cold, haven’t eaten it yet so do not know if it is really any damned good, and now everyone knows you are not home so they can get your crap at a discount.  But that is me: you are free to do it to your heart’s content.

In addition, during this same period I have seen posters disappear from my list.  Some may have gone inactive but I know that quite a few have blocked/unfriended me.  I know it is because of my politics, and I have the audacity to comment on their postings if I disagree with them.  This is especially true of a couple of people who, shall we say, do not broach disagreements in their personal and professional life.  That is OK as well.  I do not expect anyone to stand my standards as stated above – everyone has their own level of tolerance and ethics.  In short, I really do not give a damn.

Generally speaking the only people that I will unfriend or block are liars.  By liars, I do not mean people who accidentally pass on garbage, as there is too much of that crap on the internet not to be caught up at times.  I am talking about either knowingly passing on lies or initiating crap without checking sources.  I also have blocked one person who was a racist.  So far, that is it.  To wit:

Bernie Backer

You will notice that I do not refer to this person as a Bernie Believer. I know several Bernie Believers and they are still friended and will remain so.  In fact, under most circumstances, I may have been a supporter of Bernie’s but I say the handwriting on the wall and I was focused on stopping Trump.

No, this is a Bernie Backer.  The difference:  this person was so enamored with the idea of Bernie Sanders’ campaign that he was willing to believe and share the most outrageous and filthiest lies about Hillary Clinton that came down the pike.  On top of it, he had members of his friends list that would pipe in and was not only as bad but spewed nasty hate-filled remarks at anyone who disagreed with his point of view (BTW: apparently officially associated with the Sanders campaign).  I called my Bernie Backer on his posts, he would acknowledge the mistakes, and post the same kind of crap almost immediately.

If that was not enough when Sanders failed to win, my “friend” bitched and moaned on Facebook about how unfair it was and how he would never vote Democrat again and how it was so terrible.  In other words, threw a tantrum.

The only reason I had put up with the lies was the real world association I had with him.  However, I could not stand it anymore.  I unfriended him and peace settled in.

The Sniper

Then there was this dude who was not on my friends list but was a friend of someone who was.  He would wait for a posting and jump in and snipe at it.  He was constantly doing this to others, not just me.  Always, ultra-right wing and ultra-provocative.  Generally speaking, he was a lot of fun to post against because he was so transparent in his position that I could push his hot buttons without even trying.

I must admit, I twisted his tail on several occasions because, frankly, it was fun.  He was so tied up in his point of view he had lost touch with reality and facts messed with his mind.  The problem became that he started losing it, mentally and emotionally.  If I had known someone who knew him in the Real World, I would have had him or her check on him. To suggest it on Facebook would have been counterproductive.

In short, I blocked him before he became a problem.

The Secret Racist

I had one person who was rather active on Facebook postings who kept saying she was open/neutral politically prior to the election.  I knew she was not from her comments and posts but, as I have stated, I do not unfriend/block people for their politics.  The lie about neutrality: as far as I was concerned not a biggie as long as she was not posting nonfactual stuff.

Of course, after the election she could not resist admitting that she backed Trump.  After all, people generally like to be on the winning team.  I think she was surprised when I posted that I knew she was a Trump supporter.  This went on for a week or two, then in another posting, she stated that the reason she supported Trump was that Trump was going to protect her from THEM.  When I told her that she was using racist code words she got angry (but refused to deny it) and said I was just picking on her because she was a woman.

I blocked her immediately.  BTW: The Sniper was on her friends list.

The Old Friend

I have an old friend, a person I have known for over 50 years who kept reposting some of the most outrageous, nasty, illogical crap I have seen of Facebook.  I know that we did not agree politically but this was garbage.  Some of it was so ugly, even the bandwagon jumpers would not jump on his crap very often.

I posted comments asking him to prove the postings, to back up what he was saying.  He never did.  As far as I could tell, he would reports from the bottom-feeder sites, never look back, never commented, and never responded to commenters.

After several attempt to get him to respond, I reluctantly blocked him.

The Hypocrite

On some levels, I have violated my pledge a little in this case.  I blocked a certain individual because of their support of Donald Trump.  That is because of a very special group of circumstances.

First the person has a professional position that requires a level of ethics that also requires them to, for good or bad, be extremely careful about endorsing anyone whose ethics are in violation of the ethics this person espouses.  This is especially true in this person’s case because they are in the position to influence others through a position of authority.  To say endorsing Donald Trump is a violation of this person’s ethics is an understatement. I am not talking about anything more than Trump’s admitted private life.  His public life would be included as well but one could possibly find ways to excuse it if they wanted to bad enough but Trump’s bad behavior in his private life is not open for debate and publically acknowledged by Trump.

Second, my personal ethics and code of conduct is such that I could not see myself avoiding commenting of this person’s postings for very much longer, both for the content of the postings and the hypocrisy in supporting this P.O.S.

Finally, the real world relationship with this individual would be ruined if I said anything or posted anything.  Quite frankly, I was unprepared to do so.

I blocked this person.

I know that I do not have to explain, justify, or excuse anyone that I unfriended/blocked on Facebook.  It is just that I made a public promise, and as importantly a promise to myself, that I would never unfriend anyone solely because I disagreed with him or her. Sometimes that has been a challenge, but I feel that I have stuck to that personal pledge for the most part.

Since I have been active on Facebook, the only issue that has been up for any major disagreement has been the 2016 election cycle.  I have committed most of my posting efforts expressing my opinion about various people and issues during this process, as I still do.  I will continue to do so.

During this process I have heard from several posters who feel that I, and others, have “taken over” Facebook by dominating the postings with political issues.  I believed then, and still believe, that Facebook is what people want to be – good or bad.  For instance, I find it ludicrous that people post pictures of restaurant meals.  Stupid to me on several levels: food is getting cold, haven’t eaten it yet so do not know if it is really any damned good, and now everyone knows you are not home so they can get your crap at a discount.  But that is me: you are free to do it to your heart’s content.

In addition, during this same period I have seen posters disappear from my list.  Some may have gone inactive but I know that quite a few have blocked/unfriended me.  I know it is because of my politics, and I have the audacity to comment on their postings if I disagree with them.  This is especially true of a couple of people who, shall we say, do not broach disagreements in their personal and professional life.  That is OK as well.  I do not expect anyone to stand my standards as stated above – everyone has their own level of tolerance and ethics.  In short, I really do not give a damn.

Generally speaking the only people that I will unfriend or block are liars.  By liars, I do not mean people who accidentally pass on garbage, as there is too much of that crap on the internet not to be caught up at times.  I am talking about either knowingly passing on lies or initiating crap without checking sources.  I also have blocked one person who was a racist.  So far, that is it.  To wit:

Bernie Backer

You will notice that I do not refer to this person as a Bernie Believer. I know several Bernie Believers and they are still friended and will remain so.  In fact, under most circumstances, I may have been a supporter of Bernie’s but I say the handwriting on the wall and I was focused on stopping Trump.

No, this is a Bernie Backer.  The difference:  this person was so enamored with the idea of Bernie Sanders’ campaign that he was willing to believe and share the most outrageous and filthiest lies about Hillary Clinton that came down the pike.  On top of it, he had members of his friends list that would pipe in and was not only as bad but spewed nasty hate-filled remarks at anyone who disagreed with his point of view (BTW: apparently officially associated with the Sanders campaign).  I called my Bernie Backer on his posts, he would acknowledge the mistakes, and post the same kind of crap almost immediately.

If that was not enough when Sanders failed to win, my “friend” bitched and moaned on Facebook about how unfair it was and how he would never vote Democrat again and how it was so terrible.  In other words, threw a tantrum.

The only reason I had put up with the lies was the real world association I had with him.  However, I could not stand it anymore.  I unfriended him and peace settled in.

The Sniper

Then there was this dude who was not on my friends list but was a friend of someone who was.  He would wait for a posting and jump in and snipe at it.  He was constantly doing this to others, not just me.  Always, ultra-right wing and ultra-provocative.  Generally speaking, he was a lot of fun to post against because he was so transparent in his position that I could push his hot buttons without even trying.

I must admit, I twisted his tail on several occasions because, frankly, it was fun.  He was so tied up in his point of view he had lost touch with reality and facts messed with his mind.  The problem became that he started losing it, mentally and emotionally.  If I had known someone who knew him in the Real World, I would have had him or her check on him. To suggest it on Facebook would have been counterproductive.

In short, I blocked him before he became a problem.

The Secret Racist

I had one person who was rather active on Facebook postings who kept saying she was open/neutral politically prior to the election.  I knew she was not from her comments and posts but, as I have stated, I do not unfriend/block people for their politics.  The lie about neutrality: as far as I was concerned not a biggie as long as she was not posting nonfactual stuff.

Of course, after the election she could not resist admitting that she backed Trump.  After all, people generally like to be on the winning team.  I think she was surprised when I posted that I knew she was a Trump supporter.  This went on for a week or two, then in another posting, she stated that the reason she supported Trump was that Trump was going to protect her from THEM.  When I told her that she was using racist code words she got angry (but refused to deny it) and said I was just picking on her because she was a woman.

I blocked her immediately.  BTW: The Sniper was on her friends list.

The Old Friend

I have an old friend, a person I have known for over 50 years who kept reposting some of the most outrageous, nasty, illogical crap I have seen of Facebook.  I know that we did not agree politically but this was garbage.  Some of it was so ugly, even the bandwagon jumpers would not jump on his crap very often.

I posted comments asking him to prove the postings, to back up what he was saying.  He never did.  As far as I could tell, he would reports from the bottom-feeder sites, never look back, never commented, and never responded to commenters.

After several attempt to get him to respond, I reluctantly blocked him.

The Hypocrite

On some levels, I have violated my pledge a little in this case.  I blocked a certain individual because of their support of Donald Trump.  That is because of a very special group of circumstances.

First the person has a professional position that requires a level of ethics that also requires them to, for good or bad, be extremely careful about endorsing anyone whose ethics are in violation of the ethics this person espouses.  This is especially true in this person’s case because they are in the position to influence others through a position of authority.  To say endorsing Donald Trump is a violation of this person’s ethics is an understatement. I am not talking about anything more than Trump’s admitted private life.  His public life would be included as well but one could possibly find ways to excuse it if they wanted to bad enough but Trump’s bad behavior in his private life is not open for debate and publically acknowledged by Trump.

Second, my personal ethics and code of conduct is such that I could not see myself avoiding commenting of this person’s postings for very much longer, both for the content of the postings and the hypocrisy in supporting this P.O.S.

Finally, the real world relationship with this individual would be ruined if I said anything or posted anything.  Quite frankly, I was unprepared to do so.

I blocked this person.