Is it just me, or is the government shutdown prompting every bigoted asshole to expose their real self? I mainly use Facebook to promote my book and our products at a local farmers’ market, but I also use it to keep up with friends and family. I can generally tolerate one or two posts from friends that over the line, but at some point it is just not worth the heartburn.
If I were to guess, I add about 20-40 friends annually to my personal page, and I unfriend one or two a year that prove poor additions.
Yesterday, I saw the first out and out racist post from a Brazilian “friend” in Florida. He posted a picture of a distraught, disheveled black woman with the caption
"Will I still get my free stuff?”
That asshole is gone.
Second: an Opus Dei type Catholic from my local parish who had been getting under my skin with right winger, government conspiracies. She posted one too many tea bagger accounts of our President persecuting WW II vets and young cancer patients.
Third: An old high school buddy who had also been irritating me with his tea bagger trash. He couldn’t resist posting a photo of Jeff Foxworthy with the caption,
"Voted for Obama? You might be a dumbass."
Three people unfriended in about 24 hours. I didn’t have that many Facebook friends to start with, but I guess it is better to know their true nature than to continue pretending that everything if just fine.
I make a serious effort to not surround myself with people who think just like me. I am good for spirited debates, but if this shutdown last much longer, there will be a serious winnowing of my friends on Facebook.