Someone posted a picture on Facebook, of Obelix, punching Vladimir Putin. Obelix, if you don’t know, is one of the main characters in the popular French comic Asterix the Gaul. He and his buddy, Asterix, are the only Gauls Rome never conquered. They couldn’t be conquered, because they have a magic potion made by their druid, Readymix, that gives them superhuman strength.
Obelix fell into the potion when he was a baby, so he’s the strongest of them all. He delivers large rocks called menhirs.
Asterix and Obelix fight the Romans, and assorted other foes, bopping them with their fists, with appropriate sound effects.
When they do, they say, “These Romans are crazy.”
So, when Obelix appeared on my Facebook page, knocking Putin, dressed as a Roman, out of his gladiator sandals, I posted underneath, “These Russians are crazy.”
I got sent to Facebook jail for hate speech.
From what I’ve been seeing on the news, the Russians are worse than crazy. Calling them crazy is a compliment.
But they didn’t see it that way in the weird world of social media.
My last stay in Facebook jail happened when I accidentally shared a post on the Parasol Protective Group (For Steampunk fans) instead of the Progressive Nerds Network. (The name is self explanatory. Nerds make the future!)
A friend was sent to Facebook jail for quoting a movie. I know said friend. She doesn’t write about anything controversial. She writes about SF Fandom, Outlander books, her dog, her cats, her parrot.
I don’t know what she posted. I know it was probably innocent.
I posted a paraphrase of a quote from a comic.
Congress may be looking into social media providers for the way they manipulate young people. But you can’t quote a movie, or worse yet, paraphrase a catch phrase and get away with it.
To paraphrase Asterix once again, these people are crazy.