So many of us have stories of differing opinions with friends and family, with the differences rearing their ugly heads in Facebook comment threads. Well here we go again!
My in-laws, by and large, are a lot more conservative than Jim and me, and more conservative than our children, too. There have been a number of times over the last couple of years where our children's generation, in particular, has squabbled publicly about public policy and politics. Some of those occasions resulted in hurt feelings but little more than bruises. This week's episode of the soap opera seems to be a lot more damaging.
The details don't actually matter a lot, because it is the same thing over and over. Cousin A has one opinion, Cousin B pipes up to disagree, one or both of them are offended. All this usually would settle out quickly enough until Cousin C sticks his nose in.
Well, this time Cousin B unfriended Cousin A without privately discussing it with her first. Cousin A wanted to discuss it with B, but since he unfriended her, she could no longer send him a message. Instead she brought it up in the family "group" to express how hurt she was. You can guess how well that went. There are A LOT of cousins, especially when you include their spouses. There was a piling on. It was ugly.
The worst part of all, it seems, is those who insist Facebook should only be used to show off pictures of offspring or report superficial news. In their opinion, it shouldn't be used to reveal real selves. One of the cousins posted this:
I am a jumbled up mess. Product of extreme liberals, married into a staunch Republican family, operating a farm that is extremely successful but still receives government subsidies, opposed to and guilt-ridden about said subsidies, attending a very conservative church that condemns same sex marriage, yet 100% in favor of same sex marriages, living (for the rest of my life) in a town in which the mayor recently was encouraged to resign because he called a black child a "coon", disgusted at the number of people who were apathetic about the mayor's remark, 100% opposed to abortion and yet firmly of the mind that each woman should have the right to make that decision for herself, neither Democrat nor Republican and frankly disgusted with the whole lot of them, etc. etc. etc.
What this all means is that there is almost nowhere in my life where I can be 100% authentically me without offending someone or pissing them off. I am constantly censoring myself to prevent this. It sucks. It would be so awesome to have a place where I can be allowed to be authentically me and not have to worry about the consequences.
Facebook strikes again. One of the things I appreciate about Daily Kos is that, to a greater extent, I feel comfortable being myself. Sure there is censoring of details, sure there is censoring of comments that don't really need to be made. But here I can be myself in terms of my personality. I don't get that with my Facebook group. And that's even AFTER I unfriended all those in-laws more than a year ago.
Have YOU unfriended or blocked anyone on Facebook because of political issues?
7:07 PM PT: Cousin A has deactivated her account. This is a shame for those of us who love her and support her. Cousin B suggested she "un-family" him. Pretty low, indeed.
7:39 PM PT: And it only gets worse...
8:28 PM PT: Heading for bed now. Thanks, everyone for chiming in. I'll look in the morning to respond to any new comments.