The Woes of Facebook

I love Facebook. It is a vehicle wherein I can reconnect with old friends I have wondered about though out my life. It has also allowed me to make new friends of common interests, some of whom I have grown to love although I have never seen them face to face. It lets me share photos and keep up with family members where ever they live in the world. Among my group of friends are people living in six of the seven continents.

All that being said, Facebook does have its dark side.

I am not talking about salespeople or predators or anything of that sort. I am talking about people with real problems toward whom I should be compassionate and have empathetic concern were it not for their direct and deliberate efforts to slander my name and assassinate my personal character.

The first group are usually young leftists who can be readily identified by their profile pic and the name they chose to use on their wall. It is not a photo of them and it is not their name. It is a caricature and it a pseudonym. This way they can spread their filth and venom with complete anonymity and no fear of direct confrontation. It emboldens them to make brash threats and hurl vicious insults. Ironically, these usually champion the political party that says it is all for sweetness and light and "can't we just all get along?" I have come to think that a great many of these are about 14 years old, socially clumsy pimple faced punks who operate out of dark rooms in Southern California. Of course this is not always the case but is amazing how often it is.

This generation lacks all the social graces that previous generations were taught to live by. OMG, WTF, and MoFo are not just disgusting initials they use on Facebook. The phrases the initials represent are a large portion of the language they use in every day speech.

The second group consists of people who at first seem stable and firmly based. These usually become friends because I have posted something they like and they request I befriend them. We can go for weeks, sometimes months, carrying on polite interesting conversations. Then one day I will say something that will set off the bomb. I know immediately when I did because what follows is a tirade of paragraphs basically telling me what a slug I am.

Generally what sets them off is they discover something about my race, creed, politics, or religion. That would be bad enough if it ended there. But it doesn't. These people now make an activity of searching the web for places where I post and comment with vicious slander and lies. It doesn't stop there. They go further looking for disciples who will band against me.

Many poor souls believe the first thing they read and unfortunately that would be what they read from these types. I have tried to rebut the onslaught but it only irritates the person who initiated that particular dialogue with no benefit to me. Eventually these types go away -- eventually.

Thankfully, the great majority my Facebook friends are very wonderful people.