Comments on: Am I Wrong to Avoid Making Political Points on Facebook?

By: Pete Spiliakos

Pete Spiliakos — Sun, 14 Oct 2012 13:27:46 +0000

Belated happy birthday Bob!

By: Kate Pitrone

Kate Pitrone — Sun, 14 Oct 2012 04:00:36 +0000

Happy Birthday, Bob! (Ooo, just like on Facebook.)

Carl, I have had very long conversations on Facebook, writing much more than probably made sense given the brevity of life.

By: Pseudoplotinus

Pseudoplotinus — Sun, 14 Oct 2012 03:40:02 +0000

Great subject. My general rule of thumb on facebook is, don’t post or contribute anything political unless it has a reasonable chance of overturning someones caricature or stereotype of conservatism. If you aren’t offering something that introduces some degree of cognitive dissonance to the typical liberal or passionate fence sitter’s idea of what a conservative is, then it’s probably not worth the effort.

Just my two cents.

By: Robert Cheeks

Robert Cheeks — Sun, 14 Oct 2012 02:27:33 +0000

Carl, thanks for the birthday wishes, I’m a young 66. Sorry but I posted my paranormal event on my f/b page, so you’ll have to be my ‘friend’ to read it! My guess is Peter and Caeser will be ‘friending’ me anytime now, just to read the very true story!

By: James the lesser

James the lesser — Sun, 14 Oct 2012 01:44:55 +0000

I try to avoid politics on FB also, for several reasons. FB is not constructed to make careful dialog easy. Some “friends” and family have organized their emotional life to make politics the center of their existence, and any contradiction is taken as a personal attack. And the level of discourse is so petty and stupid (“X wants to do Y to us all! He is a wicked jerk! Yep! Like. Like. Right on! Like Like like”) that it feels like wrestling with a pig. (No doubt that’s uncharitable of me.) Your “friends” and family may vary.

By: Carl Eric Scott

Carl Eric Scott — Sun, 14 Oct 2012 01:42:30 +0000

Thanks all. Kate, I guess it just seems to me that to the extent that things get political on fb, it is in very short snippets that do not allow for much discussion. Could be our (my wife and I use the same account) odd collection of friends and family.

Robert, it is of course vital for all pomocons to stay informed about paranormal occurrences at Wallyworld, so do tell.

And Happy Birthday!

By: Robert Cheeks

Robert Cheeks — Sun, 14 Oct 2012 00:49:51 +0000

Carl, if you and I were F/b friends you would know it’s my birthday, what I did today, and the fact I am about to relate a paranormal event that occurred yesterday at Wally world! Plus, you’ll get to meet my annoying friends across the globe, warming or not!

Consider what you are missing! “Friend” me and I’ll click ‘ok’, I promise!

By: John Lewis

John Lewis — Sat, 13 Oct 2012 20:07:11 +0000

I agree with Kate, and mainly get requests for “political opinion” on facebook.

Interesting that ceasar joked about buying facebook, but doesn’t contribute to its valuation.

Personally I am not sure Facebook is worth much more than Zynga. So I agree with Joseph Marshall, it could be.

By: sara

sara — Sat, 13 Oct 2012 18:00:48 +0000

I agree with Peter that Facebook is, for educational/information gathering purposes, most useful for directing people to articles and discussions outside Facebook. When I had an active account, that people exchanged political barbs and occasionally posted personal political manifestos was, depending on the content, only slightly annoying at worst. Unlike PomoCon, it didn’t seem like a great forum for discussion for lots of reasons, but I’m glad others have found it to be such, at least some of the time.

By: CJ Wolfe

CJ Wolfe — Sat, 13 Oct 2012 16:32:52 +0000

The answer is yes, if you are a normal person who puts Facebook to its normal purposes. My grandma, who was a true southern lady, used to say “In mixed company, don’t talk about politics or religion.” I don’t always follow my grandma’s directive; as Mike Uhlmann retorted to me once, “What else interesting is there to talk about than politics and religion!?” But there are certain social settings where I think my grandma’s advice makes sense.

The fact of the matter is, Facebook friends are VERY mixed company: Facebook is an F-ing peanut gallery. Random friends of friends chime in whenver something having to do with politics is brought up, and spout very ignorant comments. What’s worse is when guys I knew from highschool pop up and say something that neither I nor they would say to each other in person, and leave both of us worse off than if we had never been Facebook friends. That’s why almost everything I post on Facebook is only tangentially related to anything political.

It’s very frustrating to see friends and acquaintances making bad arguments or even getting suckered by the arguments of Facebook sophists. These arguments possibly could be corrected in short order, but I’m convinced that Facebook is the wrong place to do that kind of thing. Face to face is so much better than Facebook