Am I Wrong to Avoid Making Political Points on Facebook?

And to get annoyed when others do?

Seriously, I don’t know. I “like” my Songbook posts, so my fb friends can figure out that I write for this blog.  Once in a blue moon I’ll “like” a post here, such as Peter’s “Mender Not an Ender” one, but that’s it.

No pithy one-liners or sarcastic cartoons from me on political matters on the fb.

Here’s something I just wrote in the fb comments to a friend, a real friend, also an academic. It is the tail-end of my objecting to what I took to be a political point (a saner version of whole Romney lied meme Pete discusses below) he was making, I thought in the guise of a general prayer. You don’t need to know the details of our little tiff, but I did give him several comments with arguments and even a couple links to stories today showing that Biden lied in the debate. Normally “silent on fb” me came loaded for bear. Here’s how I concluded:

As for the issue about politics and facebook, different folks have different opinions. But is the above pleasant? Fruitful? Do I like interacting with you this way, or vice-versa? I have a PhD in political science. As a blogger I argue about and read about politics continually, and I guess that’s my outlet, and perhaps you need yours here. I confess I am STUNNED that the election is as close as it is given how obviously unfit for the presidency I think Obama has shown himself to be. I truly believe that many of my fellow citizens, including many of my facebook friends, have somehow been shielded from this reality. I mourn for our country, and will do so even if Romney wins, given the stunning ignorance—in my honest estimation—I think our citizenry is displaying. I suppose I could go on facebook and unleash, as I sort of am doing here, the many arguments I wish my fellow citizens would hear from someone. But, I don’t. Some scruple of some sort. Some reaction to my not appreciating all the pithy little points folks like to put on facebook. The U.S. will survive another Obama term, but as a scholar of constitutional law, I have grave worries about the imprint he might leave on the SC. And you know I have many other grave worries with Obama. But with all that is at stake, I still don’t preach politics on facebook. Perhaps that is a wrong choice. But it does account for some of my frustration when I find a wise fellow Christian and moderate-minded man like you giving little squibs of anti-Romney argument, while I remain silent.

There it is, warts and all. The bag I’m in. Maybe I was wrong to push back in this way, and since y’all don’t have the larger context it’s hard for you to judge on that score.

But the larger issue remains: am I wrong to try to avoid politics on fb?

How do you handle this?