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Friday, September 28, 2012

People Make Politics Too Personal

It's pretty well known that two subjects that people tend to get riled up about faster than anything else are politics and religion.  Conservative or liberal, religious or non-religious - people get fired up and passionate about their beliefs, regardless of which side of the table they sit on.  Because of this, I avoid preaching my religious and political beliefs as much as possible.  My close friends and family members know my beliefs, and even if they disagree with them we can still agree to disagree.  And it's fine.

I've never taken issue with anyone whose philosophies differ from mine unless they refuse to accept the idea that I may disagree with them.  Unfortunately, such a case happened earlier today.  I recently reconnected with an old coworker of mine on Facebook through my girlfriend.  We all remember one another from our days working together, and he sent me a friend request a couple months ago.  My girlfriend told me he's extremely outspoken about his political views, and they are polar opposite from mine, so I knew what I was getting into when I had accepted his request.

 Boy, my girlfriend was not kidding about his political views.  

During the political conventions a few weeks ago, he posted numerous times each night bragging about his views and why Romney was completely wrong to be President.  At one point, he posted up a picture of a quote supposedly from Romney about how he could relate to the black community in the U.S.  I did some looking on my own to find out if Romney had actually said some of the things the post claimed he did.

Turned out it was a completely bogus quote, made up by a satirical website similar to The Onion.  I posted a comment under the picture and said it was fake and included a link showing it was phony.  When I went back to check on the comments a short time later, I noticed he had deleted my comment and others had commented about the photo.  Fortunately, someone else said it was fake and included another link proving it.  To his credit, he chose to delete the photo all together and admitted it was a fake quote, but still said he was supporting Obama in this election year.

I still felt like it was a real slap across the face to delete my comment since it proved he was wrong.  I wasn't being obnoxious about anything at all, just wanted to set the record straight.  If the situation was reversed, I'd have no problem with being told I was wrong by others if they had the proof to back it up.

Yesterday, this same guy posted something about a tragic shooting in Northern Virginia earlier this week.  (Coincidentally, it was in the same area in which I had lived when I had lived in NoVA.)  A man shot and killed his wife and his two teenage sons earlier this week, and then turned the gun on himself afterwards Here's the story if you want to read more about it.

In my old coworker's post, he claimed the shooter was terrified of what would happen to his family and the rest of the country if Obama was re-elected.  You may notice that in the link I had included above, there was no mention of Albert Peterson fearing Obama's potential re-election.  There was a lot to suggest he had suffered much emotional and mental anguish from several sources, but nothing Obama-related.  I asked about that, and also asked if Peterson was the guy my coworker was referring to. In response, he posted this link to make his point. A few minutes later, he also deleted me as a friend on Facebook.

I have to comment about both his actions and his link.  First of all, his link to prove his point came from a British news outlet, which had cited an unnamed family friend.  No other news outlet I have read on the story has corroborated the idea that Peterson had such a fear of Obama being re-elected.  I'm not necessarily challenging the validity of the claim, but to take this one unnamed source as gospel over other news outlets is a fairly large leap in faith and logic.

Then there's his deleting me.  I'm more amused at his actions than anything else, but here's what blows my mind: I had the audacity to prove his original claim about Romney as inaccurate, and then asked a question about his claim on another story.  The fact that I even questioned his claims - forget openly challenging them, since like I said I try to avoid such political arguments - led to him deleting me.  So he couldn't handle the fact that I actually had different political views than him?  How absurdly immature is that?

The irony to his actions is that I recall him posting something on Facebook during the Democratic National Convention, bragging about the amount of diversity in the audience.  For someone who takes such pride in diversity, he couldn't handle the fact that I had a different opinion than him?

I suppose I sound like I'm taking something as trivial as being deleted on Facebook as personally as he took the idea that I had a different view than he did.  I'm more surprised and amused than anything else, so if he wants to only associate with those who share his political beliefs, that's his business.  My aunt is another such person who takes her political views much too seriously, and will openly challenge anyone who dares to express a different opinion.

Why people can be so shortsighted into thinking they're right and everyone else absolutely has to be wrong will always be a complete mystery to me.  In my opinion, the far left and the far right are equally out of touch with society; reality is somewhere in between.  Extremists are the reason how wars start (see: Hitler, Adolf), and the likes of Howard Dean and Pat Robertson personify why each extreme side cannot tolerate the other.    Such intolerance of other potentially valid views and ideas are exactly what has led to this country finding itself in the predicament it's in.  It's unfortunate that so many people on both sides of the political spectrum can't see past themselves, since that could end up making a big difference in the long run.

2 comments:

  1. you're a Republican??? WTF??? I'm deleting you from my Facebook!

    All kidding aside, I've actually been un-friended my a few people (I'm assuming because of my political posts- I don't think I've posted anything else that would offend anyone). I look at it this way: We're all entitled to our views. I may not agree with your views, but I respect them. Unfriending someone simply because they don't share the same opinion as you is narrow-minded...and you're better off not having that person in your news feed anyways, so good riddance.

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  2. GOOD RIDDANCE! :-)

    I have to say, I really do get annoyed by the amount of political stuff people post on Facebook. Who are they posting it for, anyway? I hardly doubt that anyone on Facebook sees a link to a story about Romney or Obama, and then says something like, "Well shoot, that totally changes my mind about that candidate! Guess I'll vote the other way now!"

    I agree with you though - we all should respect each other's views, even if we happen to disagree on something. I consider myself a moderate conservative, with hard conservative stances on topics like fiscal spending and abortion, but lean more towards the middle on other more social topics.

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