Goodbye, Facebook

This is the end
It's done. I'm spent. I can't take any more. When it first started it was the height of frivolity. No limits, unbounded conversation. I posted and liked pictures, poked a few people, and even played a game or two of Bejeweled Blitz.

Then things got a little serious. Politics met social media and conversations I wouldn't dream of having over a beer were happening on my Facebook wall. These were still good times. I made a rule for myself to never delete what anyone posted so as to keep an open dialogue and open mind. I became something of an activist, attending rallies and protests based on groups and conversations I found on Facebook. To this day I have broken my censorship rule only three times, though I've lamented having it many more than that.

It's not the politics that have turned me off. I enjoy the vigorous exchange of ideas, seeking and finding common ground and compromise. I like pwning dumbasses with facts and watching the mental gymnastics they do to avoid changing their opinion. But one can only take so much.

A turning point
At some point the reason was completely replaced with the gymnastics. The demotivational pictures with their charged one-liners became the argument, rather than conversation pieces. No, I don't want to join your farming, pirate, slot machine guild. If you cared about my birthday, you would make a better effort than asking me to remind you of it. Stop. Fucking. Ruining. The Walking Dead!

Now the majority of my "friends" are as disengaged as if I'd never clicked on them. Most of them I don't recognize by the contrast between the flat, soulless propaganda they post. Political, religious, whatever. I'm just as turned off by the pictures of tortured dogs and diseased children as the blithe affirmations of Christ's love.

That's all I can stands...
Over the last three days I watched people, knowing how they really feel, choose to prioritize expressing their selfishness in the face of unimaginable horror. Selfishness. That's what it is. People afraid that the big, scary government is coming for their loud, bang toys because some psychopath decided to make a name for himself with the same toys. It's silly to talk about what might have happened with an armed faculty. If more guns equated to more safety this would be the safest country on the planet. But hypotheticals like that are unfounded, contradicted by data as vehemently as they are promoted by the NRA. Any question, any call to examine our violent, gun culture is an attack on freedom. In reality, all values require tireless and constant examination to be worthwhile. Except, somehow, gun ownership.

Detractors will be quick to point out that hey, liberals (a term too narrowly defined) deal in propaganda too. Maybe, but we libs are really bad at it. We tend to back our ideas with facts and research. And that takes time. Wouldn't it be easier to regurgitate NRA pamphlets and Bill O'Reilly quips? It really is a false equivalency and one I'm not willing to entertain here.

So long!
I have no illusions that the loss of one blowhard will make any impact on the day-to-day bullshit of Facebook. I'm just done with it. I'm done with the aggravation. I'm done with the misinformation. I'm done with seeing a side of people I love that I wish I would never see. Could I just purge? Could I just remove what I don't like and keep only those who agree with me or those who relish in the absurdity of constant contact. Probably. But that would be too much a violation of my own rule. Instead, I choose to remove myself. I'm the one with the problem, so I'm the one who should go away.

So, goodbye, Facebook. It's been real.

Todd Akin, Mainstream Republican

Think Todd Akin's utter horse shit about "letgitimate rape" is an extreme position? Did the chorus of conservative Republican outrage (outside of Reihan Salam and one other writer I can't think of anyone else, but I'll allow it) lead you to believe that such an awful position was too uninformed and calloused to be real, true, or pervasive? Think again.

Here, watch Rachel Maddow use empirical evidence to demonstrate how "legitimate rape can't impregnate" is mainstream.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The Republican "War on Women" is real and no Republican deserves a female's vote until they've righted their platform on these issues. The GOP is an affront to party politics and it is time to fix it or resurrect the Whigs.

Ode to Jamey

I read two articles today, back to back, that gave me hope that we are moving in a progressive direction, then crushed my sense that humanity, as a whole, is even capable of empathy.

The first was about an Army Officer who came out today commemorating the end of the don't ask, don't tell policy. The 26 year veteran, Lt. Colonel says the biggest relief is that he will no longer have to deflect when asked questions as simple as, "What did you do this weekend?" It will, as he says, "take some getting used to." The eighteen year policy that codified the marginalizing of gays in the military, as of 12:01 today is history. We will look back on the policy and the general rule which preceded it and ask ourselves, what were we thinking? As the president said upon signing the repeal of DADT, "We are not a nation that says, 'don't ask, don't tell,' we are a nation that says, 'out of many, one.'" We have taken a stand on our national identity, our moral identity, and we are on the right side of history. The side that arcs toward Justice. Amen, hallelujah, and pass the biscuits.

Then, perusing Facebook, I found an article from Buffalonews.com. But before I get into that, please allow me to introduce to you, Jamey:

 

I didn't know Jamey. Were it not for the terrible tragedy that occurred on Sunday, I never would have read his name or shed a tear, grappling to understand his plight. Jamey was a gay teen, bullied from the fifth grade for being different, even before he could grasp the full complexity of his difference from other boys. I know nothing more about Jamey's emotional state than what was described in the article, troubled. I know nothing about Jamey's mental state. I know nothing about Jamey's relationships with others. Experience tells me that those who are closest tend to lionize the departed, but reading his mother's words and his friends' it seems like Jamey was really a nice person. 

Bullying is so stupid. It's juvenile and petty, but its effects can be devastating, especially to a heart that is already troubled, already struggling with internal battles for identity. Jamey was fourteen when he apparently took his own life.

What factor the bullying was in Jamey's decision, we will never know. The fact is, it didn't help hm. He had his demons and the bullying fed those demons, or it was the worst of them, or it was one small fish in an ocean of pain. What is certain is that pain could have been avoided with empathy, compassion. Jamey would have had fewer demons to fight, or allies to help him. Allies to guide him towards acceptance and understanding. I grieve for the boy in a way as though he was my closest relative. Here's hoping his family finds some comfort. RIP, Jamey.