I've given up all hope of rational political discourse in digital format. Having played a silly Facebook game for years, when the election hoopla started I had 1700+ FB "friends" -- friends who seemed to be predominantly conservative. So I thought - COOL! We can have conversations. Discussions. Debates, even.
But it was not to be. My attempts to post thought-provoking articles that debunked fake news and explained rationally why Hillary Clinton was a good candidate for president were met with contempt that typically devolved into name-calling. It turned out that my "friends" weren't just conservative... they were rabidly, fake-news-promotingly, Obama-disparagingly, anti-liberals (the people not the ideology), conservatives. I was like a foreign body provoking an immune system.
So I'm (mostly ;) ) done with political posting. After listening to the following NPR 1A podcast, I'm going to try to listen more, ask questions of people with different opinions than mine, and do it face-to-face, not digitally.
Politically Speaking: Talking to Each Other with Civility
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We lost a few friends on FB who were just tired of the arguments and deactivated their accounts. It made me rather sad. I'm on FB to reach out to fellow bloggers and animal lovers. I did like reading the rational thoughts - both for and against - each candidate, but it seemed like both sides just couldn't speak to each other. It's really sad.
ReplyDeleteMonty, Harlow, and Ramble
...and welcome back! We are waaaaaay behind in our posts and blogging, but slowly catching up.