STFU, M.

A.K.A. Why I'm Giving Up Politics on Facebook

The short answer?  Because I want it to be fun again.

The longer answer?  Well, the longer answer has to do with several things.  .  .

STFU:  I'm a huge fan of STFU, Parents. The other day, I was preparing to share yet another article and I paused.  Because, for serious, STFU.

Family:  When I took my first focused history class, I studied the Reconstruction period.  It was a fascinating class with much to learn and an amazing instructor - and I was haunted in the class by the individual and family reconstruction and healing that must have had to happen in the post-War period.  How did those families function during the pre-War times?  Were there fistfights and fueds?  Did they sit calmly around the dinner table and simply not talk politics?  I don't know, I really don't.  What I do know is that social networks have given me insight into an ugliness in several family members (and they would say an ugliness in me) and I have no use for it.  Am I being naive by refusing to look at it?  Probably.  But battling it has failed - so perhaps the best thing to do is to keep my side of the street clean and push forward.

Friends: I have awesome friends.  Many of whom don't agree with me politically.  They've been respectful in their disagreements with me, but have grown tired of seeing a litany of prickly diatribes in their Facebook feed. More than a few, I'm sure, hid me from their feed because they just didn't want to see it anymore.  And that's fair.  But I miss my friends. I want them back. A recent Pew Study shows I'm not alone in being hidden (or hiding others).

Excellent examples: Some of those friends I mentioned?  They're amazing examples - examples that it is perhaps better to quietly live what you believe rather than bleat what you believe.  I admire them. I want to be more like them.

It never, not EVER, changes people's minds: For a few reasons.  I'd say this Cracked article does a good job of covering them: Five Logical Fallacies That Make You Wrong More Than You Think  And don't think for a moment that I'm ignoring my part.  Nobody on FB is going to change *MY* mind.  Why in the world would I believe I could change theirs?  In essence, it's nothing more than a simple fight and I don't like to fight.

So here I go, back over to FB, where I will try to be more Takei and less . . . not Takei.  Because who doesn't love Takei?