Thursday, November 10, 2016

It's Like Spam

My mom says I can't get 1,000 likes because handicapped people aren't beautiful.

People who abuse animals should go to jail, just like they do when they abuse children. Like and share if you agree: ignore if you're heartless.


On December 25, I say "Merry Christmas," not "Happy Holidays." I don't care who it offends.


I know who will share and who will not.


Can I get an Amen?

Fuck. That. Shit.

I was reluctant to join Facebook because I heard that the weirdos would come out of the woodwork. Some of my friends told me that people that they barely knew and hadn't seen in decades would suddenly reach out to become online friends, like lost puppies.

I didn't want that.

I joined the popular social network because it was a good way to feel like friends who were far away weren't that far. I could share in their travels and watch as their kids grew up. And sure, I connected with some people who I hadn't seen in decades, but these were people with whom I was close in my youth and had never stopped caring about.

I'm really glad that I have those re-connections. I no longer have to wonder, what ever happened to...?

And while I do enjoy seeing what my good friends and loved ones are up to, one of the things that I see, that makes me want to walk away from Facebook, are the posts that my connections share, which are from people that they don't know, or are messages that make me want to give those dear friends a loving slap across the face.

It's the spam-like messages that I posted at the start of this rant.

I'm sorry to be so blunt to the people in my timeline who post this, but I'm saying this with all the love that I have for you: cut that shit out! In the early days of e-mail, when many of my friends sent nothing but these spam-like messages, when jokes and pictures of kittens were forwarded like hot potatoes, I ended up blocking some of the people with whom I wanted to keep in contact but only sent that useless shit.

I want to know about what's going on in your life: I don't want to view crap that other people—people that neither of us know—shamelessly asked to have spread around like a venereal disease at an orgy.

Just stop it.

The most useless post I saw, recently, is one that just made me mad because it seemed to spark the kind of divisiveness that was so evident in the last Canadian election and, most notably, the division and hatred that has bubbled to the surface in the recent American election. It was this post:


Seriously, who has ever been offended by the sight of a poppy? Who?

Do you know who? I know who: no one. No. One.

This kind of rhetoric comes from the same right-wing nutjobs that think people get upset when they hear "Merry Christmas," rather than "Happy Holidays." When really, it's those people who have this belief that get upset when the reverse is uttered, like it's a huge insult.

I'm so tired of it.

Wear your poppy. Wear it proudly as a symbol for those who gave the ultimate sacrifice that made this country free, that made this country such a welcoming home for those who had far less. No one will be offended.

No one with a loving conscience thinks that a handicapped person can't be beautiful. And I don't need to share that message to care.

People who are cruel to animals should be punished. Abuse is abuse, and those who treat animals with such inhumanity tend to pass that on to people. Lock them up.

And please, stop the spam on Facebook. Whether you know it or not, I'm not going to share.

Amen.

1 comment:

  1. That's a British poppy in the graphic.
    Many hardline Irish republicans, in both the Republic and NI, take offence to the wearing of poppies. The logic, in a nutshell, is that it harkens back to the days when all of Ireland was under British control and glorifies some to the worst aspects of the British empire. It's less of a divisive issue than it was even 15 years ago, but that sentiment still exists.

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