I got “de-friended” on facebook yesterday, apparently for disagreeing with someone’s opinions (I will call her “Natalie”). I’ve defriended people before, but to my knowledge, this is the first time it’s happened to me, which probably means that I’m not trying hard enough.
This is how it went down. I noticed first thing in the morning that Natalie’s status message said something like:
We should all be thankful for the people on wall street because if they weren’t making the big salaries that they are they wouldn’t be paying taxes and they pay pretty much all the taxes dontchaknow and so without them we wouldn’t have welfare or unemployment or roads so be thankful that there are hard-working people on Wall Street and don’t complain about how much money they’re making.
The first thing I said was, “For serious?” just to make sure she didn’t forget to close her <sarcasm> tag (hey, we’ve all done this before!). She was serious. I commented, “I have nothing against people or businesses making money. I have a problem with all the people or businesses who are stealing money. And that includes everyone on Wall Street. No exceptions.”
Another person chimed in after that and said, “I would LOVE to hear your explanation,” so I perused my archives and sent links to three of my previous entries on the matter.
- Bailouts, Bullshit, and Blackmail: How Banks Profit in the 21st Century
- Engineering a Depression: Monetary Policy 101
- In Communist America, Goldman Sachs Forks You!
Natalie responded with expected jackassery, “That’s a blog which is an opinion not a fact and it’s a one-sided blog. Nice”.
Well, Natalie.
Your other pal there asked for an explanation, and here it is. It’s my fucking blog, and it’s my opinion. You didn’t cite any “facts” or “two-sided sources” in your comment, the only reason you’d hold me to such a standard (which you failed to meet!) is to shift the goalposts.
Another acquantaince (who I remember seeing shoved through a window whilst taking the business end of a toilet-plunger to the gut…) chimed in and gave me an “Amen, brother!” and tossed out a few quotes he must’ve found elsewhere which were similarly disagreeable to young Natalie’s naÏve worldview.
Natalie said that “without the banks I wouldn’t be able to get credit” and other nonsense like something retarded about the “great depression”. I asked—in all seriousness—who she thought was responsible for either the great depression of 1929, or this depression. No answer. I tried digging up the conversation this morning, only to find out that Natalie is no longer among my list of friends.
Oh well, she was a friend-of-a-friend facebook-whore to begin with. Good riddance. My only regret is that I would’ve copied (screen capture, preferably) the swill she was peddling.
It can be really amazing to what lengths people will go to to defend Wall Street. I usually try to stay pretty amicable, but, on one occasion, a redditor was defending the bailouts. I explained that the bailouts were a waste of money and that nothing would have happened except that the shareholders and management would have been wiped out, etc, etc, using a farming (real goods) analogy. He replied that I didn’t know how finance worked and that futures markets (as in farming) were not relevant — insulting my intelligence and totally missing the point. I about lost it. Not surprisingly his screenname was “chairmanCEO.”
the irony of that screen-name is to die for :)
I’m amused once again.
Maybe one day people will be willing to surround themselves with others based on who they are and not based on how much they agree with everything you say. Crusades anyone?
Let’s take a peek inside “Natalie’s” skull for a minute, shall we, based off the original statement?
“OMG, I’m late for school/work and gotta buy my tickets can’t wait to see who gets voted off the island next who sings the best dances the worst Tiger’s wood playing the wrong hole who’s Paris doing? i’m meeting up with friends for lunch hope we somewhere good this time i need more money and a better job hey that guy is cute gotta return my stuff to the store Obama is super awesome and speaks so well what are his policies I don’t know but he speaks so well and he isn’t horrible Bush…”
It’s like loud white noise ya just can find the remote to turn off.
Then…she votes.
Ooops…I meant:
It’s like loud white noise ya just can’t find the remote to turn off.
Said in best Homer Simpson voice, “Stupid public education.” ;)
Welcome to the modern day Babel where no two people speak the same language. The distinction of humans from animals is their precise means of communication but when communication fails humans revert to animals, as in the case of Natalie. She has reverted into a DingBat, origination BumFuk, Egypt.
I see this stuff all over the place all the time anymore, what can you make of it? Nothing. So I narrow my focus, stay to myself and mostly mind my own business as it all falls apart. Natalie won’t live her whole lifespan….
Yeah, it really is pretty amazing what an immense source of blagging material social networking sites are: Facebook, Reddit, etc. If you paid attention to all the political discussions that you could and commented on all the misconceptions and horrifying opinions that people excrete online, it would occupy you 24/7! Be a good ambassador for libertarianism, that’s the best thing we can do.
That’s awesome. You should go back and try to re-friend her to carry on the discussion. Isn’t it funny (sad) seeing things like that after we watched the Zeitgist movie and how entertainment is dumbing down our society.
What always sucks is you want to inform people like Natalie that their facts are wrong and that you are only trying to give them the right info without making them look dumb. Unfortunately they always tune you out and don’t want to further the discussion.