Arguments on FaceBook

[Domo]

I'm enjoying this. I am currently avoiding all political discussions, pretty much. It's not all plain sailing... every now and then an opinion will flash up that you deem dead stupid and you itch to correct, but ultimately your blood pressure and neurones will thank you for just taking a step back and saying, "who cares what they think?"

 

[indygirl99]

I'm enjoying this. I am currently avoiding all political discussions, pretty much. It's not all plain sailing... every now and then an opinion will flash up that you deem dead stupid and you itch to correct, but ultimately your blood pressure and neurones will thank you for just taking a step back and saying, "who cares what they think?"

I am known as a person who has strong opinions and IF you ask me I probably will tell you what I think. I don't just go spouting off and run over people with my thoughts but if asked will share.

But I am also known as a person who will "hear out" the other side. If someone posts a link or video I probably will go read/watch it just to see what is being put out there. Sometimes I had changed my opinion based on evidence or strong societal changes.

I do stop at arguing back and forth on facebook posts. So not worth it. Even the extremely dumb ones.

Now the DIS that is entirely different.

 

[diznygirl]

I only point out the posts that are obviously false - usually with a link to Snopes. Yup, I'm that person. You can have any opinion you want, but it has to be based on fact.

 

[kimblebee]

My BIL posts the most hateful, racist things you can think of. I used to get sucked in and we would have some massive arguements. Now, I just ignore it. It's reaallllly hard not to point out what an idiot he is though.

 

[Turn the Page]

I try to avoid facebook arguments but I did get in one heated one a few years ago. This woman I went to high school with is very vocal about her antivaccine, super crunchy (while going to Taco Bell on a regular basis), attachment parenting, cosleeping, baby calls the shots views. Whatever, beyond the vaccine thing you can do whatever you want with your kids as long as it doesn't affect mine. Anyway, she posted a meme on facebook that was a picture of the ingredients label on a can of formula and the caption said "store bought formula is 81% fat and sugar. And we feed this to our kids?!?!?!?!" She prefaced the post by saying that it wasn't meant to offend or judge any of her friends who bottle fed their kids she was "just saying...."

Then she and her fellow crunchy friends started talking back and forth about how terrible it was that store bought formula was even an option and how babies are hurt because it's still offered for sale and moms that bottle feed only do it because they are lazy and on and on and on. Then one of them comes up with this gem about how if for some reason you genuinely can't breast feed and aren't just too lazy to do it (and she stated multiple times that there are absolutely no medical reasons why a mom couldn't breastfeed) then they should use homemade formula and that sugar was never needed in the diet and she just couldn't understand why people were getting offended by her comments since she was just telling the truth.

There is having a differing opinion and then there is just downright stupidity.

 

[dclpluto]

People seem to know it all on Facebook . No one is wrong. Lol

 

[havaneselover]

I have had to ignore a lot of people/friends because I don't want to talk about politics or race on Facebook. It never ends well, someone generally gets ganged up on, and it doesn't change anyone's mind. I wish there were a way to only see cute pictures of friends' children and dogs

 

[MickeySP]

I don't argue on FB cause I'm not 12.

 

[shoney]

i read them for entertainment purposes.

there have been a few major political and very nasty arguments in my DH's family lately. I said the next funeral is going to be very awkward!!!

 

[nene0182]

The best arguments I saw on Facebook was last summer when union employees at my husband's work were on strike. I kept my opinion out of it (pretty much had to since my husband is management and a salaried employee) But the petty comments and lies that were being said were ridiculous but also quite humorous at times.

 

[ronandannette]

I don't argue on FB cause I'm not 12.

Neither do I but the opening post pretty much describes the DIS (and a couple of other message boards) for me all day, every day! Peace

 

[wenrob]

I only point out the posts that are obviously false - usually with a link to Snopes. Yup, I'm that person. You can have any opinion you want, but it has to be based on fact.

This is me. I don't even say anything just drop a link and move on.

My BIL posts the most hateful, tastier things you can think of. I used to get sucked in and we would have some massive arguements. Now, I just ignore it. It's reaallllly hard not to point out what an idiot he is though.

I deleted my youngest brother for this. He actually dared people to. I wasn't the only one who did.

I try to avoid facebook arguments but I did get in one heated one a few years ago. This woman I went to high school with is very vocal about her antivaccine, super crunchy (while going to Taco Bell on a regular basis), attachment parenting, cosleeping, baby calls the shots views. Whatever, beyond the vaccine thing you can do whatever you want with your kids as long as it doesn't affect mine. Anyway, she posted a meme on facebook that was a picture of the ingredients label on a can of formula and the caption said "store bought formula is 81% fat and sugar. And we feed this to our kids?!?!?!?!" She prefaced the post by saying that it wasn't meant to offend or judge any of her friends who bottle fed their kids she was "just saying...."

Then she and her fellow crunchy friends started talking back and forth about how terrible it was that store bought formula was even an option and how babies are hurt because it's still offered for sale and moms that bottle feed only do it because they are lazy and on and on and on. Then one of them comes up with this gem about how if for some reason you genuinely can't breast feed and aren't just too lazy to do it (and she stated multiple times that there are absolutely no medical reasons why a mom couldn't breastfeed) then they should use homemade formula and that sugar was never needed in the diet and she just couldn't understand why people were getting offended by her comments since she was just telling the truth.

There is having a differing opinion and then there is just downright stupidity.

I had a friend just like this and I did my very best to just scroll on by and keep my mouth shut. Then there came the post blaming the flu or HPV vax for the sudden, unexplained death of a 13 year old boy when they had NO IDEA whatsoever if the boy had ever had any vax let alone those in his life. It was absolutely despicable the way they were using this and I ended a ten year friendship over it. I'm an agree to disagree kind of person but this was just deplorable.

I have had to ignore a lot of people/friends because I don't want to talk about politics or race on Facebook. It never ends well, someone generally gets ganged up on, and it doesn't change anyone's mind. I wish there were a way to only see cute pictures of friends' children and dogs

You can. There's a little arrow above the post on the right. Click on that and you can hide the sources of the posts. It's made my feed a much more pleasant place

 

[Turn the Page]

I had a friend just like this and I did my very best to just scroll on by and keep my mouth shut. Then there came the post blaming the flu or HPV vax for the sudden, unexplained death of a 13 year old boy when they had NO IDEA whatsoever if the boy had ever had any vax let alone those in his life. It was absolutely despicable the way they were using this and I ended a ten year friendship over it. I'm an agree to disagree kind of person but this was just deplorable.

What really cracked me up about the whole thing was the misinformation. The one woman tried to claim that she knew sugar is never needed in the diet because she is lactose intolerant. And making your own formula? That sounds really dangerous. There was a woman who was a nurse in an ER commenting and begged them not to feed their babies homemade formula. Apparently she sees a lot of infants brought to the ER in various states of malnourishment because their idiot parents were making homemade formula and screwing up the recipe.

 

[NHdisneylover]

I am nearly always up for a respectful exchange of ideas.

I post my opinion on a lot of hot button (and less so) topics on my own facebook wall and am usually fine with (again, respectful) opinions to the contrary (and once in a while when something is really emotional for me--I say so in my post and ask for those opinions not to come up-----so, for example, as the Paris attacks were going on and I posted support for Paris I asked that no one post anything anti-refugee and deleted the posts that still showed up).

I try not to argue on other people'S wall--though, like a PP, I will post a link to refute obvious distortions of fact (snopes, etc) and will discuss if someone seems to genuinely want to.

 

[Nohal]

So many times I want to like something but don't because I don't want to get into it with anyone. I belong to some Survivor and Big Brother groups and wow some of the people that post there are brutal. I think sometimes people don't realize it is a public forum that others can see.

 

[havaneselover]

You can. There's a little arrow above the post on the right. Click on that and you can hide the sources of the posts. It's made my feed a much more pleasant place

I tried that. I still get a number of obnoxious political posts. So I unfollowed.

 

[wenrob]

I tried that. I still get a number of obnoxious political posts. So I unfollowed.

Yeah, some people seek and post those like it's their job. Makes you wonder if that's all they do all day when you hide so many sources and they come up with even more.

 

[wenrob]

What really cracked me up about the whole thing was the misinformation. The one woman tried to claim that she knew sugar is never needed in the diet because she is lactose intolerant. And making your own formula? That sounds really dangerous. There was a woman who was a nurse in an ER commenting and begged them not to feed their babies homemade formula. Apparently she sees a lot of infants brought to the ER in various states of malnourishment because their idiot parents were making homemade formula and screwing up the recipe.

They are Google U experts and no amount of fact or reason will sway them in my experience. It's not just misinformation, it's people preaching that info like gospel and others blindly following. What always made me nuts about this particular friend is that she, her husband and all her older kids were all fully vaxed before her crusade began. She has no real skin in the game but is preaching to others not to do it and they follow.

 

[cijay]

Lately (I'm sure we're all talking about the same issue, too) people I know have been saying mean, hateful and racist things that I didn't know they were capable of. Of course us having a total switch in government doesn't help either. I haven't unfriended them but blocked comments for awhile. My cousin, over a particular issue with his brother and sister posted this general "embarrassed to be part of this family, you're all just a bunch of drama queens and I'm embarrassed to even know you and you can unfriend me if you want." So I un-friended (because, why not?). Apparently, he posted an apology. Somehow he expected everyone who had left to know this. Later I just said that I'm not on his facebook and his mum said "he feels really bad for that and he's really sorry." But I've yet to hear any apology from him.

The ones I can't stand (and I did un-friend my cousin's wife for this because it was all she ever posted) was "blah blah blah I don't like this, it's not nice, I'll bet some of you won't have the guts to share this." I also un-friended another one because she only posted babies with horrible birth defects asking for prayers. No family pictures or what she has been up to. Someone asked her why and she said "if they want to know that they should call and ask". Which I did (she lives in Turkey so not so easy now) but every time she would mention facebook I reminded her that I'm not on her facebook, her posts are too upsetting.

I do like referring to snopes and other dispellers, too. Especially when they have the 'facebook you can't use my picture...' rant.

One thing I will not do over the internet with strangers (either friends of friends or in shared things) is get offended. Really. Why waste energy on it? I have an on/off switch on my computer. Topics brought up go WAAAY outside of what was originally said and eventually nobody is listening to what you're saying in the first place. People just get entirely too worked up, I'm so unflappable in most issues. When it gets to that point I don't want to trouble anyone else with it - if they want to talk to me, they can message me or phone me.

 

[shoney]

I only point out the posts that are obviously false - usually with a link to Snopes. Yup, I'm that person. You can have any opinion you want, but it has to be based on fact.

My DH tried that during one of the arguments. Apparently, "Snopes is run by liberals in their basement." It just isn't worth the time or energy. People believe what they want no matter how stupid it is!