I have to admit that I have this love/hate relationship with Facebook. Social media, whatever that means, is all of the rage and whether or not we like it that is where you have to go if you want to be in touch with the world.
World is a pretty big word but Facebook really does put you in touch with the world. I continue to be amazed that I can take a picture on my cell phone and in a matter of seconds my brother can view it in Europe. Not only that, but I can do a live broadcast on my mobile phone that can instantly be seen around the world.
Facebook is a big part of this Brave New World.
The hate part of this relationship is that I find myself connecting with so many people that I would rather not connect with and as a result I find myself become increasingly discouraged by the intelligence of some of the people who label themselves as my “friends.”
Friend is a pretty nebulous term these days. I have reached my quota of “friends” and have to confess that I have no idea who most of these people are. It is sort of like going to a mega church where you “worship” with a whole boatload of people whom you have never met.
Like so many other things in our self-consumed culture “friend” has really become a meaningless term. I have a myriad of fake friends on Fake-book.
I bring this up because I love to use my Facebook posts to provoke people to think. It is a lost art…thinking… and I am on a personal mission to irritate others to engage in this obsolete exercise. In today’s touchy-feely culture most people have substituted emoting for thinking. “Feeling” has supplanted truth as the foundation upon which an argument will be built. Facts no longer matter. Feelings rule the day.
Recently one of the pieces of red meat that I threw out on my Facebook page didn’t take long for some of my “friends” to begin to accuse me of “discrimination”, as if that was a bad thing. Just like the monkey-see monkey-do programming was designed to do their reaction rolled off of their tongues like balls down the gutter at the local bowling alley.
Words have lost all meaning. The average Fake-booker, when regurgitating the word discrimination automatically thinks about race. In the mind of the average American those two words are synonymous…racist and discrimination. Nothing drives them battier than to point out that the world is full of discrimination and that discrimination is actually a good thing.
The fun part is watching them get angry as you point out the folly of their argument. Anger has been substituted in place of a logical argument. Remember, emotion rules the day. The madder they get the more they think they have won the argument.
So, permit me to offer a few words or advice on how to use Fake-book to your advantage. Because I have a method to my madness I find myself laughing at the responders rather than getting angry with them. I throw the chum out on the table and watch them swallow the hook. I rarely respond to what they post and that simply drives them crazy.
It is the dialogue that is important to me and I love to follow the post and enjoy watching my “friends” try to convince my other “friends” of their own wisdom. Remember this…people get on Fake-book not to LEARN something but rather to TEACH something. Everyone has an opinion and they love to pontificate in an effort to sway complete strangers to their way of feeling.
The most effective way to fight is to simply ask questions. Don’t waste your time trying to win them over with persuasive arguments but rather put your effort into asking questions about what they just said. Point out the foolishness of what the person just wrote and ask them to defend it by simply asking questions.
Just this week my Fake-book page blew up when I posted a series of seemingly non-connected statements. Each one was designed to gore a sacred cow. I have come to understand that it is through DIALOGUE not MONOLOGUE that a person is most likely to be persuaded. Don’t make it a battle over who is right and who is wrong. Heck, no one wants to lose that one. But focus the debate on truth and facts. You will be much more effective if you ask questions that will guide them to the truth rather than trying to cram the truth down their throats with your literary skills.
The greatest way to get them to change their mind is for them to come to the truth on their own. Don’t worry about winning. Just plant seeds.
The following are a list of questions that I posted on my Fake-book page last week. I threw out the meat and I simply let the dogs fight over it.
THE DEAD SEA IS DEAD BECAUSE NOTHING FLOWS OUT…MERELY IN. SOUND LIKE MOST CHURCHES?
HILLARY LOVES PLANNED PARENTHOOD. PP IS RACIAL GENOCIDE. 90% OF BLACKS VOTED FOR BLACK GENOCIDE. NOT VERY CHRISTIAN.
WHY DO SO MANY CHILDREN BORN TO BI-RACIAL PARENTS IDENTIFY AS BLACK?
IF SO MANY CHRISTIANS ARE PRO-LIFE WHY IS PLANNED PARENTHOOD STILL FUNDED?
IF WHITES ARE SO RACIST WHY DIDN’T 90% OF THEM VOTE FOR THE WHITE GUY?
ONLY FAKE CHRISTIANS CAN’T SEE THAT OBAMA WAS A FAKE CHRISTIAN. MAN IN THE MIRROR. HILLARY TOO. RYAN TOO. McCAIN TOO.
OBAMA WAS A FOREIGN GOVERNMENT AGENT. THEY CONVINCED YOU HE WAS BLACK. COLOR IRRELEVANT. LOYALTY CRUCIAL. NATION OF FOOLS?
TO DEVIATE: VEER OF THE NORM. DEVIANT. NOT NORMAL. SEXUAL DEVIANTS. KEVIN SPACEY? BRUCE JENNER?
HAVE YOU NOTICED THAT MOST PEDOPHILIA IN HOLLYWOOD IS MEN ON YOUNG BOYS? ISN’T THAT AN ODD WAY FOR HETEROSEXUALS TO BEHAVE?
KEVIN SPACEY LIKED YOUNGER BOYS. WEINSTEIN LIKED YOUNGER WOMEN. WAS COREY FELDMAN MOLESTED BY WOMEN? WHY NOT?
STOP BUYING THE PROPAGANDA. THINK FOR YOURSELF. EASY TO CONNECT THE DOTS IF YOU TAKE TIME TO THINK.
Facebook is a tool. Use it to your advantage. Don’t use it to make fake friends. We must use it to challenge the status quo. Simply light the fuse and watch the sparks fly.
