Politics

I don't often create posts about politics.
There is an old saying that one should not discuss religion or politics in polite company and, like most well-known sayings, there is a reason why that became a wise old saying.
I have friends and relatives who are flaming liberals, others who are libertarian radicals and others who are right-wing racists. Most of my friends are somewhere in between these extremes on the political scale. Since I respect individual opinions and would just as soon keep a wide variety of people as friends, I do not usually initiate political conversations.
That does not mean, however, that I never, ever discuss politics.
Social media includes a wide variety of political and religious views. It's easy to share or re-post something without thinking it through. A couple dozen of my email and Facebook friends forward and re-post a lot of non-original material: cat pix, sappy inspirational sayings, photos, cartoons, music clips and political commentary.
Most of this stuff I glance at and then ignore.

If I want to encourage the poster, I will "like" it or "reply" to the email with a "thanks."
If I REALLY like it, I may make a comment.
If I would like more information about the topic, I'm not afraid to ask a question.
Since there is no "dislike" button, probably the best way to deal with people who post way too much stuff is to simply ignore it.
However, there is one other thing that causes me to make a comment on a political statement: if I know it is based on total garbage, I will call it out.

That's because there's another old saying that evil will flourish when good people say nothing.
I learned early in life that bullies gain power when they aren't called out. That doesn't mean that I call out every bully; I believe it was Teddy Roosevelt who said "you can't die on every hill." I also don't believe that people want to hear my opinion on every topic. But if the topic is something about which I am knowledgeable, I will say something. If it is something that just sounds wrong, I may do a little checking, perhaps on snopes.com or a legitimate, nonpartisan news source, to see if the poster has the facts right. And if it is dead wrong, I may email or post my comment in the spirit of "constructive criticism." Sometimes I will ask the poster where they got their information or if they can give specific examples of how some "urban legend" is true.

A few of my Facebook and email friends appear to be gullible, getting sucked into every passing fad on the Internet. Those are the folks who think "If I saw it on the Internet, it must be true." (Yes, I do have friends who are that stupid. God bless 'em and I hope someday they get a clue.)

Others feel that being religious or patriotic "excuses" them from the responsibility to check out memes before they pass them on because they think that their "motive" is genuine. (To them I respond, lying is lying. "Two wrongs don't make a right.")

Three topics on which I consider myself to be relatively well informed are health care reform, U.S. history & geography, and welfare reform. (Fifteen years as a journalist and 14 years as a county commissioner who specialized in health & human service policy development gave me a fairly solid background.) There are a great many Internet posts on those topics, and a lot of it is flat out false.
Another popular topic is slamming religious or immigrant groups.

As someone who has personally been deeply hurt by false rumors, I recall wishing that someone would stand up for me so that I was not the only one standing up for myself. Even though the rumors about me were later shown to lack merit, spreading rumors is like ripping open a feather pillow on a windy day--and then going back and trying to collect all the feathers to reassemble the pillow. Even if a thoughtless gossip apologizes and tries to make amends, one can never track down every lost feather.

Sometimes an individual or group is being falsely accused and, quite frankly, it is cowardly to not stick up for them if you know differently. How many of the murders and character defamation that occur are caused by people "assuming" that something is true about an individual or group without checking the facts?

So although I won't deliberately and aggressively initiate a political confrontation, if you are being a bully, I will try to defend the people that you are picking on.  If I know that something is false, I will call it out. People are entitled to their own opinion, but they are not entitled to making up their own facts. I don't want to lose you as a friend, but friends don't let friends spread false and hurtful information. If you don't want someone calling you out on social media, then don't post provocative memes. Stick to cat pix.