Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Love & Hate in the Time of Facebook

Facebook. 

Has there ever been a bigger time-suck created in all of history - besides marathon showings of "The Walking Dead", of which I am very fond?

I don't post a lot because, like Hillary, I am technically challenged (and that's where the comparison ends).  I don't photograph my food, ask others to sign "Amen" to a tear-jerking re-post and then call my "friends" thoughtless pigs if they don't comply, or divulge my political or religious leanings (about which many of my "friends" would still characterize me as a thoughtless pig).

While society as a hole...oops, pardon me Dr. Freud, as a whole seems to be coarsening by the minute, FB merely seems to be hastening the decline.  I've done a lot of things in my life which I had hoped would've thickened my skin some:  stand-up comedy, capital markets broker, wife, mother, and Walmart shopper.  But THE straw that broke this camel's back was a FB post of a supposed childhood friend at the beach with her grandson and the picture of what she called 2 "obese" people standing way too close to said young one.  Some people seem smarter and smarter the more you get to know them.  She is not one of those people.  It was more along the lines of "how dare these obese people wear bathing suits out in the open like that!"  (I didn't think they were obese at all - in fact, my high school graduation picture should've looked so good.)  She then displayed ever more depths of her ignorance and intolerance by saying she had a little boy to "protect" from "these people".  Okay, imagine if said people in the picture were black, gay, wearing burqas, etc - you get the gist - she would've been slapped down for being the bigot she is.  But no, all the skinny people start "weighing" in about how they'd like those people to stand next to them at the beach so they'd look better by comparison "haha" (notice they said "look better", not "smarter" or "kinder" or "civilized").

A couple of people called her a bully.  I commented that I'd take being too fat than too rude any day of the week.  She then went on to say how fat people are costing her tax dollars with their free gastric by-pass surgeries (I didn't know they were giving them away), and all their health problems.  Basically, fat people, aside from their weight, are lesser people than everyone else.  I know a bit of her backstory and trust me, many other people's tax dollars were used at her expense - but I didn't dare confuse this hypocrite with the facts.

Okay, I am to the point in my life where I do shake stuff like this off once I've shared it with others.  As the saying goes, "It ain't what they call you, it's what you answer to."  So true.  I'm taking better care of myself but it is a struggle and will take time now that my metabolism has gone to wherever Jimmy Hoffa is.  And everybody's favorite, Forrest Gump, evens know that "stupid is as stupid does".  This woman will never know how ignorant she is but life is too short to include her in my precious life anymore.


4 comments:

  1. I've had similar experiences with FB - people that I've met in real life and like just fine are complete assholes on FB. And that's where it becomes challenging for me - do I say something? Do I unfriend them on FB? My opinion of them has certainly been lowered, and it dismays me to realize how truly awful some people are. I guess before social media they were just as awful, but they kept it to themselves more.

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    1. Right? I had to un-friend skinny minnie and another person for her incredibly insulting political statements - you know, "my side's perfect, your side sucks" - only with more vile inferences. Life's too short

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  2. The last sentence says it all - life is too short to have people like that in your life. I had a childhood friend that was the homecoming queen, pom pom and the like. Everyone just looked up to her because she was so beautiful. After I stopped playing sports in high school and college and got a desk job, I gained 80 pounds. I lost 70 of it before I met my late husband and when we went out to eat one time with this woman and her husband, I left to go to the bathroom and when I got back to the table I could tell something was said.

    My husband later told me that this "friend" told my husband that she still was friends with me even when I was fat. He immediately told me that she wasn't really my friend - which ended up being true. I moved an hour away and she never once called me to see how I was, because I was no longer convenient to her to watch her kids, drive her places, or hang out with her when her husband worked. It's been 15 years since I've spoken to her!

    Sorry for the long post - I type fast - I found you from Shelley! :D

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    1. What a creep! I once had a "friend" who always tried to steal my boyfriend when I wasn't looking. I never saw it as flirting (I was so trusting back then!) but my parents said never to turn my back on her. They were right!

      So glad you connected! Let's stay in touch. And kudos to you for losing 70 lbs!!! What an accomplishment!

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