Snapped

[smokingboot]

Well, for god's sake.

I tend to stay off FB now, except in the mornings to wish people happy birthdays. But I try to keep my involvement down to 20 minutes, no more. The first thing I saw was a sort of minor friend ... not someone I know well but a pleasant enough gentleman... losing the plot with a few added expletives. And I just sounded off right back and defriended him.

Silly of me really, he's in general a fine sort as far as I know, and he wasn't being a bloody racist which seems to be an increasing rarity. He was probably just reacting to the manipulation of tragedy by FB, and I should have just let it slide, but couldn't hack the aggression and the swearing first thing. Hard cussing doesn't even bother me that much normally, it was just a moment's WT? like walking into a communal kitchen to find someone shouting at me. Now things are going to be awkward between us next time we meet. I'll try to make it OK without being dishonest; fact is he kicked off mighty hard. But it has been a while since I knee-jerked... Actually, no it hasn't. Last time was the death of Aylan Kurdi. All this stuff about refugees/wars and long term crap in the middle east is just getting to me. But this article may well help keep me on track.http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/no-piers-morgan-how-destroy-islamic-state-1630388804

Oh, life is better when I don't spend time on FB. Then I tried to get on with research, only to suddenly come down with the most incredible migraine as I was reading about Tolkein and the war, it was so weird,the way it always has been weird, the glorious gift of an over-active imagination. For a moment I had this vision of the trenches and a young man smiling at me, then suddenly I got that wiggly sight through water that, for me, usually heralds the start of a migraine, and away we went, no more screenwork - in fact, no more anything requiring open eyes - for much of the day.

Still, I am much better now. And tomorrow will be better still.

Comments

[semyaza.livejournal.com]

I have things arranged on FB so that I don't have to see what I don't want to see - which means staying away from people I know on LJ as much as I can, looking at pictures of bears and gardens, and filtering out anyone who irritates me. I feel somewhat detached from the idiocy on LJ now that I'm no longer posting but I still find myself irked by friends and ex-friends who believe that John Lennon's 'Imagine' and what it proselytises for is an answer to IS or any other of our current ills and say so ad nauseum. No, it's not. The vapid ideology and lack of fibre that it preaches is part of the problem.

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

I'm getting less tolerant on FB. My filters seem to be in a constant state of siege.
With this guy I should have used the unfollow really, it would have been a 'better' though not honest way of dealing with it, because he's a guy I bump into from time to time. Still he who shouts must be prepared to be shouted at. So he can live with that and not scream 'Fight,' especially not 'F*CKING FIGHT!' unless that's what he really wants.

I think 'Imagine' is a beautiful song, but even JL didn't live by it as a philosophy - he hardly died a man with no possessions. Nor do I see many who espouse the song's ideas giving up their own.

[semyaza.livejournal.com]

I don't see why people who are deliberately offensive should be surprised when someone is offended. I've always assumed that they intend the offence. Moving people around from filter to filter makes me feel more passive-aggressive than I really am. Your acquaintance might not mind being unfollowed. Some people don't.

I loathe 'Imagine' - not so much at the time but once it became an anthem of atheists and secular humanists. I'm not much for anthems. Lennon didn't even believe it when he wrote it.

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

Truth be told, my only concern is to ensure an easy time at mutual gatherings, without turning into an utter panderer for the sake of it. Beyond that, he isn't a close friend, he knew what he was saying and was surely aware of its impact, and we'll be all right or not. Either way, it's not really a problem.

'Imagine' is lovely though it's not a song I play often, or even over and over. Whenever I get this stuff from atheists I ask them to imagine Europe without over 8oo years of hospices, hospitals, almhouses, schools, etc, providing something akin to a welfare state when there was nothing else. They seldom imagine me an answer.

[semyaza.livejournal.com]

I hear you. In situations like that I carry on as normal and leave them to do whatever.

I bet they don't. When someone has a maggot, you can't do much about it.

[jfs.livejournal.com]

Oscar Wilde defined a gentleman as someone who never offended anyone unintentionally. Holding that in mind has massively curtailed (and improved) what I post on Facebook.

The wisdom of Mr Wilde

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

Thank you for this. It's good advice, and though I manage to follow it unintentionally most of the time, a little more mindfulness can't hurt.