Fear of Conservatives at FB

[scrabblequeen40]

If you wonder how FB got so toxic... here's an insightful answer from the Washington Post:

“Facebook does not speak Republican,” said a former employee of Facebook’s Integrity Team, which was created to ensure safety and trust on the platform, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak freely about a former employer. “This is what they know about Republicans: Tell them ‘yes’ or they will hurt us.”

More at
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/02/20/facebook-republican-shift/

I just spoke to FB in words it understands: Delete My Account.

Fuck you Zuckerburg and all the GOP weasels at FB who are pissing on democracy to protect fake news.

[Fullduplexxx]

1. Is that what dems need to do.... take off the gloves too

Is that what facebook responds to

[budkin]

2. This is why

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/nov/20/dozens-of-facebook-lobbyists-tied-to-members-of-congress-investigation-shows

[erronis]

19. Excellent - thanks for that link which is very pertinent now.

[budkin]

21. It's horrifying isn't it? n/t

[Initech]

3. "Conservative" is another word for "bully".

That's all these people do, that's why they're in power, and that's why our president is the biggest bully on the planet.

[scrabblequeen40]

6. If FB is only protecting itself

then, they've got another thing coming.

Accounts have been on the decline for last several years. Sane people are leaving the toxcity and finding other platforms for rational debate.

.. And young people are sharing their lives on hipper platforms that are NOT host to angry white guys posing as aggreived victims.

I predict they are going to lose even more accounts as the election picks up.

[Initech]

8. Oh yeah it's going to get really ugly in the coming months.

Definitely count on some serious shit going down on social media and a heavy increase in bot accounts.

[NRaleighLiberal]

4. Amen to that

I am 6 months gone from it, and 6 months happy. It is the swamp, along with twitter

[FoxNewsSucks]

5. But people, including a few posters here.

Will bleat that they can't see pictures of their grandkids without Facebook. It's too hard to send an email or pick up a telephone.

[Coventina]

7. Yep. In other words, "Don't inconvenience me in any way to help democracy." n/t

[scrabblequeen40]

9. I was one of those people until recently

I finally accepted the fact that the benefits do not outweigh the pain.

I am insufficiently amused/gratified by people's baby photos, kid achievements and overused memes to compensate for the hate they spew.

I mean, you may have a cute kid and pass around some funny memes, but you're still an asshole who thinks caging other people's kids is okay. I just don't need you in my life.

The only thing I can thank FB for is the transparency it provided into the lives of people I thought I knew.

Turns out, there's a reason why I didn't stay close to my best friend from second grade. She's a raving lunatic who thinks the angry liberals are killing babies and the mexicans are stealing jobs.

[Coventina]

11. That's one thing I can't figure out about Facebook defenders.

"I never would have connected with so-and-so if not for Facebook."

I (who have never had a Facebook account) feel that there is a reason why people in my past are in my past.



Welcome to sanity!

[lagomorph777]

14. Bingo. Live in the present and in the physical world.

Well, except for DU.

[Dem2theMax]

18. I could have written your post.

Have never had Facebook, have never wanted it.

The people I want in my life have always been in my life. I love hearing their voices, we send pictures by way of our phones or email. And we survive quite nicely. And no one is data mining everything we do.

[maryellen99]

10. I only use FB for my candle/wax,true crime, and political groups.

Most of my husband’s extended family have been unfollowed because they are trump worshippers. If he gets re-elected I’m getting rid of FB.

[Different Drummer]

12. I don't fear them.

It's just that my time is not sufficiently enhanced by reading comments from people I knew in high school blathering about how great it is to be a Republican in Doofus Don's America. Consequently, I spend my online time elsewhere.

[lagomorph777]

13. I never had an account and never will.

Same goes for the Twit platform. Yuck.

[DENVERPOPS]

17. I agree

Years ago, I asked my son about setting me up on facebook.

He said no way, their security was extremely poor to non-existent.........

I am laughing as I read all the crap all the facebook subscribers are going through..........

[ancianita]

15. Delete all you want. Might as well let all conservatives take over any medium rather than fight.

Last edited Thu Feb 20, 2020, 11:31 PM - Edit history (1)

It's only as toxic as you let it be.

One thing is clear to me: Facebook is not a Reddit hangout full of fuckups and ne'er do wells. It's full of your friends.

If you build your wall with a proper friend standard, and prioritize your news sources, FB is not the snake pit presented here.

It's really up to each of us to make the FB threads we wish to see.

Put your privacy setting on public and the argument above can hold true.
-- Set it on "Friends Except..." NOT "Public," which it will default to if you don't hit the Settings and actually decide
-- only friend people you've actually met; never anyone who asks nicely; never "mutual" friends of friends
-- list your news "likes" in order you want to see them;
-- snooze annoying friend posts for 30 days;
-- set the thread post order on the left sidebar at "Newest First",
-- stop using groups,
-- don't click on ads, and don't play games
-- "like" news sources, national institutions, organizations, hobby groups, etc.

then you'll see an immediate change in your FB quality: right sidebar ads will change; the friends you allow will show up, posting their range of interest postings, you'll see fun and thoughtful memes; useful news will shows up with great visuals.

It can be done 15 minutes at a time, total change time, maybe half an hour.

This Zuckerberg bashing reflects end user failure to use the easy tools his platform actually gives, more than a failure of the platform itself.

I'm not going to SELL FB. I'm not going to argue with those having "bad" experiences. They just have to solve their problems preventively with attention to proper setup of their walls, and they won't have those bad experiences.

But Facebook doesn't deserve maligning. You get out of Facebook what you put into it.

Bottom line:
-- No Republicans can have to access to your wall unless you have Republican FB friends or "like" right wing news sources; if you "Like" national news services (which is only fair at a national level, anyway), some will show up because of national reach of that news source.
-- I've deleted my Republican friends, or suspended them. There might be identifiable paid trolls in your favorite politicians' threads (e.g., those who show up on Schiff's or Pelosi's posts) but you can stop that, minimize that by opening up a new FB tab next to the working FB tab you're on, check out their wall, then right click their cover photo to report them, after that, they usually don't ever show up again.

-- It's up to end users to learn how to use Facebook's settings. If they don't bother, they'll get more noise than signal.

When the good stand by, do little to nothing, evil moves in an takes over ever more digital space. That's what's happening in our government. We can't walk away; we have to stand our ground and fight.

You see this as a battleground because you've let it become one.

[dhol82]

20. I'm with you on this.

I have cleared all toxic people from my FB feed. Only progressives populate the postings.
If there is any idiotic right wing talk it is from the occasional ‘other friend’ of mine. They usually get slammed by the others in the conversation.
I learn a lot of information that I would not have noticed otherwise.

[Dukkha]

16. Is this really a surprise

Facebook and Twitter both founded and run by socially inept billionaire alpha male bros. Both had secret closed door meetings with their Dear Leader. All they care about is protecting their wealth.

[ancianita]

22. If you build your wall with prioritized news sources, FB is not the snake pit presented here. It's

It's really up to each of us to make the FB threads we wish to see.

Put your privacy setting on public and the argument above can hold true.
-- Set it on "Friends Except..." and
-- list your news "likes" in order you want to see them;
-- snooze annoying friend posts for 30 days;
-- set the presentations on the left sidebar at "Latest First",
-- stop using groups,
-- don't click on ads, and don't play games

then you'll see an immediate change in your FB quality: right sidebar ads will change; the friends you allow will give higher quality postings; useful news shows up with great visuals.

It can be done 15 minutes at a time, total change time, maybe half an hour.

This Zuckerberg bashing reflects end user failure to use the easy tools his platform actually gives, more than a failure of the platform itself.

I'm not going to argue with those having "bad" experiences. They just have to solve their problems preventively with attention to proper setup of their walls, and they won't have those bad experiences.

Bottom line:
-- No Republicans can have to access to your wall unless you have Republican FB friends,or unless you "Like" national news services (which is only fair at a national level, anyway). I've deleted my Republican friends, or suspended them. There might be identifiable paid trolls in the political threads, but you open up a new FB tab,check out their wall, then call them out or report them, and they usually don't ever show up again.

-- It's up to end users to learn how to use Facebook's settings. If they don't bother, they'll get more noise than signal.