Heart breaking facebook email from an old friend

[coeur_de_lion]

One of my dearest friends until now, she wrote among other awful things:

People don't hate Obama because he's black. Haven't you heard? He supports ISIS. He sends reps to funerals of people he wants to use to his advantage and ignores the death of those who don't. His wife is a racist instigator and uses her power for her agenda not Americas. Is he even trying to snuff out this raging fire of discord? No. He is not an American President. Obama Husain Binladin supports terrorists. Ooops, I mean Barak Husain Obama.

I'm shattered. I know I rarely post here anymore but I had to come get some sympathy. I knew my old DU friends would understand.

This girl was my loyal side kick from the age of 13. We are separated by several states now, and only keep in touch via facebook and (very) occasional visits.

I have seen some wing nut posts of hers and scolded her but I just had no idea . . .

I think I may have to unfriend her. I think some beautiful childhood / teenage memories just became tainted forever. I swear she was not like this when we were kids. Not at all.

[lpbk2713]

1. Behold ... Faux Snooze.

"I am become ignorance. The destroyer of minds."

[Person 2713]

2. Once they start drinking the tea it's usually a habit that seems hard to stop and

it doesn't get better. Had a coworker who left the company and had just started drinking in the tea right before that time. Keep in touch he said . Why so I can hear you lead every conversation we have now to some right wing talking points or absolute nutter fantasy? Never tried to contact him So like you fb friend from childhood I think It was nice knowing you when
(You were sane)
Yes they go crazy real fast and higher speed takes on because it is a sad downward spiral

[Archae]

3. Had the same thing occur with a good friend.

She used to live next door to me, and was liberal to the core.

She moved to Louisiana, fell in with a bunch of redneck truckers and is now frothing at the mouth anti-Obama, racist, and blithering stupid.

[Luminous Animal]

4. Really. That is the first time she ever wrote awful things? She never once expressed an opinion

about Obama? All through both elections?

[coeur_de_lion]

17. She has re-posted a couple anti Obama things

I chastised her both times. But that was just the tip of the iceberg apparently.

[prayin4rain]

5. I'm sorry. I've been in a long slow

painful break up with my best friend for six months. She married a redneck gun nut right wing asshole and there's hardly any of her left. It's sad and destabilizing.

[moonscape]

6. Do not understand where

all that crazy comes from. Rather, how even a sliver of logic in a fully-formed (not pubescent) mind could accept it.

Having grown up in the South, but absent the last 40 years, when I return I find old dear friends with whom I have only that past in common. But mine are more along the lines of when they mention Benghazi - you know, former free love hippie friends who were in the streets protesting Vietnam. It never fails to be a disconnect for me.

Being conservative is one thing and difficult enough, but being off-the-rails crazy is another.

Very sorry.

[Skittles]

13. I think the line between being conservative and being batshit insane is being blurred by the day

seriously, they seem to have gone off the rails - look at the candidates in the repuke clown car, running for president - THAT is the best they can do? It is horrifying.

[beveeheart]

7. I've experienced the same thing too

with several old friends. I had to let them go. It upset me that they changed so much, so quickly after Obama's election. Like you, I had no idea how different our views had become. Unfriend her and make new friends.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

16. They never "changed". They were always racists.

[coeur_de_lion]

18. No she honestly wasn't

When we were in our late teens it was the disco craze. She's a really good dancer. In VA in the late 70's it wasn't cool to dance with the black guys but she always did -- they were her friends. She even scandalized our crowd by dating a black guy.

No I'm telling you I know this woman and she was no more racist than I was. She's fallen in with a bad crowd.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

20. Just because a white woman likes to dance and flirts with black guys does not mean she's NOT

a racist!

What the fuck???

That's an idiotic statement.

One can have plenty of black friends--even date black people--and still be racist as hell, especially when seeing black people ascend to positions higher than the racist thinks they should be.

Your statement was itself kinda racist.

Black people dance? Come on, just stop. You're digging yourself into a hole.

Your friend was a racist. Always was. You just didn't know it.

And you yourself--please drop the stereotypes about black people. It's insulting.

[coeur_de_lion]

23. I'm sorry I offended you

Let me explain. In 1977 in Northern Virginia where we lived there was a lot of racial tension in the high schools. If you've ever seen the movie "Remember the Titans" it was about a high school about 10-15 miles from ours. Things were worse at my high school than they were at the high school featured in the movie. There were a lot of fights in the halls -- I honestly don't know how the high school administrators dealt with it. In my memory it was pretty bad. Another girl I was close to got a couple black eyes over a fight at the water fountain.

We were 17 and going to the disco with fake ID cards.

I'm not saying it was right or even slightly ok -- but back then I myself would have been classified as racist. I was 17 years old and I was an ignorant idiot. I'm sorry. This girl used to get on my case about it. Ultimately I apologized to her and straightened up my act.

I learned soon enough. Certainly my parents did not raise me to be racist but at 17 I was briefly. I grew up and stopped being an asshole.

She was more "normal" in those days than I was.

Now she's a card carrying racist crazy person who thinks Obama is Muslim. And anti-American.

Any time I hear someone call the Obamas racist I know I am dealing with an actual racist. After our teenage experiences it was honestly a shock to me. I don't think she was racist back then. But I do think it is possible she's fallen in with a crowd our age in Northern VA who are still as racist as they were in 1977. This whole thing started over a discussion about the confederate flag.

I sure hope I'm not digging a deeper hole for myself. I am being completely honest. Just giving you background for why it was such a shock to me to read what she had written. She was the one who turned me around.

[enough]

28. Thanks for telling your own experience as you have lived it.

That's always useful in these discussions, no matter how others may express violent judgementalism.

[coeur_de_lion]

30. I'm ashamed to admit who I was at 17

I hope I don't get flamed for it.

[Arugula Latte]

56. Lots of people did, said, and believed things in the past that they now regret.

I know I have my regrets (not so much about a political/philosophical stance, but about the way I treated a few people). The important thing is to realize and acknowledge your mistakes and then change, which you have done.

[coeur_de_lion]

74. Yeah I re-read that yesterday

And I wondered how that poster could have taken it so far. But people do every day. I was briefly an asshole but at least I didn't stay that way.

[samnsara]

72. i have even unfriended my sister on FB

...we live in the same town and visit etc but she would go all granny clampitt whenever i posted anti trump stuff...so for her mental health, i unfriended her

[coeur_de_lion]

73. For her own good right?

[Purrfessor]

33. Your comment is silly...

Last edited Wed Jul 15, 2015, 02:07 PM - Edit history (1)

Please explain how this statement is "kinda racist:" "In VA in the late 70's it wasn't cool to dance with the black guys but she always did -- they were her friends."

So how would you have phrased that statement to explain who she danced with?

All cultures dance. But according to you mentioning that black guys dance is "kinda racist."

Am I "kinda racist" for saying Misty Copeland was recently promoted to principal dancer of the American Ballet Theater, becoming the first black woman to hold this position?

And how do you know with such certainty the poster's friend was racist in the 70s?

No disrespect to you, but things some people find offensive on this board are ridiculous.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

57. Yes it is RACIST!! You know damn well the stereotypes about black men and women and

knowing how to dance! Of course you know what I mean here.

Don't pretend to be obtuse!

[Purrfessor]

61. coeur_de_lion said her friend danced with black guys at a...

school dance. They were students at the school who attended a school function. They danced. So did most, if not all of the other kids. Her comment was in no way stereotyping black people. You twisted her comment in order to elevate it to something offensive where there was nothing of the sort.

There are two sides of a bed. Perhaps you should try getting out on the other side for a while.

[olddots]

8. I quit face book in 3 months

memories were shattered by time and politics .

[Gloria]

9. Well, my lovely neighbor shocked me the other day

when she started talking about a relative, a young man who is gay....that he was a "sissy" growing up...when she said,
"I'm not like you, I'm religious...I hate gays" I was rather STUNNED!

[SusanaMontana41]

19. Bigots just can't stoop outing themselves. eom

[enough]

29. Love the idea that being religious means you hate somebody. (nt)

[coeur_de_lion]

35. funny!

[yardwork]

40. It says a lot about their religion, right?

[Gloria]

55. She's Catholic, but has always seemed fairly open..

She didn't have any children because she came from a family of 7 kids and she had enough of it growing up...she votes Dem. She knoes the Church isn't "perfect."

The issue with this kid is that he was pretty rotten to his mother snd his mother's current husband, who basically raised him as his own, but never adopted him.He is now talking to his mother again and living with a partner... I was trying to say that he may have had a lot of problems growing up, bullying, disrupted family, etc. but she lashed out....she's got other things going on beyond the gay issue, I think...it sure shocked me..

[Warpy]

10. I hate it when that happens

when somebody you knew back in the day turns out to have been turned into a wingnut by a spouse or preacher or just Pox News or a move to a red state. It's one reason I'm not on Farcebook, I prefer to leave my illusions intact, better for the blood pressure.

I'd be too tempted to tell them I'm sorry they drank and drugged their intelligence away and allowed the right wing to drive them crazy. I'd be too tempted to recommend specific medications to stop the hallucinations. I'd be horribly tempted to tell them exactly how I felt about the way they'd changed and how I pity anyone who had become that hateful and limited in outlook and world experience.

Nope, it's better I leave the people in my past there, my memories unaffected by how they've gotten religion and turned hateful.

Unfriend, block, walk away. Remember she is a completely different person now, one you don't want to know. Treasure the memories of who she used to be before she went crazy.

[SunSeeker]

11. Totally know how you feel.

I recently found an old friend from when I was a teenager on facebook. Same thing like you, we were close and had fun as teens, fellow free spirits.

But as soon as I friended him, the crazy right wing posts started coming into my newsfeed. It was horrifying really. Like that old horror movie, Invasion of the Body Snatchers. He looks the same, but his soul has been replaced by a "pod."

I won't unfriend him since I really do want to stay up with what is happening with him, but not the right wing crap. Since almost all his political posts are him "sharing" or forwarding some right wing gif, video or graphic from a source like Red State, I just click on the drop down menu that pops up when you click the arrow on the upper right corner of the post and it gives you the option of blocking that particular source.

Unfortunately for your situation, your friend actually types out shit, not just forwardinga pre-existing post from another source. But that drop down menu I described also gives you the option to "unfollow" the person, which means you're still friends but you won't see that person's posts in your newsfeed anymore. That may be the way to go for you. That way you stay friends and if you ever wanted to check how they were doing, you can just click on their Facebook page.

[coeur_de_lion]

27. We were debating the confederate flag thing

And it spiraled way out of control.

If you think her little blurb about the Obamas is bad you should see her conspiracy theories about people trying to "erase our history."

The discussion actually started out with me congratulating her on dating a guy from New Hampshire -- we both knew him in 1977-78. I said I hoped he would be a good influence on her because I assumed he was a democrat.

No chance of that . . .

[maryellen99]

38. I just found out I was blocked on FB by a relative over a month ago

I didn't even notice until a few days ago I'm sure it was because me of being liberal,pro gay marriage, and Anti-Duggar/Christian. Oh well it's not like we were close at all. When one of my conservative family/friends posts RW stuff I just hide it. I don't go to the extreme of blocking.

[coeur_de_lion]

68. My oldest sister blocked me a couple years ago

It was election season. She posted something untrue and I corrected her -- with links to the White House website.

Oh and then I called her a racist -- because she is one. Hahaha. But that was later via email when she made some nasty remarks about Obama.

No one on my FB really posts nasty stuff anymore and the first time they do I unfollow them.

This case was a little different for a lot of reasons.

I guess with my sister we have to see each other when the family gets together. With this friend if I blocked her I would never see her again. And I do love her.

[maryellen99]

70. My relative was a 3rd cousin so no big loss to me

It sucks to be blocked and she should've just unfriended me oh well.

[SunSeeker]

39. Ug. Sad. Well, her loss.

Having chosen to be on the wrong side of history, she faces a lifetime of bitterness and anger.

[Skittles]

12. I could not be friends with someone like that

seriously - no way

[Half-Century Man]

14. It is from years of conditioning by the MSM to foster hate and fear.

In order to get commercial dollars, TV has to have measurable amount of viewers. And very little keeps people focused on their tvs like fear and cliff hangers.

There is no liberal media broadcast mainstream. There is no progressive media being broadcast in the mainstream
It is hard to not drink the Kool Aid when you are forever being drenched with fire hoses.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

15. Sorry but many white people showed their true colors when this black man was elected.

Last edited Wed Jul 15, 2015, 06:28 AM - Edit history (1)

Most white voters did not vote for Obama. It took a coalition of blacks, Hispanics and other minorities, women and progressive, non-racist whites to put him over the top. But white voters overwhelmingly voted Republican in 2008 and 2012.

This country remains very racist, despite the progress we've made.

Sorry about your friend. I lost a lot of "friends," too.

[coeur_de_lion]

25. I never examined the demographics for who voted for Obama

But I am very surprised that most white people voted for republicans in the last two elections.

Do you have a link to an article or statistic?

[SpartanDem]

31. The white vote was actually closer 50/50 if you exclude the South

the South and to a lesser extent the interior West skewed those numbers down.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

58. No, it was not.

[SpartanDem]

65. You wanna rethink that?

"Overall, Obama won about 46 percent of the white vote outside the South". I can actually statements up with FACTS



http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2012/11/democrats-southern-white-problem

[Ilsa]

21. Let her go before the memories

are corrupted. Take time to grieve, trust me, it'll hurt. Been through this, but not over Obama, per se, and not over Facebook.

[coeur_de_lion]

26. Oh I think it's too late for that

She's gone.

[Vinca]

22. If you still consider her a friend, suggest she seek help.

She sounds nuts.

[coeur_de_lion]

24. I begged her to get professional help

I doubt my begging did any good.

[Vinca]

63. My brother has a similar situation.

His best friend from high school (long, long ago) is a full-fledged teabagger. My brother, like me, is a leftie. I don't know how they happen to stay in touch without killing each other.

[Divernan]

32. Screen those FB friend requests from childhood/school friends

I look at their posting histories - if it's all come-to-Jesus, angels, recipes, photos of them at their country clubs, and/or latest scores in some childish games, or of course anything racist, sexist, tea party stuff, I just ignore the requests. Save myself and them a lot of stress. I cherish my memories of them when we were growing up, but I'm not about to censor my political/activist posts to spare their delicate sensibilities.

I've given some the benefit of the doubt and have been pleasantly surprised in a few instances - and the others I block following.

Another turnoff is a FB friend request from someone with hundreds of "friends". They're more into bolstering flagging self esteem by collecting a large number than in actually maintaining any regular contact. I'm glad that my kids, sibs and cousins are nearly all very progressive - FB is a great way to keep up to date with all of them. Same for people with whom I share political passions, like anti-fracking, pro-environment, supporting progressive Dem candidates, etc.

Sorry that you've lost an old friend. I have experienced that - particularly one dear friend who went over to the dark side for the corporate money - and is now a GOP state committee woman.

[coeur_de_lion]

34. Sorry for your loss! How devastating!

Sorry that you've lost an old friend. I have experienced that - particularly one dear friend who went over to the dark side for the corporate money - and is now a GOP state committee woman.

Oh the horror!

I don't actually get many FB requests from school friends. She's one of maybe two. The other one I did have to put on kind of a limited thing where I block most of her posts. I don't even remember how I did it.

Maybe if I do that with her it will mitigate some of this but it won't take care of facebook emails.

[mnhtnbb]

36. It is so hard to see old friends--or even more recent friends--show true colors on fb.

I had to drop someone I'd worked with many, many years ago after
it became clear she'd turned in to a tea bagger when she and her husband
retired to Idaho (should have been a clue!). I've had to drop my sister-in-law
from fb, too, but mostly that was a case of feeling stalked, even though she's
also too much in the praying and anti-Dem mode, too.

Recently I withdrew from a private group I'd created with a group of on-line
friends who had formed through another organization. We'd also met and
spent time together in person. Too many of them were the praying, Republican,
Faux News watching types. But when the Charleston massacre happened
and only ONE of them said anything about it in the daily thread, that was it for me.
I need to be able to talk about things--politics, religion, health care, education, etc.
and it was very hard to have any kind of conversation like that with that group. One
of them even told me she needed to focus on "being happy". Huh. Well, I like to be
happy, too, but not to the extent of sticking my head in the ground and ignoring
racism, hatred, and way too easy access to guns in this country. So, I quit
the group. I didn't unfriend any of the group individually, just quit the group saying
I couldn't do it anymore. One of the people challenged me in a fb message and eventually
she unfriended me on fb. No big loss since most of her posts were kitties, pray for this,
and recipes!

Losing friends on fb is the price you pay for living by your principles.

[coeur_de_lion]

37. I get where you are coming from

This isn't just a FB friend. She's been my friend since we were 13. We are 55 now. Way back when she was my best friend. I love her to death.

I hate the idea of writing off a friendship of more than 40 years.

That said, this morning we exchanged a few more emails. She hasn't answered my last one.

I basically asked her what happened to the girl I knew. I don't think she can answer that question. I don't think she knows.

[pnwmom]

41. Something like that happened to me and the one cousin I felt close to.

She left Facebook and, unbeknownst to me, switched to Twitter.

I discovered her there lately and was shocked to read some anti-Obama racist posts. She sure must have been biting her lips a lot around me.

[Darb]

42. Blast her dumb ass out of the box.

If you need help I'd be glad to whip something up for you.

She's an idiot, set her the fuck straight. Then let her stew in it.

[yardwork]

43. I'm sorry.

The pure hatred that is being stoked in the U.S. worries me. I've seen the same with old friends and relatives.

I believe that messages from Fox News, what I call "hate radio," and some pulpits, are designed to brainwash people. Very clever psychological techniques are being employed. What is the purpose? Who is funding this?

Wars are very profitable for some people. Don't underestimate what people will do when there are billions of dollars in profit to be made. I'm looking at the Koch Brothers, Halliburton, Dick Cheney, etc.

[Johonny]

44. Smartest guy I went to high school with

Is a total tea party patriot that constantly talks about the fictional constitution that exists only in Scalia's mind. The guy speaks 7 languages and was taking college courses at age 14. Fox news and hate radio can destroy any person's brain. I think it is a form of mental disease at this point. I've been listening to RW radio in small doses the past few weeks. The stuff on there is nonsense, but it is some repeated, mantra driven... like a cult. It appears to be able to suck anyone in. It is sad when it is someone you like.

[Coventina]

45. I've experienced something similar.

Me and my former friend are no longer in contact.

I no longer refer to her even as "my former best friend from my teenage years".

It's very disappointing and painful.

I'm so sorry you have experienced that, but know that you are not alone in this experience.

[J_J_]

46. glad I'm not on facebook-scary

I read this comment yesterday at reddit and I think it might have some truth in it for DUers....

"Conservative Christians have this mentality of willful ignorance that is just impossible to get past. It's like arguing with a store mannequin. Whenever you try to get specific about recent Republican abuses or policies, it's always, "no, you don't understand and you're just a liberal taking it out of context", and then they launch into over-the-top soliloquies about American Exceptionalism, pulling ones self by your bootstraps and nanny state bullshit.

Scott Walker is a bad manager of his state and his GOP playbook policies are killing their economy? Nope, he's a misunderstood genius and good for Wisconsin AND America.

Climate change? Hogwash, I heard it was snowing somewhere. Try again, Liberal Idiot!

The bullshit is never ending with these regressive people and they're obstructing any and all solutions to real progress. It's like they're a rude, angry 500 lb man who's lodged himself in the main aisle of a movie theater that's on fire and he's yelling for everyone to sit down and ignore the flames and smoke, while we as a nation can't seem to muster the will to tell him to shut up and move aside so we can save everyone.

We just wring our hands and say, "Oh d-d-dear! W-w-what shall we do?!?"

How about we all collectively turn to our nearest Conservative friend or family member and tell them to start producing real evidence to back up their bullshit claims or STFU and get out of the way?

If enough of us put our foot down and do some real triage, we might move forward. I've had enough of coddling this inane mindset, we have real problems to solve and this PC idiocy is like fiddling while Rome burns."

The Republican Party’s secret motto: “Don’t tread on my right to tread on you”
http://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/3d9ln9/the_republican_partys_secret_motto_dont_tread_on/?limit=500

[DirkGently]

47. Sorry to hear. This is why critical thinking should be taught in schools.

To me it's like when Internet chain e-mails first became a thing. I remember repeatedly getting "helpful" mass-forwards at work, at a place filled with educated and intelligent people, to watch our for the toilet spiders or adopt the adorable Lab puppies from six years ago or whatever for a LONG time. Snopes.com helped a lot, eventually, but I got similar messages from family and friends as well.

I think the same goes for people's social / political views. A sad chunk of the population, including otherwise perfectly decent people, don't quite grok that cable television and social media are full of boldly nonsensical claims, false outrage; manipulative rhetoric. It doesn't occur to them that people LIE as HARD as they do, and so publicly.

One person close to me broke my heart casually remarking that Obama was clearly a "terrorist sleeper cell" or whatever based on the Bill Ayers nonsense the Republicans floated early in his first campaign. We had a weird, really disturbing fight about it, and ended up just agreeing to not talk politics (I think I actually did get through a little with some patient talk there). Another made an offhand remark that Obama had been "crafty" about his birth certificate. I almost fell over. These are not people from whom I had heard crazy talk before, but there it was.

What hurts is the fact perfectly normal people have been convinced there is no difference between rational political discussion and batshit, racially-tinged nonsense from the underbelly of the rhetoric wars.

I don't know the answer either, but I thought I'd share. One thing I've found is that "internet" communications foster nuttery more than in-person talk.

I would cut off Facebook and e-mail with people giving off the Fox News vibe, and try to re-connect in person or over the phone when possible.

[niyad]

48. so sorry to hear this. it is indeed heartbreaking when old friends turn out to be other than

who, and what, they used to be.

[raouldukelives]

49. I echo your sentiments.

Seems so long ago when we all had the same news, all basically knew and understood (or misunderstood) the same truths.

Today, thanks to the nigh Herculean efforts of corporate investors, lobbyists and politicians over years, over decades, of small victories for them, leading to the penultimate achievement of corporations being more real, more equal, than we are in the eyes of Washington.

Now with consolidation of media and the repeal of all forms of propaganda, it is all clearly nothing more than a facade. A separate reality from ours, completely financed and for the benefit of the investor class. To keep them insulated from the realities, the horrors, of what the works they commit, day after day, actually accomplish.

When I meet someone who knows no other truths than those echoed by peroxide blondes or whatever else passes for information before Dancing with the Stars starts, the hate, the disconnect, chills me to the bone.

[Xyzse]

50. Be thankful she's just a friend. I have to deal with a mother.

Saying that, knowing that a friend thinks that way does not mean you have to get rid of them as a friend.

It just means, that there is now a subject that both of you have to agree not to discuss.

Losing a friend due to politics is just sad, as long as they respect you enough not to push her views on you, it should be fine.

[dawnie51]

51. You have to cut her loose......

there is no alternative. You cannot talk her to reason, and you cannot let yourself be poisoned by her She is a part of your past, and you may remember her fondly, but the girl you knew is gone. Protect yourself and your own well being; sever the cord. If this seems harsh, please know I speak from experience. Family members, and friends, corrupted the same way and spewing the same garbage, have been removed from my little sphere. Life is too short to be angry and anguished all the time, Peace to you!

[Populist_Prole]

52. I'm beginning to get dismayed too

My girlfriend seems to be moving rightward because of Facebook. I'm quite sure this is why. I'm not on it, and never will be, but when I watch her browsing on it I'm struck with how inane and full of garbage it is. Someone mentioned chain emails, and from what I've noticed, it seems like it's a clearing house of sorts for all manner of conservative chain types emails.

It's dismaying because she's always been so sweet and non-judgemental. Now more and more it seems like she's turning into a little fascist.

[CanonRay]

53. I just found out two of my college friends

who are married have gone over the hill on immigration; apparently are solidly in Trump's deluded camp. She was always a little conservative, but he was a flaming anti-war liberal hippie. I don't recognize him now. I think about it a lot, and it makes me very sad.

[Freddie]

54. Old boyfriend

Was totally nuts about this guy when I was 18, 19. Fantasized about our wedding and already named the kids. He dumped me, broke my heart, I got over it and a couple years later married DH.
Pete (old bf) and I have a couple friends in common and he sent me a friend request a few years ago; why not. Turns out Pete is a flaming beyond-right-wing Tea Party Patriot who posts all that stuff about Obama and more. I don't argue with him (why bother) but I do sometimes glance at the crap just to see how the other side is (not) thinking. Had I not had my heart broken at 19 I'd surely be another divorce statistic today.

[coeur_de_lion]

69. You might be a divorce statistic

If I had married him he would be dead and I would be in jail . . .

Aren't you glad he dumped you? I would be.

[Facility Inspector]

59. the facebook is a virus

front line snitch culture conduit and soapbox for dinguses everywhere.

Just say NO! to facebook.

[KamaAina]

60. My childhood friend who found me on FB is a righty, too

but not nearly as vile as that.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

62. My own cousin unfriended me --

because of my support for Bernie Sanders. He also chastised my Mom for raising me so poorly and supporting my choice in Presidential candidates. But I always knew he was a Winger, so it was no big surprise.

There is one good thing about FB: it allows us to see sides of people that they would probably never dare expose to us face to face. I have several old school friends who are raving Wingers, but we manage to be respectful of each other and I don't hesitate to correct them if they post something that is inaccurate.

I am sorry you had to see this new side of your old friend.

[MisterP]

64. a study of media usage found that RWers went only to Fox and only to a few "gatekeeper"

websites (Breitbart, The Blaze, sundry race-baiters)

everyone else went to everyWHERE else for their news

it's not "polarization," it's in fact the opposite

(and Obama's backing *the FSA* and Libyan al-Qaeda, not ISIS per se!)

[Cali_Democrat]

66. Just laugh it off

These people are fucking crazy.

[coeur_de_lion]

67. It helps a lot know know I'm not alone

I'm amazed at some of these stories. I guess I shouldn't be since I have 2-3 similar stories myself! It astonishes me how successful right wing media has been -- at whipping up hate. Old and new friends, family, ex-boyfriends, we're all splintered apart because the right wants us to hate each other. Or maybe because they (our family and friends) are assholes. I don't know.

She was my best friend. Only reason I can't call her that anymore is she is too far away geographically. Last year we talked about having her move to a condo complex down the street from where I live. She was looking into several options and I gave her recommendations for realtors in our area.

I guess I dodged a bullet huh? She won't be moving here now since she has a new boyfriend.

Today our communication was really heart breaking. Truly. She posted a message to my page about our being best friends since she was 12 (I was 13). In emails she begged forgiveness and begged me not to judge her.

God help me. I can't unfriend her I love her. No one else in my life has been a friend this long. I was a military brat and I think she was my first really good friend once my Dad settled down in one place for more than a few years.

I un-followed her some months ago and unchecked "get notifications". I looked at her page today and there is all kinds of crap I'm glad I didn't see.

I just can't do it. I can't dump her. I'm a woosy. I'll just shut her down if she starts that crazy nonsense again. We've been there for each other for so many years. Maybe she'll snap out of it some day and I can get her some help.

[hatrack]

71. Cut the cord: to quote a 60s British Invasion pop sensation . . . .

"She's Not There"