For those of us who have an account with Facebook or Twitter, we know how most everybody we follow has an opinion about the big political event at the time. I enjoy engaging in political discussions with my friends over social networking sites, but when their posts are ignorant and so far from the "truth" I usually get annoyed and unfriend them. Harsh, I know, but if they are going to take the time to write a post, I would expect them to do some research on their own first. One of the best and worst times to be on social media sites is during a Presidential election. I say best, because it shows me that people are somewhat concerned with politics. I say worst, because the posts I see are so ignorant and hateful that it cannot even be considered political dialogue. During the 2012 election, if my friend voted for or supported Obama, they would make some post about how happy they were, and then I would see a comment from a Romney supporter saying how stupid the Obama person was and then a fight would ensue, usually involving hateful words and personal attacks. The same goes for someone who makes a Romney post. For most people, it's not even about the candidate, it's about the party affiliation. If Romney was a Democrat and Obama a Republican, the person who voted for Obama when he was a Democrat would now vote for Romney. That is the problem with political parties, that people do not do their research on the candidate. With that said, I prefer the party system to a no party system. Most recently, I see a lot of discussion on Facebook and Twitter about the government shut down. My Democratic friends are blaming the Republicans and my Republican friends are blaming the Democrats. Rather than discussing what could be done by both sides in a compromise, it is full blame on one or the other. This same thing is happening in Congress.
What I am getting at is that people are so quick to suggest their opinion that they fail to do the research first. This results in viral fights filled with personal and unwarranted attacks. These kind of actions, although they may seem minuscule compared to the rest of the country, shows how party polarized Americans are. Republicans hate Democrats no matter what the issue and Democrats hate Republicans. If we can just act rationally and do our own research on issues, we may not be so polarized and could be able to compromise the extremes.
Yes, I agree with you everything you said. I have the same issues with friends who post some of the most hateful things on both sides. the only thing that makes it worst is that often times you can tell they are very misinformed on the matter. One of my friends was liking and sharing a picture on how the post office was affected by the shut down. so I kindly had to tell her she had no clue on what she is talking about.I don't mind people speaking their mind but I have an issue with the hateful and just right out wrong messages. at least present truthful information.
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