Facebook Wars

"A little over a year ago, I left facebook for my own mental health.  I wanted to avoid the shouting matches that social media has fostered and live my life more fully in the physical world.  Now, I've returned under different circumstances than I had hoped.  I placed too much trust in the people to do the right thing come election day, and I was horribly mistaken.  If you did vote Trump, this is not an invitation for an argument.  That is not a road I want to go down.  I would like to spread this petition around though (I don't know how effective it will really be and I don't care).  So, if you would like to make your voice heard past what your vote couldn't do, here's an option."

This was my little brothers first post on Facebook since he left it. I remember arguing with him about how the pro's of staying connected to others outweighs the negativity in there. But he may have been right. It breaks my heart that he has to come back on during maybe the most depressing Facebook streak I've ever seen. I know this isn't exactly art related but it's hard to think about anything else.

Aside from urging others to vote, I didn't really post any political things on Facebook. I accepted a lot of people don't care about the things I do, but like my brother hoped the majority would be on my side. I felt pushing this message that Trump is promoting bigotry would just push those on the fence into his court. The most disheartening part of it all was the few Trump supporters that were in my Facebook. There were four. None of them were straight white men. Three men of color and a young white woman. The only common thread was their occupation in the business industry and being distinctly young southern. It's hard to dismiss all of them as brainwashed or something, but they obviously don't care about the language being thrown around recently. They feel just as misunderstood as everyone else and it infuriates me. It's taken all my will not to post fighting remarks their way. Facebook arguements seem pretty useless. It's to difficult to read people's demeanor and tone through a series of Internet reactions, constantly being thrown in a new direction by a troll. And the common theme of this election seems to be gasighting and generalizations. I'm not sure if most people even realize who they are really mad at most of the time. Even liberal groups tend to only talk about their specific issue even if it's not the most effective evidence for their arguement. Everyone is thinking about themselves to much instead of others. It goes both ways and it's done differently on each side, and it's intensely frustrating.

My biggest question I guess for conservatives in general is, if you aren't racist, and are tired of being lumped in with them, why not speak against it? If it's really not something you agree with, then why complain instead of being vocal. If you have other points to discuss, disavow racism and bigotry and move on from there. Denying it exists or people's actual feeling of it in real time does nothing but further group you in that lot. And it stops us from furthering the conversation at all.

I've never really had an interest in social documenting but this election has definitely made it more interesting to me. But we have to do more than just document. We have to both push and teach contructive communication and clearly put more emphasis on critical thinking. I feel people had trouble wrapping their head around what to argue with this election. Maybe as a country if we learn to express ourselves better through our speech, actions, and art we'll be able to do something. But the only outcome of straight up attacking those who don't believe in what you're fighting for is just sinking to their level. And then, your input matters just as much as theirs.