by Dick Mac
The past couple of days I've spent more time on Facebook than usual. I've been un-following a bunch of pages that are click-bait disguised as cultural and political sites. Generally, I post pictures on Facebook, offer comments to things people have posted, and make note of events I am attending.
As a consequence of paying more attention to the site and phone app the past few days, I've made more posts than usual. This prompted a Facebook Messenger message from someone I've known for decades (yes, a person I actually know, and he is a friend or a relative but I won't tell you which) telling me that they are sick and tired of all my political rants.
I wrote back saying I didn't think I posted that many political rants, and they explained that I've been posting like crazy the past day and they are sick of my rants.
In the past, I have been blocked by actual friends because I posted too much. I went through a phase of over-posting music videos from the Golden Age of Pop Music, over-posting political stuff, and sometimes revealing too much about my personal life. I like to think I've reined-in most of that; and recently I've posted much less than I used to, so I was surprised to hear about "all my political rants."
I looked at my last ten posts that covered the previous 27 hours, and this is what I found in order of the oldest posting first:
- A status update making a joke about alcohol and drugs.
- A video of The Jam performing on the Marc Bolan show, in 1977.
- A screen print of an iTunes playlist sorted by Number of Plays.
- An article about a black girl who was beaten up by the police.
- A video of a six-year-old girl running an obstacle course.
- A video of Larry Graham and Prince performing "Thank You" at BB King's.
- A video of the Florida State Attorney being pulled over by a cop.
- A funny picture from Boing Boing of "conference call bingo."
- A lesbian comedian offering hilarious romantic advice to heterosexual men.
- A video of African-American parents talking to their children about law enforcement.
A cursory examination of the list shows that the only remotely political posts I made were about police harassing or brutalizing African-American taxpayers and children, which is a cultural, medical, economic, and political problem in the United States.
My friend was never a "conservative" but he is a reactionary and a populist. He jumps on bandwagons, he doesn't have original thoughts about political or cultural issues. I know he voted for Reagan the second time, Clinton the first time, Obama the second time, and Trump. I've thought about our conversations in the past and wondered why he hasn't complained and I realize he is upset because all three of my "political" posts are about police harassing black people.
And it dawns on me: this guy is a racist! I made ten posts, mostly about the entertainment industry, and all he sees are my "rants" about police harassing black people.
So, I wrote back with this list and asked if he thought the issue of race was in play here. He was angry that I "called him a racist," which I hadn't done at that time, and he said that I was a racist who hated the police. He insisted that I have always hated the police and always taken the side of black people during political disputes. Although he intended this as an attack, I was very happy that he'd noticed, and I am proud of my political analyses and positions.
I do not hate the police, but I do hate people who are bad at their jobs, people who abuse their power, and liars. The internet has shown us that the banking and technology industries are not the only industries with these problems: law enforcement also has problems with these types of people.
In most industries, when someone is really bad at his job, those around them work to get rid of the guy. In law enforcement, when someone is really bad at his job, those around them form a wall to protect them. This exacerbates the problem and prevents us from making necessary changes as quickly as they should have already happened.
I responded in the message thread that I do not hate the police, and tried to lighten the tone by explaining that "some of my friends are cops." He said that remark was proof that I was a cop-hating racist.
At that point I realized I should just withdraw, so I did not respond, and fortunately he has removed me as a friend. Whew!
I'm glad that's over!