Am I an asshole if I defriend people on facebook for supporting freeper politicians?

[lightningandsnow]

There is one city council candidate in my area who is a complete waste of oxygen. He's making up complete lies about the candidate I'm volunteering for, including calling her anti-semetic, and not-so-subtly attacking her for being openly gay. I'm not sure I could be friends with anyone who supports this guy.

Also, the people who are his facebook homies are people I was never really friends with to begin with. Do I know them? Yes. Are we friendly if we bump into each other? Yes. Are they actually my friends? No.

So, to delete, or not to delete?

[secondwind]

1. No, you not an asshole, you are smart.

[WillParkinson]

2. Time to say bye-bye...

With friends like those, etc etc.

[watercolors]

3. I dumped a few, don"t care for thr remarks on my page!!

nt

[oswaldactedalone]

4. Heck No!

I've done the same thing. Who needs those morons cluttering up your life with their ignorance.

[FRSmama]

5. No

Friends are people you have something in common with correct? If your views are so radically different then 'friendship' is not likely to be sustainable or pleasant.

[lunatica]

6. Probably, but sometimes being an asshole is the right thing to be

I think you should be an asshole in this situation.

[Seedersandleechers]

7. No, they are the assholes

for supporting freeper politicians.

[Kookaburra]

8. Delete

I had to do that with a few people. Their posts were so ugly and rude I felt I had to get them away from my FB page. No on needs that negativity.

[Catshrink]

9. I defriended members of my family

I got tired of their racist bullshit. Needless to say, I'm not real popular right now but enough is enough.

[monmouth]

10. Me too! Christmas card list got cut down to a precious few in about

two minutes. Facebook is a disgusting site, full of racists, bigots and especially anti-gay. It's just plain dirty and stupid,

[petronius]

11. Why would that make you an asshole? FB is supposed to be a convenience for you,

you don't owe it, or other FBers, any allegiance. If your online-life experience is improved by defriending someone, then fire away...

[ProdigalJunkMail]

12. people who constantly post their political opinion

on Facebook generally don't stand much of a chance of being my FB-friend for long. i have other outlets and inlets for political discussion and have made clear that politics on FB is not really why i am there. now, in real life i would never make a friend decision based on politics...but i make it clear that if our politics differ things will become strained if it is all we talk about or if our discussions do not stay friendly and respectful!

sP

[Ruby the Liberal]

13. Delete

I am not on FB, but as I understand, their every utterance is on your homepage when you log in. Why subject yourself to that?

[Quantess]

15. Not necessarily. You get to fine tune the settings.

[Ruby the Liberal]

19. Thanks - didn't know that.

I would still delete though. :evilgrin:

[NRaleighLiberal]

14. I left facebook because of all of the right wing ugliness, and learning so much

that was despicable about many of my friends. And I've not missed it for a second.

[Quantess]

21. In my case, I was delighted to find out that most of my old forgotten High School friends

tend toward the left. In other words, the people I thought were cool then, are still cool now! Of course, there are a couple of suprise RWers from High School, but only one of them is on my friend list.
I'm lucky to have my list stacked with lefties.

But in general, people steer clear of being blatantly political. I get the urge to post political links all the time, but I usually succeed at restraining myself.

[muffin1]

42. You are lucky.

Almost all of my high school friends are fundies. Almost all of my family, too. I dropped a couple of them for their "Ground Zero Mosque" comments (after trying to convince them that it's not a "Mosque" and not at "Ground Zero"). And unlike some in this thread, I actually post my very liberal views almost constantly on FB. I keep hoping maybe SOMEONE will see that it makes no sense to 'like' the bible, but be against health care or feeding the poor, etc. Or that it is frigging stupid to 'like' Jesus Christ and also 'like' Sarah Palin and Jan Brewer.

[Quantess]

16. Don't delete them. Hide them.

You know how to hide stuff and/or people, right? (I am amazed at how many people don't know about hide!) In case you didn't already know, you move the cursor on the left side of their post, click on the X and it will give you the option to hide the person from your news feed.

This is also how you hide FarmVille, MafiaWars, Flowers, Angel Hugs, Quizzes, Horoscopes, you name it! Honestly, facebook is unmanageable without hide.

[Ian David]

17. No. n/t

[Edweird]

18. Eh, if they attack me personally, then I would, otherwise I probably wouldn't.

I don't isolate myself from people with different sexual or religious orientations than myself either, as long as they respect our differences.

[ejpoeta]

20. i have only deleted one person and hidden another.

the person i unfriended was 'uncle' henry who replied to a post about my kids with some tirade about obama. when i asked him what a post about my kids had anything to do with such things he went off more. and when my aunt told him to cut it out he replied ,what she was whining about having to take care of her kids...' so i sent him a message about how if i had posted something political and he replied that would have been fine. but to attach his disgusting republican bs to a post about my kids is unacceptable. and i unfriended him. i hid his daughter because of the crap she was posting.

[littlewolf]

22. it depends on if they are friends ie: people you know

or just facebook friends

[old mark]

23. IMO, that would show very good sense. They really HATE liberals, and you will no more

convert one of those brain damaged sheep fuckers than they would convert one of us.

Make your life better - stay away from those assholes.

mark

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

24. Hell no.

[DesertFlower]

25. i unfriended one. he is my neighbor.

we knew each other for 6 years. never knew each other's politics. he and his wife have a lot of parties. we were always invited.

anyway when i joined facebook and saw he was on i friended him. then i saw his political views. he considers himself "to the right of attila the hun". and my info was "democrat left of center". i've recently changed it to "socialist democrat".

in the beginning it was joking back and forth and then he got hostile. said "we libruls were ruining the country that he shed blood for. why don't we move to russia"? at that point i unfriended him and sent him a PM telling him it was best for both of us. PMs went back and forth. he was really nasty.

i have a few other friends who are republicans -- mostly people i graduated high school with. we get into it at times, but i always win. a few months ago one guy instead of answering my question said "going to watch the ballgame -- to be continued". i'm still waiting for it to be continued. lol

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

30. It always starts out friendly

Then you find out what angry, angry people they are, especially when they aren't in charge.

[DesertFlower]

32. i'm actually afraid of him now.

i met his wife a few times down at the mailboxes and we chatted like nothing ever happened. my husband thinks he's "unstable".

[GoCubsGo]

26. If so, then I'm an asshole, too.

Because I did just that. A former co-worker I hadn't heard from in years "friended" me. I knew of her wing nut tendencies, which I always ignored. But, I couldn't ignore the "Jane Doe likes 'Dear God, you took my favorite actor, Patrick Swayze. I just wanted to let you know that Barack Obama is my favorite President'" in the news feed. Oh, and she likes Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin, too. Nope. Don't need "friends" like that.

[lovemydog]

27. no

you also can ignore them so you won't see their feed

[handmade34]

28. the parents

of my only grandchild support republicans (& we are friends on facebook)... it's tough out there sometimes

[era veteran]

29. No

I have defriended one guy for similar reasons.

[petersjo02]

31. No. n/t

[Owl]

33. No, not at all.

[donco6]

34. I do it all the time.

Who needs 'em?

[ZombieHorde]

35. No, you are an asshole for completely different reasons.

Just kidding!

[Zax2me]

36. On Facebook? No, of course not...

Especially since you said they aren't actual friends in the first place.
I would almost say you MUST Facebook unfriend them!

[donheld]

37. If you're one then I'm one

i just will not tolerate their bullshit.

[WVRICK13]

38. Nope

Why subject yourself to their mindless bullshit? I asked all Republicans who had me listed as a friend to de-friend me because I was tired of their ignorant bullshit. Then I stated, "it will make you feel bette too."

[melm00se]

39. it depends

are these folks truly friends or just electronic "friends"?

if they are real friends, folks you enjoy interacting with on many other topics, then hell no. True friends are few and far between, don't let something as trivial (big picture) as ideological differences to drive a wedge between you.

My 2 closest friends and I disagree when it comes to politics but on many other levels enjoy their company so we have tacitly decided to avoid political topics but if they do come up we discuss but don't hold ideology against the other.

As to electronic friends? if you enjoy what they say in other areas, block them until post election and then bring them back after the dust settles.

[littlewolf]

47. BRAVO

you said something much better then I was able to formulate ....
(sleep dep.) I MUST not log on computer after work .... must sleep first ...

[Evasporque]

40. No, I de-friend people for playing Farmville...nt

[TBF]

41. I have some old friends who are freepers and I hide their posts -

if it were just an acquaintance I'd likely delete them.

[mikekohr]

43. I Never Defriend, but I always respond with facts, charts, graphs, They Eventually Defriend Me And

call me an asshole, which is fine by me considering the source, and the fact that they can't deal with facts, reality or the truth. Plus it helps pasting our message on their boards. It lets some of the hot air out of their hate filled gas bag.

Go to our website for information you can use to short-circuit any right-wing asswipe.

mike kohr
Bureau County Democrats
http://bureaucountydems.blogspot.com


sample:

70 Years of Democratic Economic Success Versus 70 yrs of Republican Fubar

Republicans come in a distant second to Democratic economic accomplishment see: http://bureaucountydems.blogspot.com/p/economic-record.html
and lay claim to being economic wizards.

Republicans explode the National Debt. http://bureaucountydems.blogspot.com/p/national-debt.html
and lay claim to being fiscally responsible.

Republicans CRUSH job creation see: http://bureaucountydems.blogspot.com/p/job-growth.html
and claim to understand how to control the business cycle.

Republicans have been in charge when 9 of the last 10 recession have occurred see: http://bureaucountydems.blogspot.com/p/history-of-recessions.html
and claim to be experts on the economy.

Democrats have the record, the facts and history on our side. Republicans have fear, fubar and "F" up on theirs. And when they win, working people lose. And that's how they like it.

mike kohr
Bureau County Democrats
http://bureaucountydems.blogspot.com

[otohara]

44. Bravo

good for you!

[bikebloke]

45. Go for it.

I tried hiding someone, but their fascist remarks and phony piety would reappear after a couple days. So finito. They're gone.

[ScreamingMeemie]

46. I defriended (and blocked!) a close cousin because he continued

to crap all over a post of mine in support of National Coming Out Day. I asked him nicely to stop. He did not. I unfriended him and he took it to messages. So... I did what any smart person would do when faced with a raving lunatic willing to throw family ties out the window in order to be right... I blocked him.

I feel better. He is PISSED, at least, that's what his wife (still a friend and also understands and supports what I did and why I did it) says. :)

[ceile]

48. Nope

I did it to 2 people on Coming Out Day. They came out in favor of "marriage" and "everyone already has enough civil rights"....

[truebrit71]

49. Nope. I have no time in my life for willfully stupid people.

...

[Iggo]

50. No. In fact, you should defriend people at random just to keep them honest. (n/t)

[Akoto]

51. I don't discuss politics with friends.

Too much of a loaded gun. If I value their friendship, I just don't go there, and we enjoy each others' company.

Am I going to boot a friend of twenty years out of my life because s/he likes Palin? Hell no.

[lapislzi]

52. Nope. I've done it.

And I hid the feed of a dear gay friend who "likes" Sarah Palin. I sent him a message explaining why I was doing that, so he can hopefully tell me that it was a goof or something. He hasn't answered yet. If he turns out to be a bona fide will-by-god-vote-against-my-own-best-interest idiot, then he's got to go.

[L. Coyote]

53. Post a lot of liberal political links. Be yourself and enjoy giving them good reading materials.

And, offer them free reading lessons as needed :rofl: