In My Face

I have a personal policy of not “unfriending” people for what they say. While I might not agree with someone, they have a right to their opinion, and I have a right to mine.

I’m also not going to cancel my Facebook and Twitter accounts. Mostly I’m not cancelling them because some of the products I use only provide support using those channels. If I want help, I need to be able to contact them. But I also don’t cancel my accounts because I like to use them for opposition research. That is, I want to occasionally hear what Liberals have to say. It doesn’t happen often but when it does I want to have the option available to me.

So, no matter what insane things my Liberal “friends” say, I keep connected with them on the outside chance that I’m going to want to listen to them. Though I readily admit that is within the “possible but not probable” category.

I don’t actually use my Twitter account. I only signed up because a company I was working for at one time wanted me to have a Twitter presence. I’ve probably posted less than a dozen things. But, I do get notifications on my phone when someone I’m apparently following posts something.

Yesterday, I received a notification on my phone that went something like this:

First Last (he/him) BLM – Said something that is probably really stupid.

OK. I admit that I paraphrased the last part. Twitter didn’t really tell me that he had said something stupid, I just assumed that to be the case based on everything else I’ve ever heard him say. I’m sure he thought that whatever he posted was witty and/or profound but my experience with him leads me to believe that it was neither. So, let’s just go with “stupid” because it’s likely accurate and it isn’t the main point anyway.

There are two things that are the main point:

1) he provided his pronouns
2) he added the “BLM” suffix.

Anyone who has been reading my stuff knows what I think of personal pronouns. In case you’re unclear, allow me to reiterate. I think personal pronouns are ridiculous. Expecting anyone to give a crap about how you want to be referred to is both arrogant and self-centered.

If you have personal pronouns, it is very probable that you have, at a minimum, a personality disorder and even more likely that you also suffer from other additional mental illnesses. I’m not a doctor so you might want to get a professional opinion, but I felt that pointing you in the right direction is more useful than just calling you crazy.

Now, about the BLM suffix. Anyone with the ability to think and reason knows by now that BLM is a Marxist movement that has little to nothing to do with black lives. Their assertion that black men are being hunted by police is a lie that cannot be supported by facts. Their claim that “Black Lives Matter” really only means “Some Black Lives Matter”. To BLM, the only black lives that matter are the ones that will get them the most airtime, and the biggest political advantage. Not quite sure where I stand? Let me clear this up too: anyone who still supports BLM is an idiot.

Notifications on a phone are prime real estate. They have been specifically designed to get your attention. The sole purpose of notifications is to be so in-my-face that they’re impossible to miss, and I have to think about them. My phone pushed into my consciousness something said by a crazy person that is both idiotic and stupid. And, if you’ve read anything I’ve had to say, you know that I have a strong dislike for idiots and stupidity.

Even without reading his probably-not-so-profound-and-witty post, I’m already primed to disagree with him. After years of his bescumberance, merely seeing his name negatively impacts my normal good mood. Because, for me, his name has become synonymous with “stupidity” and “ignorance” and reminds me of how irrational people can be.

I wondered why I would want to give this person a way to push his ridiculous beliefs into my field of view. Why would I want to give someone the ability to put what is essentially a personal billboard into the center of my attention?

I quickly came to the realization that I don’t. There us nothing useful or beneficial to giving him any attention at all. While I may, from time to time, want to hear what some of my other Liberal “friends” have to say, I am certain that I’ll never want to hear anything uttered by this particular person.

Thankfully, I have just the tool I need to fix this problem. Give me a second…aaaand “unfollow”. There. That’s done. Problem solved.

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