How Far Does the Political Vitriol Have to Go? And on Facebook?
This morning I opened a very disturbing private message from a former facebook friend I unfriended last week. If you recall, I wrote this post, and this post, about my feelings regarding the horrendous shooting tragedy in Arizona and how I feel about hateful political rants on social networks. And I know I'm not the only one who feels this way. Even our President seems to agree.
And this morning I received one of the most hateful personal messages I've ever received in my life from this former "friend" on facebook. It was creepy and filled with hate. This person, whom I do not know from anywhere but facebook, accused me of using a different facebook profile to comment on one of his facebook posts, and then accused me of using a fake name and photo on my own facebook page. To say the least, this was disturbing and very irrational. And all based on irrational political views. Sad.
This person is, indeed, a former facebook friend because he's one of the people who started pointing fingers after the tragedy in Arizona. He became too political and I politely clicked, "unfriend." Evidently, he didn't like the fact that I unfriended him, and now he's sending me vicious personal messages and accusing me of writing comments on his page I've never even read.
Of course I've always gone on record with my real name, Ryan Field. I know a lot of other m/m fiction writers use pen names, which is fine for them. I've written posts about this and there's nothing wrong with using pen names for a variety of reasons. But I've always used my own name and prefer to keep things simple. The same goes with my facebook and twitter accounts. And when someone accuses me of faking an identity with my real name, I tend to clench my teeth.
I could publish the entire message he sent me here on the blog; just so readers can see how mean-spirited a total stranger can be. But I won't. And I won't publish his name or profile. I have, however, saved the messages, and copied them into files in case he harasses me again. For now, I'd rather forget about it. And for those of you out there who haven't experienced this sort of thing on facebook, beware. There are some very unstable people out there, and whether they are left wing or right, there's no reasoning with them when it comes to politics. You simply can't win and it's better to move on and unfriend.
And this morning I received one of the most hateful personal messages I've ever received in my life from this former "friend" on facebook. It was creepy and filled with hate. This person, whom I do not know from anywhere but facebook, accused me of using a different facebook profile to comment on one of his facebook posts, and then accused me of using a fake name and photo on my own facebook page. To say the least, this was disturbing and very irrational. And all based on irrational political views. Sad.
This person is, indeed, a former facebook friend because he's one of the people who started pointing fingers after the tragedy in Arizona. He became too political and I politely clicked, "unfriend." Evidently, he didn't like the fact that I unfriended him, and now he's sending me vicious personal messages and accusing me of writing comments on his page I've never even read.
Of course I've always gone on record with my real name, Ryan Field. I know a lot of other m/m fiction writers use pen names, which is fine for them. I've written posts about this and there's nothing wrong with using pen names for a variety of reasons. But I've always used my own name and prefer to keep things simple. The same goes with my facebook and twitter accounts. And when someone accuses me of faking an identity with my real name, I tend to clench my teeth.
I could publish the entire message he sent me here on the blog; just so readers can see how mean-spirited a total stranger can be. But I won't. And I won't publish his name or profile. I have, however, saved the messages, and copied them into files in case he harasses me again. For now, I'd rather forget about it. And for those of you out there who haven't experienced this sort of thing on facebook, beware. There are some very unstable people out there, and whether they are left wing or right, there's no reasoning with them when it comes to politics. You simply can't win and it's better to move on and unfriend.
No comments have been added yet.
