The Irony of It All

When I worked overnights at the hotel, it was either bang-out crazy until the end of the shift, or dead quiet.  In the off-season, dead quiet ruled.  Netflix was my savior after everything was done and the cleaning and re-stocking done. Along came Facebook, and soon Facebook games, and I had another way to kill time and prevent falling asleep.

A phenomenon that popped up soon afterwards were groups for people who played the game where they could talk and strategize.  In my case, I mostly played puzzle games and a couple of others where people collected stuff if they won.  It was stuff I could pick up when I want and put down and not have to worry that there was a battle going on or something.

I noticed one thing early on.  The people who get involved in the running of these groups must have no lives.  They are often online 12-18 hours a day, every day.  The game I was in a large group and it had the group owner and a number of administrators.  The administrators dropped like flies.  Usually they would be there for a few months, then gone.  From the outside looking in, it seemed the group owner expected the same devotion to the game and her group that she gave it.

I'd find friends in these groups that I'd add just for getting the freebies or help.  I've made a number of great cyber-friends this way.  Most of them are just faces in a crowd that I pay little attention to except for sending freebies.

My personal policy that I developed for online interaction is that I very rarely go on other people's pages and talk politics when they are of a different belief than me.  Especially when they are someone of no consequence other than the gaming, I don't care and the conversations aren't going to change anyone's mind.  I have been deleting people who post racist opinions or fake memes without bothering to research it.  I don't need that in my feed.  Their idiocy just makes me sad for this country.  Of late it's been easier to just say I don't need you in my life to these gamers.  If you come on my wall, though, all bets are off.  Seriously, I am giving you a kindness.  Don't mistake it for something else.  I've experienced that not only with casual acquaintances, but also with people I've known for quite some time.  They don't want political discussions on their wall, but they'll go to other people's walls and pollute it with their snarky comments and drivel.

Back to the group I was in for this one game.  The owner had issues - that was apparent.  There were times she would threaten to close the group and quit playing and others would rally people to tell them how much they loved her and appreciated her.  They'd stage events for an "appreciation day."  The first couple of times I participated.  After all, who can't use a little pick-me-up now and then and what does it cost me?  As I began to see it happening more and more frequently, it just seemed to me this person was spending 12-18 hours a day playing this game, running this group, and having mental breakdowns followed by ego stroking.   I looked a little closer at some of the other groups I was win and although not as extreme as this one, I noticed the same thing.  Many of these people were very upfront that they are getting SSDI and this is all they do all day.

Still, I wasn't judging.  That was, until the politics of some of these people became apparent.  Each and every one of these people was pro-GOP.  It became more and more apparent as the 2016 election was approaching that all of these people, sitting home all day and doing nothing except collecting a check and hanging on Facebook were posting the most racist, misogynistic pro-Trump memes they could find, most of which had no basis in truth or reality.

Ms. Group-Leader was no exception, I just ignored it, unfollowed her, and stayed in the group without seeing and of her crap. Something appeared in my feed because another acquaintance in the group had called her to task on a false meme she posted.  It was obvious her mental state couldn't handle it.  She was one of those: this is what I want to believe, I don't care if it's true or not, therefore it's true because I want to believe it.  I decided to defend the person who was calling her out and try to smooth things over. I looked up the facts behind the meme.  Found where the one grain of truth was that had been then twisted to suit the agenda of the person creating the meme.  I spelled it all out, even nicely agreeing that there was a grain of truth, but here is where it all went wrong.

The response I got from Ms. Group-Leader was basically what I highlighted there.  She had no interest in the truth.  She just wanted to post stuff, true or false, that backed her ignorant Conservative racist agenda.  At that point I had it and baited her into an argument.  I got unfriended, blocked, and booted from the group.

No sweat, there's always another group.  But guess what?  Not exactly the mental issues from the first one, but it's run by another racist who seems to have all this time to be on the internet all day long.  And this one is a Canadian!  Tell me, why would a Canadian post anti-Obama stuff and go on other people's walls posting negative things about out President?  Oh yeah, racist!  It's pretty damn obvious.  I have followed the same policy as usual, but she's treading into dangerous territory with me.  She recently lost her husband - it's his account she uses to run the group,  When she posted "Sit down and shut up Obama" on something I shared recently, I was tempted to say "Fuck off and die ***** oh sorry, you already did."  I didn't post that, but I put a warning on the post that she would see despite the fact that I deleted the comment.

You're Canadian.  If you think Trump is so wonderful, great.  You move here, I'll take your place in Canada.  I don't think you'd do that because other than the racism you embrace, you like all of things you "get" there.  You obviously get an income where you can do nothing but sit on Facebook all day and play games.  You get healthcare. You don't think it's as good as it should be?  Oh, then once again, you come here.  I'll take your place.  No?  You see, for all your posturing, it's all about race.  You couldn't handle it that the leader of the free world was a black man you racist twat.

Do I think she'll read this? Nah.  Do I care if she does?  Nah.  Like I said, there's always another group.  And it, too, will probably be run by a racist twat collecting disability or something.



***Note: I have nothing against people on disability.  The point is, these people back a political party that would like to strip it.  They think somehow it will happen to "other people," not them.  They usually are the first to complain about other people and say things like "get a job" (especially when the person is a different race) while having their own hand out.  I hate racism.  I hate hypocrisy.  These people suffer from both.