It was a word that did it.
Libtard.
A person I have never met, but who was a friend of a friend, had sent me a Facebook friend request a couple of years ago. Since he was a fellow former swimmer, I thought, sure, why not.
Well for the past couple of years, any time I would write a blog that was favorable to President Obama or Hillary Clinton or Cory Booker, he would immediately write some disparaging comment. Based on the nature of his comments, I could tell it wasn’t even worth getting in a dialogue with this guy. But I thought everyone is entitled to their opinion, so I just let it be.
There was one time I felt he went over the edge, and I deleted his comment, which he immediately commented on as a liberal conspiracy. I thought, ‘it’s my page, I can do whatever I want. Use your own page to let the world know your opinion.’
I have no problem with people disagreeing with my beliefs; in fact I think just about everyone from my college swim team seemed to be a Trump supporter. We’re still friends though, it’s just that we happen to have different opinions on certain issues. But when we did discuss the issues, it was always with respect, and a sense of humor.
But this guy was different; he was angry, and had no time for looking at something other than his own perspective. I was also amazed at how quickly he would comment on some of my posts, as if he was just waiting to share his opposing point of view, often in the most argumentative way possible. Like I said, I would generally just ignore what he wrote.
Well today he went over the line, and it wasn’t even with a comment on one of my posts. He posted something to Facebook that used the word “libtard”, and that was all I needed. I went to the top of his page and blocked him.
I find that word one of the most offensive words used in politics today.
We all know what two words it is a combination of, and I think we all know how offensive and demeaning one of those words is (and don’t be cute by saying something like, ‘yea, I can’t stand the word liberal either’).
Combining it with another word doesn’t make it any less offensive.
So if you want to disagree with something I post, I encourage you to do so. But keep it civil, check your facts first, and certainly avoid hate speech.
Otherwise, now that I know how to use the block feature in Facebook, you could be next.
By the way, if you’re reading this post from my posting it to Facebook, then you know it wasn’t you that I blocked…
Borden's Blather 