Rant VIII: The Reckoning

Oh hey, while reporting his tweets, I came across this gem from last month. A day after I unfriended him on Facebook. And for prosperity, here's his last message to me after I unfriended him. Pretty quick change in tune.

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I still don’t get it. If someone unfriends you, and you notice, shouldn’t that be an obvious sign that they are done with you?
Right? Like, what does he think he'll accomplish by saying all this to me? I sure as hell won't be friends with him again now.

I get the feeling this is a defense mechanism for him. His ego can't accept that someone considers him toxic and wants to cut him out of their life.
 
I unfriended an old college roommate about a month ago. He was always an asshole, but he never attacked me, personally. He would pop into comments on my posts sometimes with pretty bad advice. But lately, he had many pro-Trump opinions and would jump on me if I said something against Trump. Which is funny when he's lived overseas most of his life, and teaching in the Middle East for the past 10 or so years.

I finally had enough when he made a very unhelpful comment on one of my posts while depressed. I can't recall exactly what it was, but it's the kind of comment someone says who doesn't understand how depression works.

This morning, I wake up to this:
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It's amazing that a month after I unfriended him that this is the first thing he chose to say to me. I blocked him immediately instead of giving him the satisfaction of a response. Fuck him.

What's funny is his mentioning of the teenage girlfriend, which I long ago admitted was a mistake in retrospect. But it shows how little he knows about me since I've had two girlfriends since then. And as far as I've ever known him for over 20 years, he's never had a single one.

But it goes to show what kind of person he really is if he feels he needs to attack me like this.
What an absolute pile of human garbage, when he is beaten to within an each of his life by someone who isnt gonna take his pedantic bullshit, only then may he understand the meaning of his actions.
 
Someone that I've considered a good friend for a good 25 years really angered and disappointed me today. Haven't seen them since the pandemic started, so have only really contacted via phone, but on Facebook last night they posted video of them taking their family to the Trump rally out in Grand Rapids, MI.

And not just "attending" the rally. They dressed themselves and their kids in Trump hats and "Lock him up" shirts. They posted videos of them and their kids, maskless, among hundreds of idiots shouting "Lock him up!", complete with thin blue line flags everywhere.

I don't want to engage the behavior, but it's angering me to the point where I want to cut them off entirely. How could someone be so stupid and ignorant? How could you be so hateful?
 
I've been taking the advice (I think from Nick actually) of just unfollowing everyone that is stupid. They don't get the satisfaction of an unfriend/block, and I don't have to listen to their stupid shit anymore. Let them think we're still friends. Being wrong about one more thing isn't really going to affect things much.
 
Trump rally out in Grand Rapids, MI.
Starting to think that taking the entire weekend off work was a great idea.
They found no violation of their rules. [...] Worth a shot, though.
I agree that it was definitely worth a shot. If nothing else, it'll be part of a virtual paper trail, and even if no single tweet is ever enough to do him in, if he accumulates enough complaints for marginal tweets, that still might be enough.

FWIW, Nick, I know I've frequently hurt people's feelings with well-intentioned yet poorly thought out messages/replies. However, I don't at all feel like that's what he's doing. The public messages you quote are overtly bullying and derogatory towards you, and his PM does not read as an olive branch, it reads as "I tried to give you the crumbs from my table yet you refused my kindness. Hope you can still enjoy the rest of your life without me in it."

--Patrick
 
I've been taking the advice (I think from Nick actually) of just unfollowing everyone that is stupid. They don't get the satisfaction of an unfriend/block, and I don't have to listen to their stupid shit anymore. Let them think we're still friends. Being wrong about one more thing isn't really going to affect things much.
Yep. I find I often say the phrase, "Okay, that's enough of that," when I see something on my Facebook or Twitter timeline saying something I'm tired of seeing. I unfriended a woman I'd known I think through a writers group posting all sorts of pro-Trump shit. It only popped up the once for me because algorithms, but looking at her page, it was wall-to-wall Trump bootlicking. Same as when I comment on a CBC News post and get dog-piled by Conservative-thinking people who don't take kindly to empathy or critical thinking. I just block them rather than bother to engage with them. Or I'll just mute the thread for my own sanity if I'm getting too many notifications about it. It's just not worth engaging with these people.
 
Starting to think that taking the entire weekend off work was a great idea.

I agree that it was definitely worth a shot. If nothing else, it'll be part of a virtual paper trail, and even if no single tweet is ever enough to do him in, if he accumulates enough complaints for marginal tweets, that still might be enough.

FWIW, Nick, I know I've frequently hurt people's feelings with well-intentioned yet poorly thought out messages/replies. However, I don't at all feel like that's what he's doing. The public messages you quote are overtly bullying and derogatory towards you, and his PM does not read as an olive branch, it reads as "I tried to give you the crumbs from my table yet you refused my kindness. Hope you can still enjoy the rest of your life without me in it."

--Patrick
Pat i regularly misunderstand your intent, but this is clear belligerence. Your statements are misunderstood because i read them with a sarcastic bent lol
 
Heh. I was more using myself as an example of someone who does it inadvertently, and who therefore can tell when someone else is doing it on purpose.

—Patrick
 
I try to keep people with different views on my Facebook feed, because I don't want (too much of) an echo chamber. This includes people with differing views regarding Taiwanese politics and abroad.

However, if I see your views are based on malice, shoddy logic, or sheer idiocy, then I'll consider removing you. For example, one particular hot girl posted about how legalizing gay marriage in Taiwan would cause our already-low birthrates to fall further. I facepalmed so hard my hand bounced off my skull right onto the "unfriend" button.
 
I actually really enjoy Facebook these days. I've unfollowed so many people now that it's mostly my funny friends and Sideshow Collectibles groups I see.
 
I snoozed all of my relatives on Facebook and Facebook is better for me. I mostly only look at it for my one friend that reposts memes, and my other friend who's super into politics and actually talks to people about things.
 
Coub doesn't do comments or other communication methods. It's more like youtube with comments turned off.


That's no more of "Social media" than IRC.
I don't agree. A lot of people use it to join servers of similar interest and use it to talk about such things. I would also argue that early internet chat rooms were their own version of social media.
 
It's a medium. It's used to socialize. It's social media.
Yeah, that might mean the wanted ads in a newspaper were, at some point, used as a social medium. It's still the most obvious use of the term.
 
Also, you're old. I guarantee that teenagers use Discord as social media.
Can confirm, 100%.

My students talk the most about communicating through TikTok, Snapchat, YouTube, Discord, and Google (Docs, Slides, Meet, etc.).
 
Buy this definition, texting is social media.
Again, you're old.

People join communities that they think they will enjoy. They share details about themselves and their lives. They discuss common interests. All out in the open to people they barely know. Social Media.
It's no different than joining Facebook, setting your account to friends only, and joining Facebook fan groups.
 
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