A friend posted this to Facebook yesterday:
Like you, probably, I didn’t recognize the guy in the photo. Is he the head of some teabagger group calling for the impeachment of the President? Out of curiosity I clicked the “See More” link. Turns out the guy’s a respected reporter named Charley Reese. The link takes you to an editorial he wrote, not calling for Obama’s impeachment but instead slamming Congress for wasting time on trivialities while ignoring, to America’s harm, important issues. Hell, who doesn’t agree with that? Even the asshole who maintains Facebook’s “Impeach Barack H Obama” page agrees with that!
I’m not going to link to “Impeach Barack H Obama”; it’s just another Facebook page full of right-wing anti-Obama nonsense with a pronounced focus on the President’s mixed race parentage; i.e., a racist hate page, nowhere near as nasty as some I’ve seen but pretty nasty nonetheless. Here’s the comment I posted, and the reply:
Here’s the thing: it’s not just a repost. Yes, there’s a link to a worthwhile editorial at the bottom, but what’s right up at the top? Your good name next to a link to a racist hate page. Your shared post makes you look like a fellow traveler, even if you disagree with everything the hate page stands for. When you share a post from a hate page, you also share the name of that page and a link to it. It’s free advertising for the haters, and your post … and you … will take on the stench that emanates from it.
Thus endeth today’s lesson in Facebook common sense.
© 2013, Paul Woodford. All rights reserved.
