Finally, some good news in America! Same-sex marriage is legal across the States! This is an incredible milestone and June 26th will forever mark a beautiful step toward putting the ideal of Equality into practice.But, unfortunately, not all of the "Nation's Homophobic Bigots Pack It In," as The Onion jokes.
This status is a reminder of that:
"Hey the supreme court did something else stupid in support of the immoral. What else is new?"
I do not know about you, but that was pretty different from what I was thinking. You could say it was as far opposite of what I was thinking as possible.
It is no surprise that this poster uses the Bible as the standard for their own personal moral code--they make that very apparent. Of course, their ultimate defense of this moral code is the Bible. Why defend the Bible's moral code with anything but the Bible's moral code? Flawless plan!
There are a ton of comments and replies on this thread, most of them the original poster talking about how "frustrating" the whole ordeal is, disagreeing with anything that might consider progress or a transition from the Old Testament.
I hate Facebook feuds. I tend to stay away from them. I have much time to think about what I want to say, which is great (despite the profuse sweat I usually work up in that time period), but then when it's posted, it is under your opponent's evil microscope, being probed for weakness. But how could I possibly let this slide?
I responded with this (writing this off of memory, but I think it is verbatim):
"Hi Henry. I am curious if you consider homosexuality to be a choice (because in actuality, it is a personality trait). I read that you are concerned for gay couples' children. I happen to know several people about my age who were raised by gay parents and they are beautiful, kind, brilliant and functional, sociable human beings. I wouldn't worry about them. Also, if you are using the Bible to create an environment of exclusion, fear, and judgment instead of Love and Acceptance, the religion's best lessons/qualities, then you are using it for the worst of reasons. What you have said is extremely hurtful to some people, that they are immoral for accepting and embracing their own sexual orientation. I hope that, though the Bible is in print, you can change your mind someday soon."
I decided that that was tactful and could create further discussion. I was genuinely interested in what response he would cook up for me, as disgusting as it could potentially be.
Enter.
End of Facebook friendship.
Bye, Henry! I am sorry that you decided to remove me from your friend list instead of responding, but I understand that frustration does not necessarily facilitate conversational or reasoning skills. Best of luck to you as you attempt to navigate through the rest of your life in a dynamic and ever-changing 21st century. I do not expect that it will be very easy for you.
By the way, my comment took place at about 8AM, so I highly doubt he was in some sort of drunken facebook-deletion rage. But, oh well, what can you do?
The same thing happened when I confronted people posting the Dylan Roof, Lee Boyd Malvo memes in response to the Dylan Roof, Eric Garner memes. I have one screenshot that I will post below. The other post was removed after I commented! And I didn't get a screenshot! Woe is me!
But he argued that the race of the person being arrested doesn't matter, as long as they do not resist, they will be treated well. I argued that Black people have an overwhelming statistical likelihood to be subjected to police violence, I listed some stats (26% of all police killings were of Black people last year which is double their 13% representation in the US populous) and I posted this video to show how many altercations begin for no reason other than that the subject of harassment is Black:
Video Captures EXACTLY How Cops Treat Black People
No response, meme deleted.
Here is the other conversation (in which I had a tag team partner):
No response. Meme deleted.
I have since seen several posts by both of the original posters of the meme that seem to be continuations of our conversations though, as if to say, "Ha! I was right!" (in addition to a plethora of other terribly insensitive things that seem to come so naturally to them at their entitled vantage points, cliffs shared with the eagles, so far above). I did not comment on them mostly because it was tiresome and there are too many people like that on my newsfeed.
What bothers me is, though they deleted their posts (or me), I feel like I acted as a vaccine that made them stronger, with my single strand of common sense, which they are now immune to, having seen it and been given ample time to recover from it in their virtual solace. Did I make my opposing viewholder stronger by not arguing more diligently? Maybe I spread my focus too wide. Maybe I need to pick one person and just counter every thoughtless thing they might say. Then maybe I can get them to understand my thoughts. To succumb to my "virus" if you want to keep the analogy going (eek, maybe drop the analogy).
Let us conduct a social experiment! I would encourage each of you to latch on to your closest conservative facebook friend and counter everything they say, and if each of us does so, who knows, maybe Bernie Sanders will be elected as our next President. At the very least, you might get a few dumb posts redacted.
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