I left Facebook this past weekend, keeping only a skeleton account with no friends to manage the North Alabama Human Trafficking Task Force page and the Free Mom Hugs-Huntsville page.
Long-time readers will remember I’ve done this before. I stayed gone two years. I have a feeling this departure is permanent.
I have the same privacy concerns I had last time, only they’re much magnified now. I watched with disgust at what Twitter became under Elon Musk’s “leadership,” and I have no doubt it’s a giant MISSION ACCOMPLISHED from the inner circle. I don’t know if the world’s richest Charlie X set out to use it to reelect Trump, but that was definitely its purpose for the past several months.
It’s frightening to consider what might happen with the much larger, much more robust Facebook user base. But I won’t be playing.
Maybe you want to get off with me. Are you enjoying it? I wasn’t. Not really. Not at the end. There are connections I have mostly on Facebook, and realistically, some of those will perish. That makes me sad.
But what I won’t miss is the cesspool of aggressive idiocy it’s become. I need to be away from dense concentrations of Trump apologists. I need to be away from people I once knew to be critical thinkers twisting themselves in triple rhetorical knots to find ways to say they support President Trump invading Greenland and Panama, or that the Bible warns of the dangers of “toxic empathy,” or that an anti-vaxxer lunatic should be our health secretary. I need to be away from people who chose the wispy assurance of cheaper groceries over the brutal reality of hurting my daughter.
You know what else, though? I need to be away from dense concentrations of people who are freaking out at his reelection, too. I’m trying not to be one, because Trump is clearly making every effort to flood everyone’s channels with panic. But I must confine my agitation to the practical. That has never been clearer in my head, even as my heart (and frankly, my inner lizard) still struggles with it. I need no help whatsoever finding a well-worn channel of angst in which to nestle. I need help staying out of that channel. And most of that help’s got to come from myself.
I’ll be here. And I’m on BlueSky. Come see me.
Hello! So glad I found your new blog, I was a longtime follower of BoWilliams.com. You have always been the voice of reason.
I am still on Facebook, but keep it tightly curated. Any friends of mine that get political I unfollow. It is really only for pictures of my grandkids and friend’s vacations. I am in some hobby-related groups but those all have rules around political and aggressive posts.
Chaos has always been Trump’s weapon of choice. He uses it as his first negotiating tool and to disguise what he really is doing. The good news is that although the MAGA base may love it, I don’t think the average American has much of an appetite for this nonsense. I really think there will be a big backlash in 2 and 4 years, and it won’t be long before Republicans will be denouncing Trump to get elected.
Nancy, so happy you found me too! Thank you for your kind words. I certainly hope you’re right about the backlash.