My Social Media Life

I share way more with you guys.

Word vomit.

It’s all over social media these days. Mine looks slightly different.

Facebook is the only form of social media that I have. I do not have any other platform and I don’t want anymore. Too much social media makes you realize that you actually do not like the people you like. Though to be fair, one platform was all I needed for that when Trump was elected.

I spill my deepest, darkest, everything out onto Medium. To strangers on the internet. But my Facebook page is private and I only add people that I know in real life. So the only people who get to read what I post on there, know exactly who I am, what I stand for… and I won’t stand by and ignore. But I don’t believe in fighting battles online. I believe in fighting them out in the world.

When Roe V. Wade was overturned, the only thing I posted on Facebook was a picture. This picture:

I did not write any words. Just posted the picture. I feel like it made my point better than words could.

The Handmaid’s Tale is not supposed to be a documentary, it was a book turned television show and it’s a work of dystopia. But it’s a dystopia we COULD all end up living if we’re not careful with the slippery slope SCOTUS handed down.

The people in my life are very aware of the fact that as an unwanted child myself, that ruling was exceedingly personal to me on more levels than simply being an atheist woman that does not want children and believes strongly in the separation of church and state. A separation that has never once been real in the entire time that America has existed. It was what the country was founded on. It was the main principle that formed this nation. Yet it’s been ignored. Time and time again it’s been ignored.

It was ignored the entire time that gay people were not permitted the right to get married. The right to a legal institution that does not have to take place in a church to be valid. It continues to be ignored with this ruling and any time abortion or LGBTQIA+ rights are used as political platforms. They are ONLY in question based on religion. A specific religion that we allow to have a say in our legislature while they don’t pay taxes to earn that right. I don’t really care what the bible says is right and wrong. I won’t live my life by a book and our country shouldn’t be governed by one. More importantly, our country is not SUPPOSED to be governed by that book.

Separation. Of. Church. And. State.

I could spew all of this on Facebook but what would be the point?

I used to. I used to talk politics in posts and the only result was the unfollowing and unfriending of people that argued with me. It was not based on a difference of opinion. It was based on a difference in MORALS.

I don’t need a book to tell me right vs. wrong. I have a moral compass and the threat of hellfire is not why I choose to not do things that are wrong. The fact that I’m a decent human being is why I choose to not do things that are wrong. But we’ve reached a point in history where we can NOT simply be friends who disagree on certain things. You either believe in human rights or you don’t. And if you don’t, I don’t want to know you.

I believe that certain fundamental differences are too big a divide to bridge in the name of friendship or even family. I am friends with a lot of religious people, I do not care what you believe… but I absolutely do care how you choose to use those beliefs. If you use them to take rights away from people because you truly believe that only people that are exactly like yourself should have them, that’s a divide we can never bridge. I don’t care who you are or used to be in my life.

The things that I believe in guide everything that I do. When I was interviewing at animal hospitals for a position, and we got to the, “do you have any questions for us?” portion of the interview, I only asked one question.

Do you declaw cats here?

I am completely, totally, and morally opposed to the practice of declawing cats, and any hospital that would do it, no matter how much money they offered, no matter how great the benefits, was not a place that I could work. I will not ignore my morals for a paycheck and I certainly won’t take part in a procedure that is viciously cruel.

The same idea goes for the people in my life.

When people were stealing #BlackLivesMatter and turning it to #AllLivesMatter or worse, #BlueLivesMatter, they were immediately unfriended. I’m not going to change anything in the fight for POC by starting an internet fight. But all lives can’t matter until black lives matter and there’s no such thing as a blue life unless you think Smurfs are real creatures. Being a police officer is a choice. It’s a job. A choice to do a job where you carry a gun and should be held to a higher standard when you choose to use that gun with deadly aim. Too often POC become shoot first, ask questions later statistics.

People are not statistics.

But this isn’t a fight that will be won by internet warriors on social media.

The LGBTQIA+ population has come a long way in this country in terms of rights, freedoms, and acceptance. But not far enough. There is still a lot of hatred and completely ridiculously false ideas about what it means to be trans, and the suicide rate of trans people is still WAY too high.

One is one too many.

Trying to hide your bigotry behind other things like “protecting children in public bathrooms” is total bullshit and every person that uses that excuse probably knows it on some level. I’ve said it before and I will keep saying it, your child is not in danger from a trans person. A priest? That’s a whole different story. If you want to worry about your kids, maybe start looking at actual crime statistics and protect them from the real predators. I’ll give you a hint if you need one: priests vs. trans people — priests win in the child predator statistics department. By a lot. By centuries. By staggering numbers.

Much like cops that shoot POC, priests are not held accountable. At least not in the right way. Murder and child molestation results in loss of vocation (or relocation) or simple suspension instead of any legal ramifications.

But when is the last time that you heard someone say that their mind and heart were changed because of a well-written Facebook post? Because of a tweet? Because of an Instagram comment? Because of a Snapchat photo of someone holding a sign?

Wars are not won on social media and let’s be clear on something, this country IS at war. But it’s a quiet war.

People are being shot en masse for no reason other than YAY GUNS! but that doesn’t result in an eruption of actual combat.

And women having their voices silenced, rights stolen, and turning the clock back fifty years won’t result in combat either. Not the type of combat that we think of when we think of the word “war”.

There are so many more issues, but these are the ones that I consider unfriending offenses. If you believe your right to a gun is more important than the countless lives we continue to lose, we have a serious moral divide. If you believe that POC being gunned down by police is an acceptable part of a job, we have a serious moral divide. If you believe that the LGBTQIA+ population has ANY less rights than you do or are predators simply for being who they are, we have a serious moral divide. If you believe that your book on your bedside table has ANY place in MY uterus, we have a serious moral divide.

But what is posting it on social media going to achieve? It will show me the true colors of the people in my life if they argue it but I handled that in 2016.

There was a time that I posted my political views on social media and argued them endlessly. It was exhausting. It was infuriating. And it accomplished nothing beyond removing some people from my view. But out of sight is not out of mind when it comes to the morality of right vs. wrong. I was just an angry person who felt helpless to change a damn thing and knowing that there were people I’d known for most of my life that actually thought these things were acceptable was more than I could stand.

These issues are being fought for off-screen and that is how they will be won. In the real world. Not on social media. I am part of those fights and proud to be. I know there are people I once respected (though I no longer can) that are fighting on the other side of things. It’s uncomfortable. But we NEED to be uncomfortable. We NEED to stand up, step away from our keyboards, and FIGHT.

I write things. On here. Mostly about traumas in my life or animal education but when I have something political to rant about, I do it here. I publish it here. I won’t fight with people in the comments section. I’m madly in love with the block feature and use it at will. I’m not a keyboard warrior. I state my piece here. Then I fight in the real world.

No minds nor hearts were ever changed on social media. Stop posting and start protesting. Start screaming. Make yourself heard. Join us out in the world. That is how wars are won.

We have a long way to go, and it keeps getting longer. Part of that is because people think it’s enough to simply vomit their arguments all over the internet. That doesn’t help anyone.

So give your fingers a rest, and start fighting for real. Otherwise, things will NOT stay the way they are… they will only get worse.

The scariest question in America right now is, “what’s next?”

Social media holds no answers.

Thank you Ellie Jacobson for this prompt and for accepting me into Flint and Steel. I look forward to more prompts to come.