Let’s have a haiku contest. Can you summarize your Facebook feed in a haiku (bonus points for restricting to 5-7-5).
Having been part of a university community for many years, here are some examples of what Facebook shows me:
I’ll go further – If you hate our country so much that you think this inexperienced ill-equipped racist asshole [Donald Trump] should be put in charge of our government, our military, our domestic policy and foreign relationships then you should think about moving out because you are anti everything this country stands for and you dont [sic] belong here. And we will not miss you.
I call on all Bernie supporters to rally behind Hillary Clinton. The danger that Trump and the republikans represent to us all are unthinkable. They will set our country back 50 years, undo all social progress and destroy our economy and global standing- or worse. We must unite to defeat them. Bernie is a true progressive – a mensch – and will be an important ally in the Senate. You know he will be supporting Hillary – and we all need to do the same.
Goodbye Rubio and good riddance. You were extreme and dangerous but in this crazy year not extreme or dangerous enough for the haters of your party.
Mitt Romney just told the truth about Trump…and then many lies about Hillary Clinton. Thanks for reminding us how much worse off we’d have been if we’d elected this pompous elitist empty suit – and the danger of ever electing the super-rich and over-entitled.
Heres [sic] our next “First Lady”, wielding a handgun. Imagine the outcry if Michelle Obama posed like this – but only silence from the right. Share this around. And stop it from happening. [over a photo of a lightly dressed young Melania Trump]
When I was young and learning about the Holocaust I wondered how someone like Hitler could come to power in a country that had smart talented resourceful people, and whether I would have had the courage to resist the rise of nazism and fascism. We are nearing that kind of challenge and that need to fight to protect our Nation and it’s values from thugs and haters – domestic terrorists – who seem bent on destroying it. We cannot let them succeed.
Speaks for itself. Donald Trump is a fascist. [over a link discussing Fred Trump’s purported screening prospective apartment building tenants by race (now our tax dollars fund race-based decisions by government public housing ministries under the “affirmative action” banner)]
Another example of the efforts by Republicans to limit the voting rights of minorities. Sad and infuriating. [over an article on voter requirements; the (white) author feels comfortable assuming and asserting that American minorities are inferior to white Americans in their ability to comply with annoying bureaucracy]
If Trump becomes President, Trudeau is giving me another reason to move to Canada. [not sure that the author of this one would qualify as he is around 65 and, like most countries with publicly funded medical care, Canada disfavors older immigrants with a point system: “Persons … lose two points for each year that they are under twenty-one or over forty-nine.”]
Throw the key away on [Dennis Hastert]. Harsh, but it makes me real angry. [i.e., the author has the courage to denounce someone who is both an admitted child molester and an admitted Republican]
I usually agree with Krugman, and today is no change from that stance.
A ticked off young woman speaking truth to power: [over an article in which a Starbucks customer called Florida Governor Rick Scott an asshole and noted “You cut Medicaid, so I couldn’t get Obamacare,” (but she still has enough money to patronize Starbucks?)]
These mouths remind me of a politician we all know and denigrate! [over an article titled “Monkeys With Smaller Testicles Scream Louder to Compensate, Study Finds”; what would happen if one of his friends compared Barack Obama to a monkey?]
The emerging Repulsive Republican ticket: Oink and Oink. [over an article about Donald Trump and Chris Christie]
Let me repeat: this man is a fascist. It he is President, he’ll create and endorse storm troopers outfitted with Trump ties.
Here’s my haiku summary of the above:
I hate Donald Trump
Liberals are my besties
Important to share
Readers: What’s your haiku summary of your Facebook feed?
[Separate question: Why is there so much political content on Facebook? The above folks suggest that they don’t want to live in the same country as anyone who identifies as a Republican. It should therefore be safe to assume that they have long since defriended anyone whom they suspect of supporting Trump, Cruz, et al. Thus their postings can’t reach beyond fellow Democrats and therefore they are spending a lot of time preaching to the converted, right? Why would they do this? Do they achieve higher social status among Hillary supporters for the vehemence and creativity of their denunciations of Donald Trump and traditional Republicans?]
Feel outraged at this.
Here is some spam you don’t want.
Look at the puppies!
I have lots of Facebook friends of all political stripes. The key to not being unfriended by liberals (non-liberals don’t treat politics religiously so they don’t unfriend people who disagree) is, on the occasions when their criticisms of conservatives are completely 100% right (unusual but you’ll see at least one almost every day), to share those posts so they don’t think you’re an enemy. They are usually too childish ever to criticize their own side, so it’s effective camouflage to say something negative about a conservative amidst your criticism of liberals because then they will assume you’re genuinely independent.
(I actually am independent, but I admit to disliking Republicans less than I dislike Democrats. And as a New Yorker who has been following Trump for 40 years, I do not find him at all terrifying, he is a known quantity who has had exactly the same personality all along.)
I had one liberal friend who unfriended me on Facebook because I posted a very seriously negative story about Ted Cruz that he told me about. The reason? Because he felt insulted that I said to him “let me check this out” and only posted it after checking–that I wouldn’t take his word for it that Ted Cruz was evil incarnate meant that I was evil too.
Posts very seldom. No!
Cannot be interesting.
Forget about ’em.
I love Donald Trump
temporary muslim immigration pause
build the wall
Look at my baby
Women are unstoppable
This country will Bern
Slightly off topic… Within the haiku community, rigid adherence to the 5-7-5 pattern is typically considered inaccurate in English. http://www.nahaiwrimo.com/home/why-no-5-7-5
The right are all dumb
White men are wrong by default
My posts help the world
Trump, Clinton, Sanders?
But wait, read paragraph 6!
Godwin’s Law alive.
Entertaining post,
Another GDP loss.
Is laughing a waste?
Facebook is empty
Devoid of pithy content
or pics of titties
She posts once again.
Have we it read this before?
Trophy likes from boys.
Politics is the religion of the many liberals that I come into contact with at my workplace. I dislike listening to the rantings of self righteous religious zealots no matter what religion they espouse. I have no facebook friends.
Feel the Bern-e now
to eat clean is glorious
random funny sh*t
Donald Trump: Hitler
Donald Trump – he is Hitler
Donald Trump: Hitler
It’s called virtue signalling. The same reason why the residents of Salem had “I’m a witch burner and I’m proud of it” bumper stickers on their ox carts.
I like how the dialogue has shifted from “I’m moving to Canada” to “Trump voters should leave.” Liberal America – love it or leave it!
I got mine Ha Ha Ha
I got mine Ho Ho Ho
Ho Ho Ha Ha Ha
windmills kill eagles
the hunter now the hunted
death of the party
All east coast people
are smarter than average —
I live way out west
Trump is a Bubba Gump
Hillary makes me go to the distillery
What will it matter anyway
Posts not mentioning
Alimony, child support
Or planes are quite rare
Tried to delete account
Haven’t logged in for years
Not sure if its really dead
deleted account
have not logged in six in years
not sure if its dead yet
F U Donald Trump
Pollution in Mexico
Chinese gasoline
One thing to note, a
bitching Facebook feed, is a
happy facebook feed
The reaction to Trump’s nomination that I’ve seen on social media is basically unfiltered horror. Ezra Klein: “Trump’s other gift — the one that gets less attention but is perhaps more important — is his complete lack of shame. It’s easy to underestimate how important shame is in American politics. But shame is our most powerful restraint on politicians who would find success through demagoguery. Most people feel shame when they’re exposed as liars, when they’re seen as uninformed, when their behavior is thought cruel, when respected figures in their party condemn their actions, when experts dismiss their proposals, when they are mocked and booed and protested. Trump doesn’t.”
The Washington Post, basically describing this cartoon: “A horseshoe falls off the doorframe. A wolf howls mournfully in the distance.”
Also interesting to me has been a number of die-hard conservatives saying that they won’t vote for Trump, or will even vote for Hillary Clinton (!), as she’s the only one who can stop Trump now.
The philosopher Richard Rorty predicted the rise of someone like Trump (“a Weimar-like period”) back in 1997. Quoted by Mark Danner:
My haiku:
I apologize, haiku contests are like catnip to me (if I was a cat):
Trump v Clinton
who gives a steaming shit?
still have to mow lawn
Times and New Yorker
Tell me how to think and vote
how can I be wrong?
The Orthodoxy
has their panties in a bunch
Trump onto something
If Trump becomes Prez
is that department of ag
sinecure still mine?
Note to NSA
The above was some humor
Please take the van home