I am so sick and tired of ugliness

Now, I don’t mean ugly people…I’m talking about the ugliness I have seen in so many people recently, especially this past week.

I have been checking into FaceBook two to three times a week since November, when I deleted the app from my phone. Back then, I would check it once a day, and then I slowly started cutting back.

These past five years or so, I have slowly seen people who I have known for years, and whom I have admired, devolve into evil, twisted versions of themselves. You all know who I’m talking about – These are the people who have their set beliefs, and if you do not fit within their ideals, and don’t subscribe to their beliefs, they cast you off as evil and the enemy. Things got bad when Trump won the 2016 election. They got worse as he was President. And then this last election – WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE? I’m not even going to apologize for my language. I’m going to repeat – WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE?!?!?! (Heck yeah, I added interrobangs this second time)

When did it become acceptable to tell people that they are wrong, and they have to believe the exact same thing as you, and if they don’t, they are the worst people ever, and should “just go ahead and unfriend me,” and they get written off. Who the hell do these people think they are? I mean, come on.

No one thinks the exact same way as another person. We all have our set thoughts, and will not be swayed one way or another, but the way conversation, friendship, connections, work is to accept that fact, and find a way to meet in the middle. And if you don’t agree, then that’s fine. YOU JUST AGREE TO DISAGREE AND MOVE ON. And if there is no way to get to that point, you just don’t speak to each other.

But man, this past week, the ugliness just got to me. I stood in the bathroom and looked in the mirror and I asked myself “Who are you? What kind of person are you that you are allowing this nastiness (and it is nastiness) into your life? Are you going to allow this to enter Little Man’s life?” and I did not like it. I’m not going to allow this nastiness to continue in my life.

So, what did I do? I started and went and just hit the unfriend button for a SHIT TON of people on FaceBook. Now, it helped that i had a SHIT TON of people who I had snoozed or unfollowed. Well…They were the first to go. Then I took a second look, and anyone I had not interacted with over the past year, ADIOS! By then, I was down to about 100 people. About half were family, and the rest were friends from high school and co-workers. I did this on Thursday.

Friday, I did some thinking. And I did some more thinking. And I realized, as I checked in to MeWe and saw a bunch of incoming messages saying “If shit goes south, I want to be sure to stay in touch with you. Here’s my phone number, email, physical address, etc.” I never got anything like that on FaceBook. My mind was made up. FaceBook is going the way of the dodo in my life.

So, I replied to those messages, shared my contact info, and wrote theirs down in my address book and SHTF journal (I’ve now got a section at the back that has all my people’s contact information across the U.S.). Mind you, I have NEVER EVER met any of these MeWe people in person. Over the past almost two years, we have crafted relationships through our regular chats, reading of each other’s blogs, and just interacting with what is posted. I can’t tell you the last time anything like that happened on FaceBook. Hell, no one on FaceBook has offered their contact information; most are like “Best way to contact me is via FaceBook Messenger!”

So, what did I do today? I sent a message to my family members and the friends I definitely wanted to keep in touch with. They all got a link to my MeWe profile if they so choose to follow me over there. And I said “This is the best email to contact me, and we can do Hangouts chats as well.” (Most of my family is in Europe, so no cell number was shared) And I did a post on my timeline there, sharing the MeWe link, and letting everyone know that if they wanted to stay in touch, to reach out to me and we can exchange contact info.

Next Saturday, I will be deactivating my FaceBook account. Now, I’ve been a member of FaceBook since the fall of 2004, when it was TheFaceBook, and your university or college had to be invited to join, and you could only access it with your college email address. I’ve seen the changes, some for the better, most for the worse. And I’m not upset.

I’m just so sick and tired of the damn ugliness. And I don’t have time for that in my life. So, I shall stay on MeWe, and participate in the Telegram and Discord channels. And I’m not going to give a flying fuck what people think. And I highly suggest the rest of you do the same.

GARDEN UPDATE

Echinacea is growing well, but the rest is dead. I will keep the echinacea going, and restart new seeds when it gets a little warmer. And my freedom delivery arrived! I got my AeroGarden Salad Greens pods set up in the AeroGarden. In a few weeks, I will have lettuce!