Irksome Facebook Posts of the Week

I have decided, as per a thought I had in one of my recent blogs, to have yet another type of "theme" post (joining "Things I Don't Get" and "Style 101").  I'm always seeing stuff on Facebook that ticks me off.  I feel my friends have a right to post this stuff.  I generally refrain from commenting because I don't want to get into it with people.  There are just too many people on Facebook and too many opinions and too much potential for ill-will.  Shipwrecked & Comatose is a dark little corner of the internet that no one visits.  I can sound off in my own little echo chamber and say exactly what I think of your small-minded drivel.  If anyone does decide to come and read and dare to contradict, I just delete.  (Here is where I flash my evil grin and do a little bwhahahahaha laugh.)

When we put stuff out on the internet, we always risk opposition.  That is my warning.  Whatever you put on Facebook risks being lampooned, picked apart, and otherwise torn down on Shipwrecked & Comatose.

So here's my first feature that really ticked me off.



You know what really ticks me off about this type of stuff?  Let me count the ways.

First, it's the implication that if you are an atheist, you are a fool with no capability of logic.  (Ironic that it's considered illogical to not believe in an invisible being in the sky who can read the thoughts of every person on the planet and interferes with their lives on a whim.)  Really, how many atheists do you know?  Have any of them done this?  Have you known any famous atheists who have pulled stunts like this?  I doubt Richard Dawkins or the late Christopher Hitchens or Sam Harris would have any need to prove anything this way.

Did this incident actually happen?  I tried to find a confirmation on Snopes.  As far as I'm concerned, until I get corroborated eyewitnesses, I dismiss the story as pure bull pucky anyway.

But I do have more issues with this piece. I have to say on behalf of the good service people of this country, if God is protecting them, She is doing a stupendously crappy job.  Soldiers are dying every day.  This country is seeing too many flag-draped coffins. Where is God protecting soldiers?  I'id love to see more of it please.  If I were this professor, I wouldn't be asking God why She won't knock him down.  I'd be asking why She has created a world where we are sending people off to die in the first place.

My next issue with this drivel is the fact that it mentions the prof is a member of the ACLU.  Now it's weird because the ACLU doesn't really have anything to do with the the prof's challenge to God.  However, the soldier in attendance has this need to remind everyone that he is defending the prof's freedom to pull this stupid stunt.  There is definitely a subtle dig here.  ACLU?  In other words, not a regressive Republican.  He's a liberal and all liberals hate the troops.  Liberals appreciate nothing.  Blah blah blah.  I AM SO SICK OF THIS CRAP!!!!!!

Do you know what I find really interesting about FB posts and emails like this talking about God?  Most of the people who send them are not the most devoutly religious people I know.  I don't see much of this type of stuff from regular churchgoers. practicing Catholics and evangelical Christians.  I get the impression that there are folks out there who invoke God online because it makes them feel more righteous.  Most of the very devout Christians I know, aside from the occasional Religious Right political post, don't bother spreading stuff like this.  It's mean-spirited and not terribly Christ-like and they know it.

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So also this week I saw this.





My first thought was, "The learned English, got jobs, and paid taxes?"  Well, what are they doing that today's immigrants aren't doing?"  That was 'nuff said as far as I was concerned, but I realized that I might need to explain further.

Why do people come to the US? The come TO GET JOBS.  They are looking for employment and a better life.  You say they don't work?  What are all of those guys I see waiting around at the corner every morning, often carrying various tools?  Who is picking our fruits and vegetables?  Who is risking their health and their lives daily in meat packing plants and slaughterhouses?  They're not fluent in English yet?  Well, who is teaching them and when do they have time to learn?  It can take years to learn English by simply "picking it up."

We idolize our European ancestors because we see our own success a generation or two later.  While we love a good rags-to-riches immigration story, they are quite rare.  Most European immigrants had to bust their butts and live in poverty doing menial jobs when they first reached the US. They were looked down upon just as today's immigrants are.  You say they learned English, but I'll bet their English wasn't so great.  It has been proven again and again, even among today's immigrants, that by the third generation English is the first language, however that first generation is going to struggle, not know every word or phrase, and have a very heavy and hard-to-understand accent for life.  I have known a few US-dwelling, Italian old ladies whose English is bad or non-existent.  It takes a generation or two to achieve the American Dream.  Stop holding the people's desperate struggle against them. 

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My irksome posts for this week.  I'm going on vacation next week, but we'll see what annoys me when I return!

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