When Facebook Becomes an Abusive Ex

Well, I made the egregious error of telling a friend the truth a while back on Facebook. [Yeah. I know. Silly me.]

He’d just had his account summarily executed on his favorite photo sharing platform… Which was rather important to him given he’s an artist, and it’s somewhat necessary others SEE his work in order for him to, you know, EAT and stuff like that.

So being the tone deaf person I am, I committed the unforgivable sin of pointing out he’s an old white guy, and thereby deserves any grief that comes his way because you people have oppressed us for far too long… etc, etc.

So in order to punish me for what they deemed “hate speech”, Facebook decided we should see other people. Specifically, I should give them my key and leave for 30 days.

But without me there to bat around when they’re angry, bored, or have had a few too many… they decided to go through their old photos and call me up to discuss my past transgressions.

So I get a notice they need to cover up a “potentially offensive” photo I’d posted. Five years ago.

Now they DID say the material posted was ok, they just wanted to make sure the photo was not immediately visible to anyone it might potentially offend.

Umm. OK?

But it wasn’t enough that they’d unilaterally already done so. Now it became important I click to AGREE the punishment they’d meted out was necessary.

Translation: Now look what you’ve made me do to you!

Seriously? No. I kind of thought the picture of the “religion of peace” guy sitting before the heads he’d removed from previous owners kind of underscored the point I was making, ie – it is NOT true that all religions are antithetic to the goal of world peace. Seems ONE group is a tad ahead in that respect.

If you can find a recent picture of the Amish or Methodists doing that, drop me a line.

But alas, though the brutish ex had already punished me by covering the pic, I’d ruined the mood by failing to AGREE I had it coming. Thus began round 2 of retribution.

I TOLD you what’d happen if you backtalk me!

Immediately after I failed to accept their decision that the post was ok but the pic needed a trigger warning to avoid offense, I got a new notice. NOW the post “violates the community guideline against glorifying harmful people.”

They don’t mention which harmful people… but my money is on the Amish. Never did trust those bearded sumbeeches. [And that’s just the women. The guys are even worse.]

So now without having posted for a week and three more weeks to go before I could do so, I’ve incurred a new violation of their community guidelines. For a post written half a decade ago.

But let’s not stop there.

I ain’t gonna take no sass from your friends, neither!

Next they send notes to everyone that had SHARED my post, five years ago. They all received notice that THEY had violated community guidelines. By sharing a post. Five years ago.

Hey. Facebook? Don’t take this the wrong way, but you might want to call a therapist about some anger counseling. Also, take a shower and put on some clean clothes. You’re looking a bit rough.

Meanwhile, I’ve got to check into getting a restraining order. Not sure this relationship is headed in a healthy direction.

I’m Rob Jones… and I approved this message.

Welcome to 1984

Dear Facebook Moderators…

Just thought I’d point out that kicking me off your platform for expressing unapproved opinions does NOT make me less prone to have opinions of which you feckless little retards do not approve.

In fact, all it does is increase my propensity to express them.

I am not a pet to be trained in Pavlovian fashion. If you punish me for expressing views that you do not like, all it does is remind me that you and your all-seeing intrusive algorithms are exactly the problem George Orwell tried to warn us about when he wrote “1984”.

You cannot change reality by deleting posts you do not like or banning those who post them. You may THINK you can… but it’s like a dog who hides his head behind a tree and thinks nobody can see him because he can’t see anybody.

Your ass is still sticking out in plain view.

You may see yourself as heroes, but the rest of us see you for what you are; the draconian “Thought Police”. You’re nothing but pimple-faced little monkeys desperately pushing buttons to try and eliminate all thoughts that challenge your childish views.

Yeah, we know, you feel a high moral obligation to censor all content that hurts your feelings, because you’re too immature to handle opposing views. Here’s a dose of reality. Screw your “feelings”. Nobody but your mommy cares.

All you will accomplish with this behavior is to make enemies of about half those using your platform. Trust me when I tell you that is NOT a winning strategy.

Don’t take my word for it. Just keep it up and watch Facebook turn into the next MySpace.