Facebook posts misleading

Dear Editor,

I joined a couple of local Facebook groups a few months ago because I needed to know more about what the community was talking about. Not surprisingly, a lot of it was politics. A lot of what I learned was not heartening.

 On one site, immediately after Harris/Walz got into the presidential race, there was a flurry of racist, sexist, and pornographic posts about Kamala Harris.  I was amazed that some of them were allowed. Other attacks were leveled at Tim Walz especially focused on him putting tampons in boys bathrooms.  After a couple of weeks those dissipated (or maybe I was blocked by some folks from seeing them.) After that there were a host of edited clips of Kamala Harris that attempted to present her as confused and inept. As her appearances at rallies and in interviews has shown the exact opposite, those post have also diminished.

 But those who wallow in grievance and negative politics have not given up. They have had to dig deep to dredge up old grievances against Tony Fauci and the revisionist history of COVD-19, pretending that over one million Americans did not die of COVID-19. Pretending that life was so much better 4 years ago. Pretending that a Vice President somehow had the power to fix everything in this country during a 3 ½ year tenure.

Pretending that a woman could not possibly be able to hold her own with foreign leaders. Bringing up a host of videos on TikTok featuring people who pretend to know what they are talking about, but don’t.  Try to challenge any of these things and a barrage of invectives are hurled at you. I’ve been called, among many other things, an idiot, a moron, a f*cking b*tch, a LYING LIAR (always in caps), been told not to reproduce, and was accused of being a crazy cat lady – the crazy cat lady is a moniker I will happily accept.  I’m not going to pretend that there were no posts or comment attacking Trump, but they were mild in comparison, but I’m sure there are those who would disagree.

 I was just looking at a meme of Trump saving to two infants from a walking dead version of Kamala Harris, not sure what the point of that was. I now a see a post of someone admitting they don’t know what Harris said at the Madison rally on Sept. 20 on a post complaining of gas and grocery prices – if you listened, Harris talked about her policies on addressing price gouging and supporting the working class.

But some of these folks are determined not to hear that, they just want to stay angry.  But it is never clear exactly what they are angry about. I don’t understand how they can live so constantly in that negative space, I would think it would be exhausting.

 I’m eliminating those Facebook sites from my feed, I’ve seen enough. I’m going back to the joy and hope of the Harris/Walz campaign, and hope that eventually some of those folks will join me.

 "Reading is a means of thinking with another person's mind;  it forces you to stretch your own."  Charles Scribner Jr.  

Beverly Pestel

Richland Center, WI