Here is What I Think and You Should Think The Same Way

It's been quite a week and a half for me. With my recital in a week, as well as a huge life decision weighing heavily in my mind, I've got a lot to be stressed about.

But apparently, a lot of people are stressed about some recent political happenings, namely the HHS contraceptive mandate and recent compromise. (smooth segue, I know.) Many friends of mine have posted on facebook about this, with widely varying stances, and widely varying levels of research behind their arguments.... In this post, I don't aim to take a stance or argue against any of the claims made.... I will simply examine the phenomenon of posting politically/religiously charged messages on facebook.

Now, when I'm reading down my newsfeed and I see a post like "Together we can end abortion!" along with a link to a petition, I immediately judge that person. And not necessarily because I strongly disagree with their stance. I just wonder what they aim to accomplish by posting something like that. If their goal is to be annoying and advertise their personal views to their friendbase, they have succeeded. But for some reason, some people seem to think posting stuff like that will honestly spark discussion and get people thinking in a different way. But this is not what ends up happening.

What ends up happening is: about 15 of your like-minded friends like your post and 2 of them comment in agreement. One feisty adversary posts a response against your stance/argument, and a series of one-sided statements follow from either side of the argument, with very little compromise gained. Meanwhile, dozens of anonymous on-lookers giggle at how serious these two people seem to take themselves and the issue at hand. Case in point: the discussion about birth control that recently transpired on the wall of my high school's facebook group. One super conservative graduate posted a link to this article against birth control with the following comment: "totally don't mean to be controversial or even get my personal thoughts across, but as we went to catholic school I thought this might interest some of you guys. here's an explanation of the Church's view on contraceptives, which can seem crazy confusing, so yeah! http://www.businessinsider.com/time-to-admit-it-the-church-has-always-been-right-on-birth-control-2012-2


Now, first of all... ignoring the glaringly obvious bias within the title "Admit it: The Church has Always Been Right on Birth Control," I challenge the assertion that this post did not mean to be "controversial" or "get her personal thoughts across." I fail to see how this post does anything but those two things. Now, the comments that followed are hilarious. Among some of my favorites: "contraceptives facilitate sexual promiscuity by eliminating natural, external detriments to casual sex." to which one person responded "I fail to see what is self-destructive about casual sex. Seems like a pretty good time to me." There is clearly no common ground even attempted between these two people. Obviously if you are opinionated enough to post what you think on facebook for everyone to see, you are set enough in your ways to not want to change your mind.

All that results is a good laugh from people like me who see the futility in discussing stuff like this on facebook. So, I guess, as far as the moderate third party is concerned, post/argue away!