The post that was going to be the third one on January 18th, but isn't

Yeah, I'd been planning to write three or more posts last Saturday, but that didn't happen. This would have been the third one. And now it's not. Anyway...

I've been thinking about how I should approach a certain issue. There's a popular site I visit almost daily. It's called "Facebook." You may have heard of it. No, I'm not writing blog posts about Facebook. Not quite, anyway. But I do see a lot of drivel posted on Facebook by Facebook friends. Sometimes I show up to debunk the stupidity, but I've been thinking about using this as my vehicle for such ranting instead.

The particular case that had me wanting to write about this on Saturday was a link to (and hearty agreement with) this article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/soraya-chemaly/why-are-childrens-books-are-still-about-white-boys_b_4227163.html

When I first read that, my inclination was to go through it, line by line, and explain in detail why the whole thing is disingenuous, stolid, and manipulative. I'm glad that I was distracted long enough to temper my annoyance, because doing that would be a giant waste of time.

In a far more egregious example, today I encountered a link, via Facebook, to this: http://www.upworthy.com/3-lies-about-food-youre-used-to-hearing-and-might-even-believe?c=tkp1

The Huffington Post and Upworthy. Of course, dammit. If you locked me in a room with the Huffington Post, Upworthy, and a rifle with only one bullet, I'd club the Huffington Post and Upworthy to death, break the door down, and shoot you for locking me in a room with the fucking Huffington Post and damn Upworthy. Yes, I realize they are websites and not individuals. Shut up. It's always the Huffington Post and Upworthy. I mean, it isn't really always them, but I've been desensitized to this crap from republicans, so they apparently don't count.

Sometimes I've responded directly to crap I see on Facebook. Sometimes I haven't. The idea I had on Saturday was to take to this blog as an alternative. There is also the option of simply doing nothing. Well, sometimes. At some point I'm going to vent...

Advantages to responding to drivel directly where I find it on Facebook

• The person who posted it can benefit from my vast wisdom. People won't know they're wrong if I never correct them!
• People can respond to what I've said, which creates discussion. Discussion is probably good.
• I'll be attacking my problems head-on, instead of retreating to my personal blog like some kind of reclusive lunatic.
• This presents a chance to belittle others. How could I pass that up?
• If people unfriend me on Facebook because I made them feel bad, I won't have to keep seeing the crap they post and I trim down my friends list in the process, something I've been meaning to do anyway. Victory in discourse, victory in future ventures to Facebook, and victory through getting other people to do part of my work for me. Triple success.
• People with genuine interest might see something I've written and actually learn from it. Keeping my wisdom hidden away is almost a crime.
• I might save someone else the trouble of having to debunk stupid shit. On rare occasions, someone has done that for me. I guess I'd be paying it forward.

And for responding to drivel here, rather than on Facebook, here are some counterpoints to the above

• The only people that see my debunking of drivel on Facebook at the friends of the individual that posted it in the first place. In contrast, anyone with the good sense to read my blog will catch everything I write here.
• I'd rather not waste all day arguing with morons.
• Well, I am some kind of reclusive lunatic. So there.
• I can belittle others here, and it's easier to do. Facebook can't truncate the things I type here, or hide them amid a wall of comments by other people.
• I like to be able to review what I've written in the past. Sometimes I spot flaws that I didn't notice at the time. If I spend a significant amount of time writing something that's going to be nearly impossible for me to find later, that's bad. Everything here is nice and tidy. Fuck Facebook.
• It's not about educating the masses. It's about whatever is most convenient for me personally.
• If I don't bother debunking crap, other people might be motivated to do so. I wouldn't want to take away their fun.

So yeah, this is quite the dilemma.