Not listening! Not listening!

notlistening

 

Brace yourself, I’m referencing politics again. Not necessarily any particular candidate but the “discussions” we have on social media, be it Facebook, or Twitter, or wherever else you’re not being productive these days.

I saw on Facebook Saturday morning the offer of a new app that blocks political conversation.

I totally see the appeal in something like that. I’ve been making frequent use of the “hide” or “unfollow” options.

But, an app like this gives me some concerns.

While I understand that people would like to use Facebook for all the important social stuff like “I’m sharing this recipe to save it” (when you can save it without posting it, did you know that?), or important quizzes like “What kind of albatross are you?”, or pictures of puppies and any post that starts out “OMG! You won’t believe what happened when he/she did this…”

In case you missed it, there’s a little bit of sarcasm in that last paragraph.

Sure, let’s make Facebook all fun and connecting with friends. I’m good with that.

If you choose an app to block out any political posts I suspect you’re blocking most, if not all, of the news.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m way more than tired of the lastest “He said/She said” argument from the major party candidates.

But let’s face it. It’s pretty much an uninformed and uninvolved electorate that gave us these two major party candidates.

I think the latest numbers I saw indicated that only 9% of eligible voters chose these two candidates.

Nine. Percent.

I suspect most of the readers here voted in their respective primaries. I know I did. I also know I did not vote for the GOP nominee. I’ve made it clear that I won’t vote for him in November.

But, I participated. And, as distasteful as I find much of it, I still pay attention. That’s the way I was brought up. That’s the way I believe. And, until recent years, I was in the thick of making that “news” happen.

If you didn’t participate and now you’re complaining about the campaigns don’t blame those who sought to bring different outcomes.

I’m just sayin’.

We’ve less than three months until Election Day. The “traditional” kickoff of election season is Labor Day, one week from today.

We might as well brace ourselves for the endless barrage of campaign ads. They’re coming whether we want them to or not.

Sure, you can block stuff on Facebook. You can turn off the television, or the radio, or even unplug from the Internet.

But find some source of news. Some source to keep yourself informed of what is going on.

Otherwise you’ll never know about the floods in Louisiana, the fires in California, the earthquake in Italy, and more.

And you too will be an uninformed voter.

Maybe Facebook isn’t your source of news. Heaven help us all if it’s The Daily Show (funny stuff, not news).

You can choose to ignore the political news, or all the news.

I hope you won’t.

Because if we don’t pay attention, if we don’t participate in the process, then we to end up with candidates most of us don’t want to vote for.

And while I have the opening here, let me just say that if you, like I, are not happy either choice…there is another Skywalker.

Check out Gary Johnson. Don’t argue. Just go see what he has to say.

And then let’s get on with Monday.

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