Debating Debate

Alright, so I know I said I was going to blog once a week, but I'm a little bothered about something so....

Here it goes!

Today, I was on Facebook. It's all to often occurrence when Tom is at work or busy. Usually I can make it through without getting too bothered about anything that somebody posts. Most of the people that post crazy political things have deleted me for political differences. Once in a while, however, somebody surprises me with a post and I can't control myself. That is what happened today. I added my point of view onto a meme that my mother had posted...and before I knew it, I was being called a fascist, a communist, and a liar. Why? Because I had a different opinion than another commenter. My first reaction was to defend my opinion, defend myself. And what happened? He responded. Then I responded. Then he responded.

My husband caught me responding and said, "Are you responding on that post again?"

And, for some reason, I felt embarrassed.

He was right.

Why was a responding and "debating" with this guy? He was attacking me, attacking my opinion...why was I playing right into his hands by responding? I was trying to be polite by just simply stating and defending my opinion without stooping to his level and attacking him personally, and I was successful. I could tell though that he was one of those guys that wasn't going to stop. He was insane about it. I wasn't going to change his opinion, and no matter how much he forced his opinion, he wasn't going to change mine.

So, why? Why do we do these kinds of things on Facebook, blogs, or other forums? Nobody is going to change their opinion this way. The result is contention, anger, and hurt feelings.

So, to that random, super political, hurtful, conspiracy theory believing individual that I "debated" with today...thank you. Thank you for teaching me about the realities of all of these things that we post. We may do it because we honestly believe that it's true...or we may do it just for the response...or even just for support and justification...but I, for one, am going to make a goal not to do it at all.