{"id":185829,"date":"2014-08-07T18:18:00","date_gmt":"2014-08-07T23:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2014\/08\/07\/well-waddya-know-facebook-has-a-redeeming-social-function\/"},"modified":"2014-08-07T18:18:00","modified_gmt":"2014-08-07T23:18:00","slug":"well-waddya-know-facebook-has-a-redeeming-social-function","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2014\/08\/07\/well-waddya-know-facebook-has-a-redeeming-social-function\/","title":{"rendered":"Well, Waddya Know? Facebook has a Redeeming Social Function"},"content":{"rendered":"

It turns out that it’s a giving an opportunity for ignorant bigots to out themselves<\/a>:<\/p>\n

There are plenty of reasons to loathe Facebook. There\u2019s the new messenger app that they\u2019re making users install if they want to chat on their mobile devices. There\u2019s the way they screwed around with users\u2019 feeds, just as a little experiment. There\u2019s the overall way it makes people unhappy. If you see it as a community, it\u2019s pretty terrible. But if you instead choose to view it as the world\u2019s most effective bozo-disclosing app, it\u2019s rather brilliant.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Your mouth to God’s ear, Mary Elizabeth Williams. <\/p>\n

On Wednesday alone, two outspoken Facebook users found themselves facing abrupt ends to their jobs after realizing too late that other people can actually see what you post in public. First, Virginia state Republican Party treasurer Bob FitzSimmonds resigned after controversy erupted when he declared on Facebook that Barack Obama\u2019s recent comments on the achievements of Muslim Americans were \u201cpure nonsense,\u201d and asked, \u201cExactly what part of our nation\u2019s fabric was woven by Muslims? What about Sikhs, Animists, and Jainists? Should we be thanking them too?\u201d FitzSimmonds also drew ire earlier this year when he referred to Fairfax County Delegate Barbara Comstock as a \u201ctwat.\u201d And in 2012, he raised eyebrows for speculating about when Obama \u201cdies and goes to hell.\u201d In a resignation letter he submitted to the State Central Committee this week, he said, \u201cAfter discussion with several party leaders it seems clear that I will either need to stop posting on social media or step down from my party office.\u201d While another, brighter individual might have chosen the former \u2013 to simply ease off on saying idiotic and offensive things in public \u2014 fortunately for FitzSimmonds\u2019 colleagues, he chose the latter.<\/p>\n

Also on Wednesday, a Texas police detective was fired after posting a Facebook tirade about the local \u201cuseless lazy turdbags\u201d with \u201cthousands of dollars of ink have adorning their unclean bodies\u201d on government assistance. In his recent post, Detective Rob Douglas vowed, \u201cI promise, if I ever snap and go on a killing spree, it will be in a supermarket on the first.\u201d When announcing the decision to terminate Douglas, Marlin Police Chief Darrell Allen called the comments \u201cinappropriate and troubling.\u201d And yet, they did help take an resentful, angry cop off the streets, so they\u2019ve got to be at least a little good for something.<\/p>\n

In its relatively short lifespan, Facebook has proven itself the downfall of countless racists, sexists, homophobes and straight-up dopes. Turns out there\u2019s always somebody willing to log on and do something regrettable. Earlier this summer, an Illinois woman was arrested for shoplifting \u2013 after posting selfies of her new merchandise on her page. And last month, after bragging on Facebook that \u201cY\u2019all will never catch me,\u201d Baltimore police did just that to Roger Ray Ireland after he violated his probation. And on Aug. 5, a Swedish politician abruptly ended his campaign shortly after referring on Facebook to \u201cthe Jewish pigs.\u201d Reminder: This is all just in the past few weeks.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

These days, Facebook is the “Maccaca Moment” Generator of choice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It turns out that it’s a giving an opportunity for ignorant bigots to out themselves: There are plenty of reasons to loathe Facebook. There\u2019s the new messenger app that they\u2019re making users install if they want to chat on their mobile devices. There\u2019s the way they screwed around with users\u2019 feeds, just as a little …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[967,997,1019,979],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-185829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bigotry","category-internet","category-schadenfreude","category-wanker"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185829"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185829\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}