Mark Olmsted
Aug 28, 2017 · 2 min read

My Facebook friends post articles from every significant publication — the NYT, the Washington Post, the Salon, Daily Beast, WSJ, Guardian, Atlantic, and on an on — allowing me to read far more than I could possible scan on my own. There are also a large number of superb artists and writers and photographers among them — and some very astute bloggers. The stereotype of FB as a place for cat videos and food photos only applies if you have such friends. Not that there isn’t plenty of personal stuff posted, but indeed that is how I know all about the lives of people all over the world and that is crucial to understanding just about everything else.
I would question why you would be comfortable with calling someone who has a repellent ideology a “friend” in the first place. You seem to have more issue with those post primarily personal or shallow — but essentially harmless — material.
As a gay man, I have always known all too well that the personal is political. (The transgender ban is a perfect example of this) You can’t compartmentalize them, and say: “Well yeah, he’s a neo-Nazi, but that’s just politics. He’s a really nice guy when you get to know him.” As far as I’m concerned the same applies to Trump supporters. You can’t be for this dangerous asshole and not be a bit of a dangerous asshole yourself. Certainly no one I want to see in my feed, and who might, to boot, take my willingness to be friends with him as acquiescence to his repellent ideology.

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    Mark Olmsted

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    Author, "Ink from the Pen," about my 9 months using creativity as the ultimate survival tool behind bars.