In the age of fake news and "Alternative-facts," this is a call-out post.
We are now seeing the resurgence of "First Amendment Fighters": citizens from all angles of the political spectrum who hold their free-speech rights higher than any of their political or social beliefs. These fighters are the same folks who voted for Trump in the general election, who wished Bernie had beat out Hillary in the primaries, who yearn for new politicians in Congress. And what these people fight for is the uninhibited ability to say what they want without any consequences.
And the reality of laws and policies is as simple as the commonly said phrase, "You can legislate bodies, but you can't legislate hearts." So as to say, you can restrict and legislate the actual things our bodies can and cannot do but that person you are regulating will still believe in/desire to act in the ways that are being restricted. A lawmaker can legalize gay marriage, and people who don't think gay marriage should be allowed will continue to believe that because that is their right as human beings, but now that the law exists they can't interfere with it existing.
But lets set somethings straight. White people can't be the victim of racism in the United States and if you claim "reverse racism" do you not realize that hinges on actual racism still being a problem today? Heterophobia is not something straight people have to deal with and if you're so pressed that the Gay Agenda(TM) is being forced on you and your kids, then you should maybe read this. And nobody, literally nobody, is saying that you can't be straight or white or cis or rich or whatever-the-f***, we're just asking you to address your privilege and understand that some people aren't afforded the same benefits of having those identities.
Now that we have all of that established, let's talk about Facebook. Facebook is a private company, founded by a single individual, managed by a board of directors, and is used internationally. But you probably knew all of that already. What you might've not known though, is that their algorithms used in blocking users from the site disproportionately block marginalized people when they criticize oppression, versus when white people make oppressive statements.
What does this say about Facebook? A lot. As Devin Coldewey said in his August article on Tech Crunch, "It happened to Shaun King, too, after he posted a racist email he received. The pattern isn’t hard to figure out: when a person (often a person of color, often a woman, often both) is singled out by popular accounts and pages for something they’ve said or done, the mob descends. Abusive messages, comments and tweets arrive by the truckload — and while the target can only block and report so fast, groups of hundreds or thousands can flag a post or account so voluminously that it is taken offline. Sure, that’s a “mistake.” The way the entire system Facebook has established for moderating the global conversation is a mistake."
Get your crap together Facebook.
