Now that October is here, we have a whole new situation on our hands. The presidential election is just one month away. We've spent months promoting big names: Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump, Martin O'Malley, Hillary Clinton, Ben Carson. . . the list goes on and on. Now, just a few weeks away from the election, we're down to two unlikely candidates—Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.
I don't think anyone could have predicted this kind of match up. And with a unique matchup comes our (not so) favorite kind of people, Facebook politicians.
A Facebook politician can be defined as someone who is really really into Facebook and really really into politics. You can often find them sharing one-sided articles from sources that are either biased or unreliable, and screaming in the comments section of somebody else's biased article. Typically, these people are pretty uneducated and don't care that they're making a fool of themselves on social media.
This year has been the worst for Facebook Politicians. If you support Donald Trump, you're racist, you're a redneck, and you want to see the world burn. If you support Hillary Clinton, you're a liar, a feminist, and you also want to see the world burn.
Nobody can win and it's getting kind of old. Here's why. . .
Facebook went from a place to connect with friends to a place where bored people go to rant and make people either become angry with them or pity them. Open your Facebook app and scroll for two minutes and I guarantee you'll pass at least five articles supporting a presidential candidate. That's great, though—people are staying informed, right?
Wrong. Half of these articles and status updates on Facebook are simply hated toward another candidate. And the conversation that sparks from these articles destroys friendships and relationships. Heaven forbid we all have different opinions, right?
Last spring I wrote an article about Donald Trump visiting my hometown. I simply explained the way people were reacting to it. Had Hillary visited my hometown, I would've written about her visit as well. But she didn't, and I don't hate her for that—I live in a pretty boring area. My writing spread through Facebook like wildfire in the first fifteen minutes that it was posted, and I very quickly realized the reality of politics on Facebook.
People are mean. People are rude. People are nasty. People were messaging me simply because I shared an article with Donald Trump's name in it; they were either excited that I was "supporting" Trump or angry because I wrote an article about him that never once shared my opinion about him. That's the problem with Facebook Politicians. They're never wrong. Instead of sharing quality information about where the candidates stand on important issues, they scream and attack the character of the opposing party.
Now, I'm not saying Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are the greatest role models when it comes to character, but I don't think that means we need to stoop to their level and attack others for their beliefs. After all, isn't it great that we live in a place where we're allowed to have so many different opinions?
Stop hating, Facebook Politicians. It's getting old.
