Through the marvel that is Facebook, I recently reconnected with someone that I served in the Air Force with and that I hadn't had any contact with since 1996 when he retired. That's the good thing about Facebook - it lets you reconnect with old friends when you least expect it, and when I made contact with this old friend of mine I was pretty happy about it. He and I had spent about four months patrolling the streets of Langley Air Force Base in Hampton, Virginia in 1992, busting a whole bunch of drunks and generally raising hell among the evil-doers in the area. When I moved up and became Flight Chief he moved up to Senior Patrolman, and while we didn't bust as many drunks together since I was now the guy in charge of the flight, we still did our share. So all in all I was pretty happy with it when he found me on Facebook.
But time is a funny thing, and it has a funny way of changing people - and I'm no exception to that rule. One of the things I learned quite quickly about my old friend was that he absolutely despises NObama, and I mean he hates the man on a personal, individual level that makes my distaste for NObama seem like puppy love in comparison. I despise NObama as President, but as a man I don't have an opinion of him. My friend hates everything about him down to a very personal level, and this all became apparent very quickly.
It also became apparent just as quickly that my friend was a supporter of the "militia" crowd and their way of thinking, which means that he now sees a grand conspiracy by NObama to ruin America under every rock and bush. What's more, he is prone to posting the "news" items he finds on such credible sources as a personal blog by some bigoted idiot in North Carolina (whose blog I will not name because I won't give him the free publicity) and things like that.
Now, don't get me wrong, I fully believe and support the notion that everyone is entitled to their opinion, and they absolutely have the right to voice their opinion in any form they want as long as it's legal. But I also believe, as my sister said to me once, that if you choose to voice your opinion in a public forum then you have to be prepared for the dissenting opinion that may be posted by others who read what you wrote. And you have to realize that they have the same right to their opinion and the voicing of it that you do.
So when my friend posted a few "news" items from various "reliable sources" over the past few days, I voiced my opinion on them in which I challenged the reliability and authenticity of these "news" items. One of the stories cited came from that bigoted idiot in North Carolina who claims that the NObama administration is planning a "manufactured insurgency" against America. He is also claiming that the administration is "using untracked campaign funds" to pay people to infiltrate various movements to cause physical destruction of property and disrupt commerce. Lastly, and most unbelievably, his "source" - who he identifies only as "my source" - claims that Louis Farrakhan, the leader of the Nation of Islam, is on the CIA payroll and is tasked with coordinating the blacks and Muslims to prepare them for riots this summer, using "any means necessary." Of course, the writer gives no other type of identification or verification of the credibility of his source's information, leaving us to take his word for it that the information is good.
Right. I mean, really - the leader of the Nation of Islam on the CIA payroll? You're kidding me, right?
So when I read this "news" article I posted my dissenting opinion about the credibility of the source, and also pointed out that being on the CIA payroll and cooperating with the "infidels" flies right in the face of everything Islam teaches. I also stated that the author was asking us to take his word for the accuracy of the story, and that I hoped he - my friend - wasn't really taking all of this seriously.
That was this morning. When I went home for lunch and checked my FB page I noticed that my friend had deleted my post. So I made another one on the same story which simply said, "I see you deleted my dissenting post from this morning. Why?" And that was all - nothing else.
His reply was to delete me from his friend's list. When I checked my FB page just now, I noticed that all of his posts were gone from my timeline, and when I checked my friend's list his name isn't there.
So I guess his way of handling the truth is to run away from it, ignore it, and pretend it doesn't exist. The truth has a nasty habit of shattering conspiracy theories and preconceived notions, especially when held by those self-styled "patriots" who see a grand conspiracy by NObama to attack America under every rock and bush. These people are so paranoid that they'll believe anything posted by anybody as long as it supports their twisted ideals and beliefs, and they have little if any tolerance for those who don't share their warped ideas of patriotism. And, sadly in some cases, they run from the truth and sever friendships when confronted with reality.
In short, they just can't handle the truth.
And that ain't MY problem.
IHC
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