I unfriended someone today. On Facebook that is.  In the words of Dr.Seuss, this may not seem important, but it is so I”m bothering telling you so.

This is only the third person I”ve ever unfriended and I have over 800 of them on Facebook (friends that is). But he will not be the last. It takes a lot for me unfriend someone because I do not believe in censorship. I believe in freedom of speech and I think we should be trying to understand each other.

However, it has finally dawned on me that protecting my own psychic “space” isn’t the same as censorship. That I can no longer be untrue to myself in the name of being PC and “nice”. Some people don’t deserve my time and attention. Sure, they have a right to speak, but I am not obligated to listen.

I have many friends from all walks of life. Look, I don’t care if you are a democrat, republican, independent, Libertarian, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Atheist, gay, straight, bi, poly, trans, male, female, old, young, middle aged, blond, brunette, redhead, American, Canadian, European, Asian, African, childless, mother of 12, black, white, red, purple or orange……………we are all different and I respect and celebrate those differences. You can have opinions that differ from mine all day long and until he cows come home. BUT, there is never any reason to be less than respectful and kind to others. We can disagree respectfully. Most of us do. Some of us can’t. And some are too full of hatred, anger and fear to articulate anything approaching reason.

I will not tolerate hate and ignorance. I’m done.

I have scrolled past many posts in recent months that I didn’t really want to pass up. Either I really agreed with them but didn’t want the drama that re posting would bring (I don’t really like to fight with my friends) or they were so ridiculous I wanted to say so, but again, I don’t really like to fight, especially on someones status who has 400 like minded bigoted friends who will jump all over me in a free for all.

So to keep the peace, I scroll on. But I’m done. I am as entitled to my feelings/beliefs/opinions as anyone. And mostly, I have a wonderful group of friends that I can disagree with and it’s ok. We disagree, we are respectful to each other and we don’t make sweeping negative generalizations based on insulting stereotypes.

The first person I unfriended was posting a steady stream of homophobic vitriol that I just couldn’t stomach. The second referred to women who did things that were prohibited by HIS religion (and as interpreted by HIM) as whores. The third continuously posts a continuous stream of extreme conservative right wing propaganda, which in and of itself isn’t the issue, it’s the insults that generously pepper said posts.

Look, if you’re against universal health care or gun control, be against it, that’s fine. But those who support it aren’t automatically idiots, fools, government slaves or any other such labels. The poor are not automatically losers, leeches, takers, beggars, trash etc. And the poor are not all black, by the way. I won’t even go into racial slurs here, but anyone who knows me at all should know better. That is certainly not something that I tolerate. Hateful remarks flung at large groups of people only serves to show the SPEAKERS character, not the people being spoken about.

Most of you have nothing to worry about and I’m really just venting. I’m not going to delete you because we disagree politically. However, I am done overlooking ignorance and hateful behavior in the name of considering all points of view. Some points of view don’t deserve considering.

That is all.