Yesterday I got into an argument with an idiot on Facebook. I really try my hardest not to do this, but sometimes the person in question is so ignorant I just can't help myself.
This particular incident started with someone reacting to a letter in a newspaper, and so determined were they to be offended on someone else's behalf that they completely missed the point of said letter.
In my endeavors to correct this error of judgement and point out that the original letter wasn't anti-anyone (as it had been deemed to be by the idiot), and was really just a statement of common sense in regards to keeping political issues out of situations where they really have no place, I became embattled with the idiot who managed to construct several well-reasoned replies to things I had never actually said.
I could picture his hands in the air, red-faced with fury, blinded by rage, as he picked out the odd trigger-word here or there from my comments and used them to create his own version of my half of the "conversation", to which he could then take deep offence and reply with righteous indignation. He was, in effect, arguing with himself.
Fast forward to today. Someone shares a "ridiculous article!!!" from a news website, encouraging equally-enraged Facebookers to comment on it and shoot them down for this highly-inaccurate and p*ss-poor excuse for reporting.
The trouble is this was an article written by a well-known satirical news site, and if the headline alone wasn't enough to make one realise this was satire, certainly the article content itself was. Or, in fact, any other headline on their website. But in a rush to be outraged the simple art of reading was lost amidst a haze of red mist as the anger coursed through their veins, banging on their computer keyboards with clenched-fists to condemn the article for being "totally untrue and ridiculous!".
It seems to me if you can't be angry and read at the same time, wait until you've cooled off before taking to social media. Or, maybe just don't be offended by every little thing, particularly when it has absolutely no bearing on you or your life whatsoever.
