Sunday 30 June 2019

My point of view

I reported a post on Facebook today. Not something I have ever had a need to do before and just clicking on two buttons left me shaking.
Now I feel a need to explain why I did it. I know I don't have to, I know that the process is anonymous but the person whose post I reported should know better and their blatant ignorance and laziness has left me angry and frustrated.
You see the post was a group of pictures of various former presidents of the USA. They are all pictured with the flag of the USA and the word flag on each picture = except one. this is a picture of president Obama standing in front of a gold-coloured curtain and printed on that picture are the words Muslim Prayer Curtain.
Now anyone who has the slightest grasp of hate speech will see how inflammatory this would be and I would have thought that a person with any common sense would not share this. I am wrong, so wrong because the person who shared it didn't check to see if such a thing exists - I mean a prayer curtain? what and where would one of those be used? they also didn't check to see if the post they were sharing bore any semblance of truth and the worst thing? oh by far the worst thing for me is that the person who shared it is a teacher.
This person is in a classroom every day, moulding the minds of the next generation and yet they couldn't be bothered to look at what this post was and to take two inutes to research it before passing it on.
I'm not really sure why it has had such an effect on me, I just know that I sat and stared at it for about fifteen long angry minutes trying to decide what to do, knowing that I couldn't just ignore it.
I reported it and within five minutes the posts were gone! Not just a notice saying that the content was not available but completely gone.
Now I am writing this to explain because I feel guilty for having to do it. Isn't human nature a strange animal? I'll survive and will continue to view all such posts with contempt and now I won't be so afraid to report them.

2 comments:

Ruth said...

Well done you! I'm standing up and applauding you. We all need to act when we see things like that (although the social media platforms all need to step up). Standing up for what is right takes both bravery and courage, and you have both. You have absolutely no need to feel guilty. I'm very proud of you!

Barbara Eads said...

I agree with you about people sharing things without checking the facts. In fact, I wish all the political crap could just be eliminated altogether! I never share anything that I feel would be controversial. For me, I mostly glide right by everything as I look for photos from family and friends.