Welcoming Myself to the Blogosphere

Well, howdy! Thanks for stopping by. Here, let me get you a Jack and Coke. Or a vodka and tonic. Or a cup of tea. Now, as my grandmother used to say, sit down and make yourself homely. 

I used to have a Facebook page, and then I got rid of it. There were a number of reasons for this. 

I started out on Facebook just being sort of goofy. It was difficult for me to take it seriously, so I posted a lot of status updates about how I was busily engaged in fighting crime, slaughtering ninjas and zombies, and generally defending the Republic against all kinds of imaginary threats. 

As time went by and more and more friends from the womb, elementary school, junior high, high school, college, graduate school, various jobs I've had, the job that I have now, and other points in my life sent me friend requests, I started posting things of greater seriousness that were on my mind. Mostly about religion and politics, which, as I've since learned, is a great way to start discussions. 

Some of those discussions were really quite cool. People of all shades and stripes of belief posted on my page, and there was a lot of good back and forth dialog between Jews, Christians, atheists, agnostics, former Christians, born-agains, Mormons, Catholics, Muslims, former Muslims, Conservatives, Liberals, Socialists, Communists, Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians, Anarchists, Anarchist-Libertarians, gays, straights, and everyone in between. It was enjoyable. It was eclectic. It was... well, by golly, it was democratic. 

But then something happened. I'm not exactly sure why, but at some point, the tone switched from friendly bantering and substantive discussion to acrimonious name-calling, and it stopped being fun. It got personal. 

I had to remove someone from my friends' list from calling someone else a faggot (the person being called a faggot, by the way, wasn't gay). I had to remove someone else for saying that another friend of mine was going to hell. 

It would be easy to blame other people for being rude enough to insult people they'd never met on someone else's Facebook page, but the fact is, it was my page, and I set the tone of the discussions. And I noticed that I myself had stopped being funny (or what I thought was funny). I'd become strident. I'd stopped questioning people about their politics and beliefs, and I'd started attacking them. And people started to tell me that they were now blocking my status updates. 

I didn't really like what was happening to myself, to be perfectly honest. 

There's something intrusive about Facebook, isn't there? We create our own little communities of people we know--with us in the center--and then we post stuff. But when we post stuff, those posts show up on other people's home pages. Which meant that I was, essentially, jamming my opinions down other people's throats. 

So I quit, and I decided to start this blog. Just my own little tiny corner of the Webbernetz where I can put up whatever the heck I feel like putting up without feeling like I'm cramming it down someone else's throats. If people want to read what's on my mind, they can feel free, but it's their choice... not because they were silly enough to friend me. 

Whatever the hell you are, you're welcome here.