Friday, June 12, 2020

How I Avoided the War (with apologies to Patrick Ryan)

Earlier this week I got to work early and, like I always do, I farted around until it was time to clock in. The lion's share of said farting around usually involves catching up on Facebook and, when I get bored of that, checking out Reddit. But this day friend's post caught my eye, and one of his friends made an opposing argument that I felt not only called for a response but it called for it from me.

In short, I got in a stupid argument with an idiot (some may even say there were two idiots involved in this argument.) I quickly realized that his goal wasn't to exchange viewpoints and either meet eye-to-eye on some points or agree to disagree. Instead, he was just trying to score some fake internet points with essentially a "Gish Gallop" strategy.

I got flustered, wanting to answer him but unable to keep up with his onslaught of nonsense, and eventually bowed out. He continued to spam the comment thread until I finally blocked him.

This isn't my first time having a fruitless argument on Facebook, but that day it really got to me. Half an hour later I was still fuming about it. An hour later I was fuming, but I also had a headache and was in a generally bad mood. It didn't help that I'm becoming increasingly bitter at work for various reasons. Facebook isn't one of the reasons, but I realised getting worked up over a stupid Facebook argument wasn't helping any either. So I deactivated my account.

Not being on Facebook for the past two+ days hasn't made me any less bitter about work, and it hasn't made interactions with people (for instance the wife) any less annoying. But maybe I'm dealing with those issues a little better because I'm not also stressed out from the inane shit that FB offers.

And since that time sink is out of my life (at least for now), that also means I have a little extra time at lunch to write award-winning level posts such as this one. Not that I have anything interesting to write about though.

CR and I are still talking, and still trying to work out getting together. I think I put too much pressure on myself and on CR to make it happen as quickly as possible, and it made me way too frustrated when it didn't work out. As JFB pointed out in response to my last post, with both of us married, on the downlow, and with a lot to lose should we be found out, there are going to be times when it just doesn't work out. So I'm trying to take a less stressful approach; we'll get there when the time is right. Meanwhile, we can tease each other with texts, pictures, and videos, and it'll be all the more intense when we finally do get together.

But god DAMN I want to suck his dick!

3 comments:

  1. I had to just give up on FB during the last political season. I still have an account to be able to contact people if needed (as a last resort of communications), but for the most part, the I found that I really dislike quite a few of my friends when I see what they post on FB. I had not heard the term Gish Gallop. I guess you learn something new every day.

    Stay the course. Before long, CR's jizz will be coating your throat and we can't wait to read all about it.

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  2. Several of my friends are taking FB breaks right now. Hope it helps you. Not sure if it's because I've narrowed my friends list to a bubble small enough to tune out the debaters or what, but it has never gotten to me to the point I opt out. And I communicate with my old flame using it, so no going away for long in any case.

    Fingers crossed that you get some fun soon! -Sassy

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  3. The funny thing about facebook is that it's supposed to be a sphere of friends and as such you'd think it'd offer more support. I have some theories around this and how social media occupies this grey space between the casual and the refined, between off-the-cuff remarks and a fully vetted idea, between the verbal and written. Mix that in with a blur between the private and public and it gets confusing (e.g. I want to be empathetic but don't want to publicly do so in fear of signaling agreement for others).

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