Snooze, Unfollow, Unfriend

Like most of America, if not the world, the recent police homicide of George Floyd, has opened avenues of introspection for some, reflex rhetoric for others.  With few exceptions only a real schmegeggi would not be able to figure out in advance who will try to defend the outrageous and rationalize the unthinkable.  Add to that the American phenomenon of post event riots with property damage in great quantity and personal injury in lesser quantity, one dating back my entire adult lifetime, and it becomes very easy to identify what the people you encounter value.  The American Electoral College left us with somebody despicable and with previously decent individuals climbing aboard.

Amid this disruption, there is a surprising amount of consensus.  Policing standards need more professionalism and accountability.  Crime emerging from legitimate protest needs to be addressed.  Amid this consensus, I've encountered some pretty ugly perspectives from people I know, mostly not know well, but who now skirt my concept of despicable. 

Since most encounters are on Facebook, I snoozed a person today, somebody who had sought me out, and snoozed another a week ago.  Neither are evil, though neither are particularly erudite or analytical.  I followed the algorithm to review my friends list, some deceased, now numbering 92 individuals and for some reason two duplicates.  Those were the only two on current snooze.  My indefinite unfollow list is a little longer and only includes two that I know personally.  It's an interesting collection.  One was just a nudnik posting something every 10 minutes while awake.  A couple are folks who just annoy me posting in the manner of a jingo pageant.  About three I would call toxic.  The number unfriended ever I can count on one hand and the number unfriended of people that I know personally is zero.  All to date are people who pitch an offensive form of the Orthodox hardball.

The irony to this has been that I maintain some portions of classical Republican ideology on economics or on social options but harming individuals is not on my radar, nor is it on the radar of some revered Republican minds that I've encountered along the way. All political stances have their intersectionalities, sometimes undesired, but some of the unacceptable gets stamped by me as absolute.  And my Jewish learning and respect trends Orthodox, attracted by elegance of analysis, though I usually seek hesed (kindness) and hain (graciousness) elsewhere.

Facebook and Twitter are great assets for conveying thought but some of that reasoning or faulty reasoning can be toxic.  Stephen Covey named one of his early 7 Habits "Begin with the End in Mind."  While I expect a Blue Wave in the next voting cycle, it takes more than that to reach an agreeable end point within the preponderance of overwhelming consensus.  Richard the Lion-Heart, that magnanimous individual had a concept of smoothing out long-standing Norman-Saxon animosities. In order to do that, he had to divert from his generous innate character, hanging a few, exiling a few, and marginalizing a few.  I have an obligation to use my own forums in the best way.  Furrydoc.blogspot.com has no oversight but no readers but no restriction on access.  It's self-policing.
Facebook poses the more difficult decision.  The two snoozed this week have some redeeming value, and I will not unfriend anyone who I know personally in the absence of hostility to me on their part, which has only happened once in ten years.  The bigger challenge will be who to simply unfollow as somebody who impedes how I think my forum is best utilized.  Some surgical excision of selected individuals,  not the meat cleaver implemented by that Presidential public blight who I need to help dispatch.