Friday, October 21, 2022

‘Jumping off a cliff to feel the breeze’


     I’m too out of touch to know if Facebook is truly defunct, or just feels that way. An enormous virtual senior facility where aging Boomers show off our lunches and post wildly unflattering pictures of themselves in hospital beds. Not life, but a pallid imitation, a faint echo of the real thing, that red hot dynamo humming somewhere else, far, far away.
     Yet I toss my column up on Facebook every morning, and check the “Memories” section, which sometimes reminds me of things I’d rather forget.
     ”So let’s review, shall we?” I posted on Oct. 16, 2016. “Donald Trump refuses to accept the basic mechanism of our democracy, the orderly transition of power after an election, citing imaginary voter fraud. ... Yet millions are voting for him. I just don’t get it.”
     A plea, obviously. Facebook must have had more pep six years ago: 172 comments followed, many eerily current.
     “Q: Which is more important to Donald Trump: the stability and legitimacy of our electoral process and the orderly operation of our government, or his own oversized, yet fragile, ego?” asked Dave Magdziarz. “A: It’s his very own damn “TRUMP” ® brand ego.”
     In case you forgot: anticipating defeat, Trump was casting doubt on the validity of voting.
     “This election is a sham and a travesty. We are not a democracy” Trump tweeted after Barack Obama defeated Mitt Romney in the 2012 election.. “We can’t let this happen. We should march on Washington and stop this travesty.”
     Now, with the 2022 midterms approaching, and the baldly hypocritical formula (Legit if I win, bogus if I lose) is back. As is his man-the-ramparts rhetoric.

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2 comments:

  1. "I’m too out of touch to know if Facebook is truly defunct, or just feels that way. An enormous virtual senior facility where aging Boomers show off our lunches and post wildly unflattering pictures of themselves in hospital beds."

    That was snark, right, Mr. S? People don't really DO that, right? Lunches and hospital beds? I'm a member of a dozen groups, since finally entering Zuck World last year, and I've never seen anything that appalling. Or maybe I'm just lucky or have chosen my electronic companions wisely.

    One thing that's for damn sure, FB is not for kids anymore. They've long since moved on to other venues. Everyone I encounter is an old geezer who loves talking about what life was like when they rode streetcars across Chicago and cigarettes were a quarter and everyone listened to WLS on transistors and bought 45s. For music, not for shooting at rivals.

    Wistful nostalgia is the order of the day in my FB circles, and that's all I use it for. No friending, no tracking down my eighth-grade crush, no telling my cousins wazzup or bragging to strangers about what I ate for lunch. Don't want or need any of that crap., And I definitely steer clear of ALL political discourse. Quickest way to drown in the swamp and never be heard from again.

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