That Facebook Post
I made a post on FB several days ago that was a long time coming. I post differently on different platforms. This one needed to be on Facebook. Each successive fever dream that gets cooked up to deny Covid and own the libs does a bang up job of making regular folks seem like they’ve gone down the rabbit hole. I have measured and sifted myself to the nth degree. And this morning, as Kabul is close to falling and my son-in-law worries about his family, we are still dealing with people who believe the government has planted undocumented individuals to spread Covid. My FB post below:
I’m pretty quiet on FB.
I post my columns, pictures of George and I doing our thing, sometimes poetry. I long ago realized after *several* heated convos over my 13 years on this platform (yoga pants convo, anyone?) that it’s not worth it.
Sometimes when something makes me very upset, like the El Paso shooting when a man set out to intentionally kill Latinos, I make a post. If my own family had been in El Paso they would have been targets.
Most days you’ll find my FB feed quiet. I’ve unfriended *very few* people over the years. It takes A LOT for me to unfriend someone. Up until several years ago, I could count on one hand the amount of folks I unfriended. The unfollow tool is a friend, and I’ve curated my feed the way I need to for peace.
But today, after all the chaos of the past year and a half, after the intense COVID protocols and lockdowns, the masking fury, after 1/6 and even after the election, today I am furious at the gullibility at which we believe things.
Because when a narrative begins, you see it creeping slowly out from the corners and into the light where it’s repeated and repeated and repeated until we begin to question how it couldn’t be true, because we’ve heard it so often on what we see, read, and listen to.
We used to make fun of the sensational, made-up stories in the National Enquirer, remember?
I mean, yesterday I read about a man in California who took his kids across the border to Mexico, 2 yrs and 10 mos old, and shot them with a spear gun, murdering them. He said he believed his kids were “growing into monsters and that his wife had infected them with serpent DNA” and had been enlightened about it through Qanon and other conspiracy theories. Then he dumped their bodies in a ditch. (A true story/SEE: Michael Taylor Coleman)
Friends, the government is not placing undocumented individuals across the country to spread COVID. I have been seeing this theory for about a week now on local comment threads and elsewhere.
That anyone would believe this is astounding. That we would want to believe that people who have been demonized, othered, and made to feel less than are pawns in a government game to spread COVID to the masses in the U.S. is beyond me. That we would place blame everywhere else. Have we considered where the intense fury for the undocumented comes from?
What is the endgame in that? This stupid virus doesn’t choose political sides. It never did.
I don’t want you to do your research on this (bc all that is is surfing Google and YouTube) because what I want, more than anything, is for us to believe the experts. Social media has blurred the lines of who is an expert and who is not.
Even as a professed Christian I *am* of this world. We were put here. I need to see what’s happening and take responsibility for the space I take up inside it, the words I say about it.
We cannot spout nonsense and reject soundness. This is my home. I have a husband, kids and a grandchild to love. Right now I am here — living, breathing, loving. We were meant to be good stewards of what we’ve been given, not just when it fits a narrative.
Undocumented people are not being placed around the country to spread COVID-19.
Are they crossing like they have for many, many years? Yes. Humanity always seeks a way.
You can unfriend me, unfollow me, or tell me I’m “not seeing the truth.” You can avoid my columns too. Do what you need to.
I absolutely lean left of center. There are many of us here who do. But you won’t find me spreading unchecked falsehoods or shady conspiracy theories (unless it’s that UFOs exist, because I want to believe 😂 👽).
We are all better than our wildest leanings.
