On reviewing my friends list in Facebook today, I discovered that somebody has unfriended me recently. Knowing who it is, I can guess that the reason is mainly because I have consistently and persistently disagreed with this person on the subject of the eligibility of Barack Obama to be the President of the United States. This person is what is generally known as a "birther"; they believe that Barack Obama is not eligible to be the POTUS. Actually, they are a more wide-ranging conspiracy theorist, believing that there is a New World Order being constructed behind the scenes by a cabal of shadowy figures and all manner of scary people, including (of course) the POTUS.
For reasons that I think I understand, conspiracy theories are popular right now out in the internet world. If I believe a fraction of what I read, the US currency is controlled by a Jewish cabal, and the New World Order, Big Pharma and the Mooslems are about to permanently enslave, poison and kill us. Never mind the fact that the moon landings did not happen...the list goes on...
Because I have limited patience for conspiracy theorists at the best of times, I used to regularly point out the tenuous connection between most of the ideas in those theories and current reality. I guess that ultimately my contributions were deemed to be unwelcome. To their credit,at least I did not get a nastygram from this person, unlike somebody who I disagreed with a few years ago who sent me an IM inviting me to "get your head out of your ass and get back on your meds". Then there was the person who told me to "go back to your own damn country" not long after 9/11, when I suggested that bombing Iraq might not be a strategically wise response. (Note to anybody thinking of saying this today - this is my damn country - I am a citizen, and I am not about to leave).
As a general rule, I am not going to let bullcrap and empty sloganeering pass me by in any online forum without making some form of comment. Unlike some people in the modern USA, I do not regard dissent as disloyalty, and I do not regard people who disagree with me as agents of evil, spawn of the devil etc. I have already informed a commenter this morning that calling the ACA verdict "communist" does not make it a fact, nor does it constitute any form of useful argument. I also have a low tolerance for poorly constructed arguments, especially those that deploy fallacious reasoning or ad hominems.
I intend to continue engaging where appropriate, using facts and argument. If people don't like my opinions, they are free to offer their own. However I have limited tolerance for people who argue in slogans, and I will point that out if it happens. I also have no time for viewpoints based on the idea that somebody who disagrees with you is some agent of evil or lesser form of life, who can be ridiculed, asked to leave the USA, or demonized.
If people decide that they find my interaction style intolerable, yes, they can unfriend me. I fully expect to lose a few more people this electoral cycle because of my opinionated nature. However, I'm not going to back away from forceful expression of views and opinions.
In the past I have been accused of not respecting other people's ideas. My response is quite simple: if you want me to respect your ideas, make sure they're good ones. I can and will call out bullcrap, and we know there will be an enormous amount of THAT floating about in the next 4 months or so.