Goddamn people.
A few weeks ago I instituted a new rule: no more friend-ing family members on Facebook. I love my family inasmuch as anyone loves their family, but sometimes their rampant conservatism is too much. I’m friends with lots of conservative people on Facebook but my family grates on me the most. They’re not fiscal conservatives, they’re not even personal conservatives: they’re pro-war, flag-waving, gun-touting conservatives. The gun-touting and flag-waving are forgivable, but the pro-war shit is just unacceptable. Embarrassing, even. I love my parents dearly but knowing that they advocate the killing of people for politics is stomach-churning. After my grandfather got on Facebook (which is awesome, by-the-way), I decided that I’m no longer willing to share my life with any blood relative anymore. This weekend I restricted ALL family except for my brother and cousins in my privacy settings. They’re not allowed to see my wall, comment on my status or links, or even see specific photos. It’ll stay that way until I feel comfortable with them again.
Granted, they probably think the same way about me, and I’m fine with that. I know my mom and dad think I’m this crazy, bleeding-heart liberal because I believe in health care and world peace.
I’ve been being pursued for YEARS now by a distant family relation to be friends on Facebook and my recently deleted MySpace account. I say years because when I logged on to delete my MySpace account I found a friend request from 2007 from this woman (yes, it’s been a LONG time since I used Myspace). Most recently she sent me a friend request, but she sent me a Facebook message over the summer saying something like, “Hi! I remember you, you probably don’t remember me!” This is one of the last people I would ever have contact with – not for politics, but because she was cruel to me as a little girl. I was 10 and she was 15 or sixteen and she and her siblings would do absolutely horrible things to me, stuff I don’t even want to mention right now. Anyway, seeing her cheery face adding me as a friend on Facebook sent me into a rage and I nearly de-Friend-ed everyone.
Look, I don’t get along with a lot of people and a LOT of that lot of people is family. I don’t for one minute believe that you should forgive and forget simply because you happen to be related to the person who hurt you. If someone hurts you – physically or emotionally – you don’t have to like them. This one particular woman requesting to be my friends when we were clearly NOT friends is infuriating.
