
Democrats Are 3 Times More Likely to Unfriend You on Social Media - generic_user
http://fortune.com/2016/12/19/social-media-election/
======
Terr_
> There are a number of possible explanations for the different rates at which
> various groups unfriended others over politics.

Throwing one more on the pile: Perhaps self-identified Democrats were more
willing to _create_ social-media links with broader sets of other people in
the first place, which now means a correspondingly greater scope for un-
friending during controversial periods.

It's easier to avoid un-friending a person if (A) you have very strong
requirements before you mark them as friends in the first place or (B) your
friend-set is small in absolute terms.

~~~
generic_user
Its hard to say without a more detailed analysis. But there is a cultural
drift towards censorship on the left.

No Platforming, Safe Spaces, Political Correctness are all movements that
predominantly come from the Leftist Ideological spectrum.

So the willingness of a Democrat to censor ideas that disagree with there own
is validated and 'normalized' by these left leaning movements.

~~~
devsquid
"Safe Spaces" and "Political Correctness" are not censorship. They are about
changing cultural interactions. I'm not a real "supporter" of either
ideologies, but I believe its good to be nice to each other.

~~~
forthefuture
I agree with this sentiment, but would add that I'd rather people want to be
nice to each other than be forced to be nice to each other. It's a lot more
compelling to have reasons why being nice is good than to just tell people to
do what we want them to.

~~~
devsquid
You are being forced to nice to each other?? I'm confused what you are talking
about.

------
devsquid
From my exp I had three hard line Trump supports remove me. I don't generally
post anything on FB, but I do sometimes point out issues with other peoples
posts.

One removed me because he posted all these things about how it wasn't fair
people called him racist, so I told him my personal experience of him calling
Mexicans, Native Americans, and other people lazy and that that was racist.

Then two others stopped talking to me over chat because I debated them on
their beliefs that poor people are only poor because they are lazy, immigrants
are not here to have sex with "our" women, Muslims are not inherently evil,
and on and on. They quickly grew tired of me poking flaws and not being a
"liberal strawman" like they wanted and they stopped talking to me.

I'm not a democrat, but man it was a nasty election...

------
Clubber
Tribalism in politics. A strange game. The only winning move is not to play.

~~~
krapp
Unfortunately, when it comes to politics, the only winning move is to _win._
Thermonuclear war serves no one, but political tribalism serves the victors.

Trump got fewer votes than McCain or Romney, and millions of fewer votes than
Hillary Clinton, but he won because his tribe convinced the other tribe not to
play in droves.

~~~
Pilfer
> _Trump got fewer votes than McCain or Romney_

A quick google search proves that's not true. That claim is actually one of
the many fake news stories of this election.

~~~
grzm
I think doing this kind of fact checking is useful. I'd encourage you to
include the best of the references you found in your comment. Would you share
those with us here?

~~~
Pilfer
Just check Wikipedia. McCain 2008 got 59,948,323 votes; Romney 2012 got
60,933,504 votes; and Trump 2016 got 62,979,636 votes.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_ele...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_2008)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_ele...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_2012)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_ele...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_2016)

~~~
krapp
Well, if I stand corrected, I stand corrected.

------
JohnTHaller
In a discussion on the subject on Facebook I commented: "I'd wager it was
partially related to the fact that conservatives were far more likely to share
fake/biased news stories than liberals. Note, of course, that liberals were
far from immune as demonstrated by sharing the likes of Blue Nation Review,
Daily News Bin, etc."

------
mattbgates
Good.

------
rednerrus
Sticking their heads in the sand is part of the reason Democrats are losing
ground.

~~~
scarface74
No. I unfriended people because I got sick of reading conspiracy theories like
Sandy Hook was a government conspiracy to take away guns, that Obama was a
secret gay Muslim, that Michelle Obama was really a man and that their
children weren't really theirs.

Let's not forget the investigation by Chuck Norris that the government was
secretly trying to declare martial law in Texas, "proof" of a 6000 year old
Earth, and that Noah's ark was found.

And then news that people are using welfare to by weed in Colorado and that
parts of Minnesota are under Sharia law....

If "sticking my head in the sand" means ignoring the looneys on the right that
believe everything they read, guilty as charged.

~~~
dogma1138
And for every one of those you have a 'Dem' spreading nonsense about vaccines
causing autism and about how GMOs will mutate you.

While the media might make it look like it does no side has a particular
monopoly on stupid.

~~~
scarface74
How often does the mainstream conservative media go out of its way to debunk
the idiocy on the right? The guy that started the "news" that people are using
welfare money to by weed was actually trying to pull a prank on the right and
see who would fall for it. Not only was there an uproar on the right. Fox News
even reporter it.

The myth that vaccines lead to autism is repeatedly debunked by the mainstream
media and they report all of the time about places where diseases on the rise
because of anti-vaxxers

And while I use to think that nothing getting done in America without the
support of big business was a bug. I'm starting to think it's a feature. For
instance, once big business broke away from the religious right on issues like
gay rights, the "moral majority" didn't have a say in the matter.

I expect the same thing to happen when it comes to immigration, trade, and the
demonizing of "other". Trump supporters may have the numbers but they don't
have the money.

------
ufmace
This must be all of that tolerance and diversity that we keep hearing about...

Okay, that sounds kinda snarky. But seriously, the level of hatred, contempt,
and intolerance coming from the Left these days is a huge turn-off. Not saying
there's no hatred on the Right, but they don't seem to broadcast it and revel
in it the way that the Left does. Most of the vaguely hateful stuff I see from
the Right is something that somebody on the Left dug up from some obscure
place to try and smear the Right. It trips my irony meter pretty hard when
they do all this, and then talk about how it's the other guy that's all about
hate, in the most hateful tones of voice I've heard anybody speak seriously
in.

~~~
untog
“Michelle Obama. I’d like her to return to being a male and let loose in the
outback of Zimbabwe where she lives comfortable in a cave with Maxie, the
gorilla.”

So said Trump's New York campaign co-chair. Today.

[http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/311686-trump-ny-co-
chai...](http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/311686-trump-ny-co-chair-wishes-
death-on-obama)

I'm not saying the right is consumed with hate, or that the left has none, but
if you don't see any hateful stuff coming from the Right then you're
deliberately ignoring it.

~~~
ufmace
I never said there wasn't any, but I did say that it's mostly the Left
scouring the ends of the earth to dig up any kinda dumb thing that any 3rd or
4th string person ever said and shining spotlights on it to try and smear the
entire Right. And that's nicely confirmed by citing a statement made by the
"New York Co-Chairman for Trump's Presidential Campaign" published in "New
York arts publication Artvoice". At least it was actually published today, so
that's only 2 out of 3.

Fortunately, I don't have the time or interest to keep track of every nasty
thing that anybody on the Left has ever said. But you will perhaps recall such
things as Hillary calling people "baskets of deplorables", Obama calling
people "bitter clingers", etc. Look at what they say about Peter Thiel, Sarah
Palin and her family, any prominent black conservative, etc. Yep, they sure
love LGBT people, women, black people, just as long as they toe the party
line. If they dare to have their own opinion, you get to see how they really
feel about diversity.

~~~
untog
EDIT: it's the holidays and I extract absolutely no enjoyment from endless
back and forth like this, so I'm going to shut myself up. Cheers, all.

