Well, that was close.

Proof that I'm not yet used to having this blog: I almost posted something real on FB. Not that I usually lie or anything, but excising things from there that might cause people to think uncomfortable thoughts, reminding them there is something outside their echo chambers, is part of the function here. I would say that half of my friends would really hate the other half, but that only begins to describe the number of sociopolitical views, and the problems caused by various and incongruous ideologies, held by opinionated people who feel safe in having never been challenged and who can't tolerate any whiff of dissent from their personal doctrine. It causes far, far too much drama to tell the whole truth in such a place.

They sound very annoying, don't they? So why the heck do I bother? First of all, I'm only referring to a minority of folks on the list there. Plus, I actually like these absurdly diverse people, and I don't despise them just because I don't agree with them on all points of view. I dunno, just weird that way. And quite a bit of what they'd have a matter-antimatter reaction over is really closer to agreement than they would ever suspect. But since it keeps things civil and doesn't cause the overreactive to get silly, it behooves me to avoid a certain set of topics - many of which I really have little interest in to begin with. Which some have also declared to be heresy of its own, the silly gits.

There are a (very) few people whom I keep linked there (who, now that I think of it, I don't even know in person) only because they fulfill 3 purposes: they are socially useful, they remind me to be tolerant, and the parts of their commentary that aren't annoying are actually entertaining. Some of them only manage 2 of those, which rather puts them on the cusp, especially when I forget to ignore the crap in the news stream. My tolerance for loud stupidity is admittedly not what it once was.

As to the dangerously real observation that sparked all this, it's actually not really worth posting at all. I'll come up with something more worth your while. Might even be something too dangerous for elsewhere.