Hate speech

I got dinged this evening on Facebook for "hate speech." I was commenting on a friend's post. He remarked, "Over 40% of Americans and another 40% of the military have rejected getting the vaccine... doesn't take a weatherman to know which way the wind blows." I responded, "Americans are idiots. Well, 40% of them. They prove it time and time again. In so many ways."

I didn't actually say anything so very different from what the original poster said. Did I? I was merely expressing support for getting the damn vaccine.

I have to wonder what Facebook's algorithm is. "Americans are idiots" = hate speech? Is it that simplistic?

Fortunately, I have been weaning myself off of Facebook. They're just doing me a favor. 

A few weeks ago I got "canceled" for a comment I made on a "friend's" FB page. (She unfriended me, summarily.) Granted, the comment reflected my ignorance of the subject—women being banned from wearing hijabs. It was strange, and a little painful, to be erased so swiftly. I would have preferred to have been educated on the issue. But I got over it. There is a lot of self-righteous judgment out there. I happened to be on the receiving end of it, and that was an interesting lesson for me.

So now I'm in Facebook jail for 24 hours. If I try to post, or even simply "like," anything, I get this message:

Yeah, that's Derek Chauvin getting removed from court in handcuffs underneath Facebook's admonishment. Talk about deserving punishment.

I no longer recall what my previous infraction was. Something egregious, no doubt. I am such a bully.

Meanwhile, in this great country of ours, bills are being proposed right and left—by which I mean, in red states—aimed at restricting people's ability to vote and clamping down on the right (First Amendment, dammit) to protest. I have a general sense of uneasiness, despite the respite we've gained from booting that buffoon out of the White House. I am not looking forward to the midterm elections. Too many Americans are idiots.