Hold on to your metadata people, there’s a new sheriff in town! That’s right; Facebook is now the frontline for my favorite kind of vigilantes. Fear mongers masquerading as crusaders for law and order. Yes, Facebook will root out the evil doers and save the world from itself. Oh, victory in Facebook! Praise be to Facebook!
Hallelujah, thine the glory. Great things Facebook hath done.
Of course, illegal gun sales are bad. Absolutely, criminal activity should be foiled. Without a doubt, there is nothing worse than creeps and freaks getting away with conducting their dirty business right under our noses. But wait, there’s more….
What happens when someone’s good name, say, Bob Gunn, ninth generation of the Smithfield Gunns, who loves his wife and children, is mistaken for, say, Buy Gun @ Smith and Wesson GunRunnersRUs, who loves to load his trunk with next generation fire power?
Yeah, what happens to Bob’s family when the deacons of First Self-Righteous Assembly of Better-n-You show up in front of Bob’s house and demand Bob confess to a crime he didn’t commit? What happens to Bob’s children when they are ostracized on the playground at school or Bob’s wife when she’s kicked out of the Snobby Little Sandwich Luncheon Society? Will someone issue a Facebook apology to the Gunn family?
What sort of contingency planning has gone into this new world order of Facebook as judge and jury? Will Facebook bring all criminals to justice? Sex traders, drug mules, pet owners who don’t scoop the poop? Well? What say ye, Facebook? What kind of surveillance will there be for spam scammers, hackers, and identity thieves who already peddle their wares via Facebook? Will Facebook hire secret agents, bounty hunters? What kind of compensation will these mercenaries of social media receive?
Good for you Facebook for figuring out how to track the criminal activities of people willing to give you their information for free. Way to go! Brilliant! Now all you have to do is get tax payers to bankroll this grand illusion. It’s a new dawn. It’s a new day! I feel safer already.
Fine Print: I will NOT host a hateful discussion on this blog about rights, fears, angry things people want to say about people who own guns, or stupid things people want to say about people who don’t own guns. By all means, feel free to speak your mind. Be careful not to go shootin’ your mouth off. My personal experience with gun violence, gun phobias, rubber band guns, potato guns, marshmallow guns, BB guns, shotgun weddings, or any other gun related topic is irrelevant. So, don’t ask.
*****
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Honie Briggs 
You’re pretty good at rantin’ Ms. Honie and I respect that, but since I’m not familiar with the particulars this little gal of the Mostly What Others Do Is Okay Corral is a little confused.
The link to the NPR.org article in the post might be helpful. Mostly what others do is okay with me too. You’re right, everyone has the right to choose for themselves what they do. Sometimes though, I just shake my head at people who insist something is a good idea and no one seems to realize what a very bad idea it is. Going with the flow can send us all down the drain. So, it is important to me to gather information and not give up my right to think for myself. That’s all I am saying. We need to get the facts before we jump on the bandwagon to allow social media to become the savior or the law.
And also losing my mind. My comments keep disappearing…
Did you have another comment here, Mr. Petruska?
Two. And they were awesome, but kept disappearing every time I posted them.
I think it’s a government conspiracy…
Maybe they went into spam. As far as I know, there are no conspirators here.
Good rant. It seems like there might be a few bigger sharks in the water but those are hard so we’ll do this one.
Thanks, Lyle. I rifled it off last night when I got home from class and read the article on NPR.org. It just so happened there was a discussion in class about how miscommunication can result in a social media backlash. Not just killing the messenger, but also stripping them of their dignity in the process. Topic of a future post, no doubt.
Sounds intriguing.
Dear Stephanie,
I’ll refrain from shooting off my mouth. 😉
Shalom,
Rochelle
Dearest Rochelle,
I revised the fine print. Wouldn’t want anyone to think Facebook censors work here, and I always want readers to give commenting their best shot. 🙂
Peace In Our Minds,
Honie
Did that hat come from the Wizard of Oz memorabilia store? How cool.
Actually, Lil Fafa, I believe that hat once belonged to Chuck Norris.
Facebook is always full of ideas but nothing really seems to stick. Once again, I don’t trust them for some reason.
It’s interesting to me that quite a lot of the spam captured by WordPress is generated using Facebook.
That’s interesting and pretty crappy, too! I don’t like it one bit.