Inform Yourselves!!

Here comes my second blog rant. Hurrah to me! I actually stopped playing Diablo III to write this.

What has provoked me to record my tirade? A certain Facebook page, that I had ‘liked’ called Inform Yourselves!!  Note: I didn’t make an exclamation - that’s the name of the page.

The admins of aforementioned page posted a status that concerned me:

Facebook has decided to limit the amount of posts that you all can see, with intent to charge us to advertise in order to communicate with all of you. Luckily, George Takei has found a workaround, and it doesn't require hitting warp speed!
 1. Click MORE on the bottom left menu on your home screen
 2. In the INTERESTS section, click "Add Interests"
 3. Click "Create List"
 4. Click on our page
 5. Click the NEXT button.
 6. Name the list anything you want. (Set the list to "Public" so friends get to share the fun!)

So, I decided to Google this information, to find out whether or not it was true. All I found was a rumour, that Facebook was considering it, and not from any particular renowned news website.

Now, any reasonable-minded person would then go to the source of the information and ask what is the source’s source.

Note: I have to do a great deal of ad-libbing since I was unable to make a screen cap of the interactions that I had with the page’s admin but I will try to be as truthful as I can remember.

On posting on my question, "Where could I find the above-mentioned status?" I was met with a surly, arrogant response hinting that I was apparently stupid for asking such a question. I believe it was something like, “You’re asking that, here? Smh.”

Of course, I was perturbed as to the hostility, but asked, “Is the page Inform Yourself!! actually suggesting that I believe everything they say, without informing myself? O irony.”

I was then met with an even surlier response, directing me to the page’s Information section, followed by a rude,  “O IGNORANCE.”

The page’s about section here:

It is important to keep in mind that we are not, in any way, experts. We are but fellow truth-seekers. We post relevant articles and information regarding the everyday world around us, and the issues we all know are important! But it is up to YOU to research for yourself and form your own opinion, bring new information to light, and help inform your fellow metaphorical brothers and sisters! Here we are ALL about OPINIONS, THOUGHTS, COMMENTSNOT citations. I understand the importance of FACTS (and obviously citations are important to prove them), but a lot of the time here I am looking for YOUR OPINIONSWhich a lot of us have forgotten how to do, or have just been so beaten down that we no longer care to have one.There are a TON of pages here on FB that provide an ENDLESS flow of AMAZING information that we are NOT trying to compete with. This page is about YOU and how to get you THINKING and INTERACTING with other people all over the world. THINK. SPEAK. THINK. SPEAK. REPEAT!!! Inform yourselves!!

Here’s the thing though, I already did search the information for myself, found nothing, so that’s why I decided to ask. It is clear that the person’s response showed that he/she was not informed as he/she jumped to an uninformed conclusion about me.

I, of course offended at the suggestion of what I don’t think was ignorance, told the admin off. I told him he shouldn’t speak to members of his fan page that way and he made an incorrect assumption about me. I tossed some curse words his way as well. I am not sorry: the jerk deserved it.

We had a back and forth that included the admin telling me to get off the page if I didn’t like it. Of course I intended to, but not after I gave the admin a piece of my mind. And then irony struck again.

I was blocked from commenting on the page! Hilarious, considering the page constantly posts things that suggest that they are not about censorship, and for open-minded discussion. But when met with someone who did not sing their praises, they felt the need to cut off that person’s tongue and toss it in a box. (This is the main reason, I was unable to make a screen cap of our argument, because, I accidentally clicked refresh... my comments were all deleted.)

Undaunted, I used my old profile to laugh at their childishness and was also blocked. I used the significant other’s profile to then comment on their rather hypocritical follow up status:

SO MY AMAZING FANS! What's your favorite thing about this page? What do you think we could improve on?

Cruel irony strikes again! I then suggested (via the special fella’s profile) that they should be open to criticism from others with a “Censorship!” war cry. But I was again blocked.

I wonder, then how they can post up their highlighted Facebook status:

So you are all aware...This is not a place to speak hate, towards any race, culture, creed, denomination, etc.Hate only blinds you from seeing the real issues at hand.All of our fans are welcome to comment on anything we post, and we expect some conversations to get heated, but please do it without hate in your hearts.This is not a place to criticize people, or a group of people, on how they live, where they are from, what they believe in, etc.This is a place to receive information, and discuss how this affects our lives as a people.Remember, WE ARE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER.Some choose to be out for themselves, and live for no other reason then to hurt, others can't sleep at night unless they attack someone's beliefs or try to diminish their character.Understand where I am coming from, I am not trying to censor speech at all, but hateful comments serving no purpose are NOT welcome here.I have no tolerance for ignorance, or the hate that accompanies it.I hope this can grow to become an amazing page, full of wonderful people, with brilliant minds, who have insightful conversation.Happy truth seeking.~One of your admins- Nikki

It seems that a stance on anti-censorship should only be used in convenience.

Yay bigotry?

Or… yay for the page, Inform Yourself, they managed to convince some 200 out of their 2,000 Facebook fan page to include the page in their Interests, without informing themselves.