Toxicity vs. The Echo Chamber

First of all, I'd like to apologize to people I have judged. 

I've seen friends say that they are purging their fb feeds of people they no longer want to see. I have respected their choices, but a small part of me often thought "but I value diversity in my feed, and don't want an echo chamber." I have some Trump supporters in my feed, and I have made a conscious effort to keep that diversity. Still, I shouldn't have judged.

Most of the time, it's just fine. We can exchange barbs:

• Benghazi vs. Ukraine
• "Deplorables" vs. "Grab them by the p***y"
• Bloated government vs. The widening wealth gap
• The 2nd amendment is sacred (except the well-regulated militia clause) vs. Gun deaths

The list goes on and on, and it's fine. I value the discourse.

Then one acquaintance posted something that struck me as quite racist ... and another acquaintance posted something even worse. That's when I found that I have a line. We can have reasonable discourse about political, economic, and even some social issues. But I will not allow blatant racism, homophobia, sexism, or other hateful speech in my feed. It's just too toxic.

I defend your right to say stupid and offensive things, but I want no part of them in my fb feed. So ... if you say something that I think is marginal, I might (given your past posts) only pause seeing your stuff for 30 days or I might totally unsubscribe from your crap. 

At one point, I had thought to write a full blog entry ripping apart the idiocy and racism of one post and then a separate entry with a title like "Farewell, J---" (and actually name the person). I've decided against both. I'm just unsubscribing from a few people and posting this heads up to others. I value diversity, but I have no interest in toxicity.