Rant #3,863: I Walk the Line (And You Crossed It)

Well, boys and girls, no sooner did I put my post up on Friday about being civil on social media that someone crossed the line with me, and I had to dump him as a "friend."

I went to college with this guy all those years ago, he and I worked on the school newspaper together, and we have had some nice conversations when we reconnected on Facebook.

I saw a couple of his posts on Facebook, and while I didn't agree with him politically, it didn't really matter to me, because we reconnected not because of political stance, but because we did have a history together on the school newspaper for a short period in college, and I respected the guy for his work effort on that publication.

I put up a post on Facebook on Friday about the ICE incident in Minnesota--where a woman died in an altercation with an ICE official--which I stated was unfortunate, but I also put up my opinion on why it happened and the fact that I didn't think the woman was as innocent as the media made her out to be.

I stated that her partner was taking videos of her, that this situation was manufactured by the woman and her partner, and that neither of them should have been there.

OK, that is my opinion. You can agree or disagree with it, but if you take the other side, do it in a civil fashion.

What happened is that after several people agreed with me, this guy made his own post, which I could have just taken as an opposing view, if not for the final sentence he wrote:

"If she were protesting Jews [being deported, added by me for contextual explanation], you would have been right there with her."

This comment was so out of character for this guy--or at least I thought it was out of character--that I really had to look over it more than once to try to understand why he posted such a thing.

Yes, it was caustic and within the context of the subject, was kind of anti-Semitic.

I gave the guy several minutes to explain himself--not his beliefs, but exactly why he injected my religion into all of this--and he said that I "put words in his mouth" and thought that as a smart person and as a writer, he was surprised that I did not side with him.

Of course, he was the one who put his own words up, so I don't think I put any words in anyone's mouth.

Look, I am sure that not everyone agrees with my stance on this incident, and that is fine; as I have said, I take no offense at differing opinions--

AS LONG AS THEY ARE CIVIL.

I gave him some more time to respond, he didn't, so he is gone.

Sorry to do it, but I cannot be attacked for my religion by anyone: Jew, non-Jew, pro-Hamas, atheist ... I don't care who it is, I will not tolerate it, and what is worse is that it had absolutely nothing to do with the discussion--

Which makes me wonder about this guy, his beliefs, and his thoughts.

Is he another one of these closet anti-Semites who just let it slip all of a sudden because "WAH WAH!" I didn't agree with him?

How infantile, how childish, how insipid.

You disagree with me ... fine.

You disparage me because of my religion ... not fine at all.

And the amazing thing about this whole shebang was what this person did afterward.

After he saw that I "umfriended" him, I guess that somehow got to him because he sent friend requests to me--

Not once, but twice.

My reply was the following:

"You must be kidding."

And then, I fully blocked him.

I gave him every opportunity for an explanation, and he hung himself with his own rope by not responding.

So that is the end of that.

I am the lord of my own manor, and if you are not going to follow the rules--and you are going to unnecessarily inject religion into it--you are done.

The end.