Political Snobbery

The "Election Section," as I like to call it, is the newest feature on facebook. Being the political junkie that I am, I was really excited about it and picked out the candidates that I'm supporting for the 2006 election. Even though she'll easily win re-election, I added Dianne Feinstein to the list and I was surprised to see what someone wrote on the message board of her support group:

"The only thing scarier than President Kerry is Speaker Feinstein."

When I saw that, the first thing I thought was, "There's no speaker in the Senate, idiot." The second thought was wondering why a high schooler from North Carolina would join a California Senator's group just to make a random insult.

Facebook does a good job of showcasing people's stupidity. But I have to remind myself that I can't get too mad at people for making a mistake like that. I easily get annoyed when people don't get political facts correct. Yet, I need to remind myself that 1.) I studied political science for 4 years 2.) I acquired a lot of lot knowledge from hands on experience and 3.) I am FAR from knowing everything about politics.

I should also be less of a political snob because there are plenty of important topics out there that I know very little to nothing about. No one really has the time or capacity to know everything about everything so I should be more understanding.

I also need to recognize there is a difference between not knowing some political facts with being an ignorant person. I'm not going to list all of the absolutely absurd political groups on facebook that I found but I think any person from any ideology can pick them out pretty easily. I try to be very open minded to at least understanding different sides of an issue but there are some things that cross the line into downright prejudiced and hateful.

PS: I facebooked the guy high school kid (yeah, why did facebook let high schoolers on?) and politely told him that he was confusing the chambers of Congress. Maybe he wasn't lucky enough to have a government teacher like mine.