I got a 7 day ban from Facebook

be thankful i say, and voluntarily extend your ban indefinitely
 
imo facebook and it's ilk are a blight on the face of humanity. i have a fake/anonymous account to keep up with certain software/hardware companies etc, but befriend no one as i'm not interested in how many cups of coffee bill smith has had this morning or whether jane doe farted when she woke

I've noticed that a lot of people have given up the pretense of objective reasoning and have taken to reaching into a grab bag of slogans instead of formulating real arguments. I see this in real life as well as online. Political discussions are getting more and more frustrating if you're the kind of person who enjoys a constructive debate because no matter how much thought you put into an argument, your opponent's eyes will glaze over until it's their turn to speak at which point they'll say something along the lines of "yes granted, but what you're forgetting is...." followed by a bunch of parrot-learned talking points which have absolutely no relevance to what you've just said. 
 
And then you have young people who, on top of this, have been brainwashed into the politics of victimhood. I see this in the comments of trendy sites like Buzzfeed, in which people who don't belong to some politically protected victim group are instantly shouted down and mocked because they're "not authentic enough." It's painfully fashionable to say that you're oppressed, marginalized and alienated even when you're none of those things (and are living one of the most safe, privileged lifestyles in human history). Any attempt to point this out is inmmediately attacked with a shrill cacophony of indignation and how dare you's. 
 
I sometimes wonder if these kids ever stop to think that people in blighted 3rd world countries who lead genuinely oppressed lives of subsistence and terror have occasional access to the internet and might see their comments. What must one think, living a life of oppression and poverty, to see some fashionably adorned rich American kid decked out with all the latest gadgets and slurping on $7 lattes, whining that their life is a living hell because they have the occasional derogatory comment directed at them from time to time.