[potatolicious]

Hear hear. HN was much better than average throughout this whole affair. There were heated arguments, but it was (mostly) civil and people at least took the time to elaborate on their positions.

I wish the same could be said for my Facebook feed (and why I wish I could keyword-filter my Facebook feed), which were full of snarky one-liners, catchphrases, and image memes from both sides of the aisle (well, mostly the pro gun control side, given my demographics) - none of which is productive.

These simplistic sound bites (image bites?) add no understanding to the discourse, oversimplify a massively complicated issue, and are nothing more than self-congratulatory feel-good rhetoric that serve to further polarize and separate the two sides.

It's not unique to this shooting though - the dumbing-down and meme-ification of my Facebook feed has been increasing for some time, across all age groups I'm friends with. People don't express themselves anymore and opt to share an oversimplistic, insipid image macro instead - even distinctively non-Redditor middle aged people on my friends list do this.