It’s Time For House Democrats To Condemn Fake Friends
by Boobie
After a week of bickering over whether freshman Congresswoman Ilhan Omar’s (D.-Mn.) remarks regarding the existence AIPAC’s lobbying efforts and influence, and of the problematic nature of America’s unquestioning support of Israel even amid a UN war crimes investigation, constitute violent anti-Semitism or are merely statements of fact, it is being reported that a resolution condemning Omar’s statements has been aborted in favor of a resolution condemning all hate. While a live performance of the 2003 hit “Where Is The Love” by the Black Eyes Peas on the House floor would certainly go a long way to healing the deep ideological divides currently poisoning American political discourse, this is a missed opportunity for the Democrats to form a united front for the first time in years and do more for the American people.
A resolution condemning fake friends would have two benefits: it would be broadly popular among likely 2020 voters, and it would mainstream a conversation that has taken place mostly online and in back rooms of the halls of power for the past decade. The threat posed by fake friends has been discussed at length by everyone on your Facebook feed that you haven’t actually spoken to since 2011, but congresspeople as just as aware of the damage these insidious hangers-on can cause as the average Joe.
Fake friends love drama, and they take advantage of the aversion to it by upstanding members of polite society to perpetuate their second favorite tool: bullshit. They lurk in plain sight, but are rarely named or shamed. Their influence is best understood by the way they are often addressed, not confronted in tagged posts for all to see, but generally dismissed. Fear of retribution, which must be a awful thing to behold, allows them to thrive in anonymity: you do not see “John Redding has materially and psychologically damaged myself and my family by being a fake friend and using drama and bullshit to the detriment of those around him; he should be avoided at all costs” but rather, “so tired of fake freinds.. shout out to tha real ones !”
This anonymity and the lack of ramifications that comes with it is a huge part of what has allowed those partisan divides to grow as deep as they have. Consider this: if you were to engage a friend or family member with opposing political views from your own in debate regarding, say, immigration, what would be the two main things keeping that debate from being productive and civil? Drama and bullshit. If you remove drama and bullshit from the equation, you may not come to an agreement on whether or not a border wall is necessary, but you would at least leave the conversation with a mutual respect for one another.
The drama and bullshit inherent in these debates is a product of fake friends injecting the two into everyday conversation and changing the expectations for personal interactions both online and in person. A resolution condemning fake friends would empower those both in office and their constituents to call out fake friends by name, warn others about their fake behavior, drama, and bullshit, and root out their treacherous influence from our day to day political discourse. The Democrats condemnation of hate is a good start, but without a similar resolution addressing fake friends, the forces of hate are unlikely to be defeated.
