#folks are crazy

Hi everybody! This might be an unusual post for me, but I wanted to share my experience with some groups on facebook and find out if anybody had as bad a time with them as I did.

One ill-fated morning, on my commute to work, I decided to join a few groups focused on plant id, gardening advice and wildlife gardening. These kind of groups tend to have a sizeable following and very active members, and I thought to myself I would surely learn something useful here and there and have a good time.

Now, painting everybody with the same brush is stupid and shallow, and I did learn a few things and got to meet interesting, well-intentioned people, BUT, I also discovered there’s an abyssal difference between those fb nature-related communities and the ones we have here. Let’s examine why in 3 handy points:

1- Disheartening lack of reading comprehension skills. Folks just don’t read questions, or don’t read them in full, or assume, or simply don’t understand, but still feel the need to type what they think. This causes extreme cluttering, with hundreds of pointless, repetitive, or negative comments. Paul has asked what cultivar of Cornus that is, he doesn’t need a millionth reply saying “dogwood”, go back picking your sweetpeas, Karen.  

2- Soul-crushing amount of misinformation and arrogance. Maybe also due to point 1, people think they are right, they will tell you, they aren’t willing to hear a different (informed) opinion and have no interest in changing their point of view. It doesn’t matter if you’re a professional, Susan will stare down at you from above her cup of tea, because she knows better. She came to fight and she’ll drag you.  

3- Carelessness towards nature/blind, militant activism. Interesting dichotomy. At one corner of the boxing ring we have Harold, who knows everybody says those chemicals are bad, but he needs that pesky dandelion off his lawn, or that aphid off his rose, so he’ll just douse the entire front garden with gallons of poison, with pleasure! At the opposite corner, biting hard into her teeth guard, there’s Marie, who strongly believes all humans (conservation scientists included) are inherently evil. All other creatures, even the worst invasive aliens, must be protected and nurtured at all costs, regardless of the situation. Mother nature knows best and will prevail anyway, she’s her right arm and will single-handedly save the planet. 

Guess who’s done with that bullshit??

With all its flaws, I never loved Tumblr so much. I missed you all guys.