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I Joined a Small Town’s ‘Freedom of Speech’ Community Facebook Group
The Saddest Facebook Group: Part One
In keeping my sanity during this insane time, subjecting myself to vial racist rants and white American patriotism didn’t seem like a great idea, and I somewhat enjoyed the first, ‘stay home to save lives’ orders because it released me from all obligations. Working from home enabled living in sweatpants, staying in bed all day, gardening, scrubbing the tub, making Spotify playlists, cooking, and being straight up sloppy, but the arrival of a second lock-down brought the anger. The anti-science, anti-masks, and arrogant ignorance proudly displayed in Facebook posts from Americans had taken its toll.
A friend had been complaining of racist comments appearing on her community’s Facebook page and in protest to the monitoring of their comments, the racists developed a spin-off page titled ‘unfiltered’. Apparently, they felt their freedom of speech was under attack and their voice needed to be heard (it’s so absurd my head is still spinning). In the predominately white suburb, high school students organised a black lives matter protest and shit got out of control. Although located near a major metropolitan city, the small town is geographically separated from larger cities within Los Angeles county and unfamiliar to anyone who doesn’t know the area…
