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My Facebook feed is full of unhinged content from random pages I never followed or interacted with. I'd be fine with some edgy content, but there's limits to w

My Facebook feed is full of unhinged content from random pages I never followed or interacted with. I'd be fine with some edgy content, but there's limits to what I'd consider acceptable. Most recently I see these "memes" where it's literally just an image of Elon with a hand pointing a gun at him, and a caption saying suggesting he should be murdered. The most worrying part is that I don't know if this sentiment is actually widespread and a seriously held belief. It makes me worry that we might see a continued escalation of political violence this year.

Molitor5901 2y ago
I loathe the AI and suggested content. I only want to see the content posted by people I have explicitly followed, I do not want to see what some random group or person posted. The inability to turn this off is the reason I stopped using Facebook. If I want to seek out groups and people I will do so on my own, I do not want a fire hose flooding my personal feed.
- RandomBacon 2y ago
  Facebook feed of just your friends' posts in chronological order: https://www.facebook.com/?filter=friends&sk=h_chr https://www.facebook.com/?filter=friends&sk=h_chr
  - jader201 2y ago
    That link is still 90% garbage I didn’t ask for.
    - RandomBacon 2y ago
      Weird, it works perfectly on my desktop and laptop (I don't check FB on my phone).
  - scarface_74 2y ago
    Still garbage with random groups I can follow
pjc50 2y ago
The norm of discouraging political violence has been eroded for quite some time. It's been common for US pro-gun politicians to use faces of their enemies as targets, and occasionally face-in-gunsight as political advertising. Then there's incidents like Kyle Rittenhouse and Luigi Mangione (naming individuals from both sides), and US states making it explicitly legal to hit protestors with cars. As well as the longstanding second amendment and mass shooting controversy. Eventually an American will independently reinvent the car bomb, or someone on the left will decide to take a gun to a building containing political representatives.
- ben_w 2y ago
  > Eventually an American will independently reinvent the car bomb, or someone on the left will decide to take a gun to a building containing political representatives. Personally, I'm surprised that the American right wing (including Trump himself!) didn't seem to stop being pro-gun even when two different people made an attempt at Trump: https://www.nrahlf.org/articles/2025/2/10/nra-issues-statement-on-president-trump-s-executive-order-protecting-second-amendment-rights/ https://www.nrahlf.org/articles/2025/2/10/nra-issues-stateme... If that didn't change their minds, I don't think anything can. Literal Jesus could descend from heaven on the wings of Biblically-accurate angels and tell them "When I said 'thou shalt not kill', I didn't give you any exceptions for self-defence, for stand-your-ground, or for the death penalty." and my expectation at this point is they'd not only ignore it, they'd call him 'woke' for suggesting it.
- SideburnsOfDoom 2y ago
  > Eventually an American will independently reinvent the car bomb Does Timothy McVeigh count?
jader201 2y ago
> The most worrying part is that I don't know if this sentiment is actually widespread and a seriously held belief. It makes me worry that we might see a continued escalation of political violence this year. Maybe I’m just more aware of it now vs. 20-30 years ago, but I feel the division with our country just keeps growing more and more with each passing year/presidency. And I feel like social media/FB play a big part in this. It seems the extremes on both sides just continue to grow more extreme. And I feel like if social media — and news media — would just go away, we’d see much less division/extremism. But unfortunately extremism, shock, anger, and contempt for “the other side” is what gets clicks/views. I don’t know what the solution is. Well, the solution is what I said: get rid of social & (extreme) news media. But there’s no way that will ever happen; extremism breeds extremism.
- scarface_74 2y ago
  > Maybe I’m just more aware of it now vs. 20-30 years ago, but I feel the division with our country just keeps growing more and more with each passing year/presidency. I keep seeing this. Within my still living parents’ lifetime, people were literally and legally “divided” by Jim Crow laws and segregation. America wasn’t exactly a great egalitarian nation in the 60s. Not to mention Vietnam and Kent State.
- settsu 2y ago
  I completely understand the frustration and the conclusion you arrived at. The problem is echo chambers existed before the advent of online social media. Safe to say they have existed since nearly the dawn of human consciousness. The difference is that once algorithms could be optimized for "engagement", a company simply can't resist amping up the dopamine hits. Because the ultimate goal of those networks is persistent, unrelenting attention. They are for-profit businesses whose primary income is ads (upwards of 98% of Facebook/Meta revenue.) So the more attention you can drum up, and the longer you can maintain it, the faster the money printer can go brrrr.

Molitor5901 2y ago

I loathe the AI and suggested content. I only want to see the content posted by people I have explicitly followed, I do not want to see what some random group or person posted. The inability to turn this off is the reason I stopped using Facebook. If I want to seek out groups and people I will do so on my own, I do not want a fire hose flooding my personal feed.

RandomBacon 2y ago
Facebook feed of just your friends' posts in chronological order: https://www.facebook.com/?filter=friends&sk=h_chr https://www.facebook.com/?filter=friends&sk=h_chr
- jader201 2y ago
  That link is still 90% garbage I didn’t ask for.
  - RandomBacon 2y ago
    Weird, it works perfectly on my desktop and laptop (I don't check FB on my phone).
- scarface_74 2y ago
  Still garbage with random groups I can follow

pjc50 2y ago

The norm of discouraging political violence has been eroded for quite some time. It's been common for US pro-gun politicians to use faces of their enemies as targets, and occasionally face-in-gunsight as political advertising. Then there's incidents like Kyle Rittenhouse and Luigi Mangione (naming individuals from both sides), and US states making it explicitly legal to hit protestors with cars. As well as the longstanding second amendment and mass shooting controversy. Eventually an American will independently reinvent the car bomb, or someone on the left will decide to take a gun to a building containing political representatives.

ben_w 2y ago
> Eventually an American will independently reinvent the car bomb, or someone on the left will decide to take a gun to a building containing political representatives. Personally, I'm surprised that the American right wing (including Trump himself!) didn't seem to stop being pro-gun even when two different people made an attempt at Trump: https://www.nrahlf.org/articles/2025/2/10/nra-issues-statement-on-president-trump-s-executive-order-protecting-second-amendment-rights/ https://www.nrahlf.org/articles/2025/2/10/nra-issues-stateme... If that didn't change their minds, I don't think anything can. Literal Jesus could descend from heaven on the wings of Biblically-accurate angels and tell them "When I said 'thou shalt not kill', I didn't give you any exceptions for self-defence, for stand-your-ground, or for the death penalty." and my expectation at this point is they'd not only ignore it, they'd call him 'woke' for suggesting it.
SideburnsOfDoom 2y ago
> Eventually an American will independently reinvent the car bomb Does Timothy McVeigh count?

jader201 2y ago

> The most worrying part is that I don't know if this sentiment is actually widespread and a seriously held belief. It makes me worry that we might see a continued escalation of political violence this year. Maybe I’m just more aware of it now vs. 20-30 years ago, but I feel the division with our country just keeps growing more and more with each passing year/presidency. And I feel like social media/FB play a big part in this. It seems the extremes on both sides just continue to grow more extreme. And I feel like if social media — and news media — would just go away, we’d see much less division/extremism. But unfortunately extremism, shock, anger, and contempt for “the other side” is what gets clicks/views. I don’t know what the solution is. Well, the solution is what I said: get rid of social & (extreme) news media. But there’s no way that will ever happen; extremism breeds extremism.

scarface_74 2y ago
> Maybe I’m just more aware of it now vs. 20-30 years ago, but I feel the division with our country just keeps growing more and more with each passing year/presidency. I keep seeing this. Within my still living parents’ lifetime, people were literally and legally “divided” by Jim Crow laws and segregation. America wasn’t exactly a great egalitarian nation in the 60s. Not to mention Vietnam and Kent State.
settsu 2y ago
I completely understand the frustration and the conclusion you arrived at. The problem is echo chambers existed before the advent of online social media. Safe to say they have existed since nearly the dawn of human consciousness. The difference is that once algorithms could be optimized for "engagement", a company simply can't resist amping up the dopamine hits. Because the ultimate goal of those networks is persistent, unrelenting attention. They are for-profit businesses whose primary income is ads (upwards of 98% of Facebook/Meta revenue.) So the more attention you can drum up, and the longer you can maintain it, the faster the money printer can go brrrr.