An offensive and foul discovery: Elder hate groups on Facebook

At AmbivaBlog, I read about shocking groups on Facebook that exhibit a bias against, if not a hatred of, elders. I clicked through to the other blogs mentioned by AmbivaBlog's Annie Gottlieb and found what I saw to be both surprising and disturbing. What kind of people are active in these groups, I wonder?

Gottlieb writes in her post Hatebook . . .

Ronni Bennett at Time Goes By has discovered, via Freydblog, that there are dozens of user groups on Facebook devoted to -- hating old people!  Read both posts, the excerpts are amazingly vile and often verbally violent.  They flunk Ronni's "bias test" (just substitute the words "women" or "black people" for old people), and they are in egregious violation of Facebook's own terms of service.  Call it free speech if you will, but Ronni searched Facebook and couldn't find any equally egregious comments against blacks or women.  If such exist, apparently they are removed.  Or maybe people have learned to censor themselves in those instances.  Old people are fair game.

As Ronni points out, this story should be in the media.

Note (added July 28, 2007, 3:02 PM Mountain): Posts on the topic on other blogs . . .

DrumsNWhistles

The Elders Tribune carries a post A young person's perspective as to why young people might hate elderly.  In the post 25-year-old Paul discusses . . .

• Generation gap
• Fear of the unknown
• How fear leads to hate
• We [meaning his generation] are all extremists
• The unfiltered Internet
• Do older peoople hate younger people too?
• Increase public awareness

Note (added July 28, 2007, 5:55 PM Mountain): On a much less shocking note about how the younger view the older, spotted at IdeaFestival™: Email is for old people.

Note (added July 29, 2007, 9:50 AM Mountain): An update added at the AmbivaBlog post explains that more research was done and Facebook has many hate groups focused on such people as babies, women, men, fat ugly people, the French, and the list goes on . . . Kind of equal opportunity hate, I guess.

Comments

[Paul @ Elders Tribune]

Thanks Stephanie for the link to my post. I do hope more people know about this serious issue and the discussion carries on.

[Susan Cartier Liebel]

As far as the elderly, I am upset there exists such a hate group but upon reflection it is very symptomatic of the society we live in. The elderly are not revered for their wisdom and contributions to our lives. The elderly are not part of the nuclear family anymore. Where is the extended family of three generations co-existing in the same neighborhood? We have kids beating up and stealing from their grandparents. Younger parents (from the 'me' generation) consider their elder parents nuisances they 'have to deal with' while caring for their own children..a financial burden they do not want to bear. And the attitude of this individual is brought to their children. Now the younger generation is angry with the 'elderly' for being a drain on the social security system not understanding they've paid in for decades and it is time for the return on their contribution. It's beyond sad but unfortunately understandable as the elderly have become disenfranchised from society in so many ways and the younger generations is just voicing through the internet what they have been taught. It's disgusting. I grew up with three grandparents who were adored and respected, this respect taught to me by my parents. I can't imagine a world without the wisdom of our elders.

[Karoli]

In response to this:

As far as the elderly, I am upset there exists such a hate group but upon reflection it is very symptomatic of the society we live in

I think that you're right that it's at least reflective of some parts of society, but what I'm most bothered about is the hypocrisy of Facebook in tolerating this speech, but not other types of hate speech. I am not advocating that it should be a free-for-all, but at the very least, the terms and conditions should be evenly applied.

A symptom can be treated and cured; an infection is a far more difficult thing.