Facebook and Tribes

One of my Conservative Tribe FB Friends started to post things that made fun of the people in the immigrant caravan. Of course, me being me I have to question people who post very "Tribal" beliefs on FaceBook.  I do this to both Tribe Liberal and Tribe Conservative members.  Some of the past occurrences:

• Liberal who I know had some highly questionable events occurring in High School questioning regarding Kavanaugh. She took it with a grain of salt and asked that we "not go there"... :-)
• Conservative who I know posted regarding gun control, liberal conspiracies, etc. He and his friends have been patient with my questions and disagreements.
• Liberal who was a big supporter of Black Lives Matter and angry at police in general. She did not accept my questions and comments very well...  She then unfriended me.
• Conservative person I barely knew that posted so many pointless and somewhat hateful things that I finally unfriended him.
• Liberals who post regarding climate change, school systems, welfare, taxes, LGBT rights, religious rights, etc. They sometimes get frustrated with me, but usually they are good sports.

With this in mind, I was a little surprised recently to be unfriended by the older guy over the immigration topic. Here is some background:

• He posted this image of the caravan that says they should be marching on their government, not marching to the USA for free stuff.
• I commented that they would likely be killed or imprisoned, and that we in the USA are very lucky to be able to march our government.
• He and another of course got defensive, asked me why I was commenting there and changed the subject to how their ancestors had done it very differently.  Somehow "more legally" apparently.
• They shared stories of poor people risking their lives and sometimes dying on the ship to get here.  And how there was no welfare and freebies back then.
• At which time I felt compelled to remind them that many folks got really really cheap land when they came here... Many of our families still own that 160 acres and it is worth ~$600,000 now...
• Things went okay up to that point and we let the topic drop. Then the original poster who is usually a very nice guy took a parting shot at me. He posted a meme about people who support immigration should provide their names and addresses so they will have a place to live, and tagged it to me...
• Well my competitive nature took issue with that, so I asked how are these poor families who are different from our ancestors? Why should they not be allowed to come to the border and have their claims heard? If we should open fire on them or something? Should Americans ~150 years ago have shot at the ships carrying our great grand parents?
• Finally I did the judgmental moralistic thing... :-( I wrote that I was did not understand how good Christian country folk could dehumanize these potential refugees that they see them as a "problem / threat" instead of as people.
• And please remember that I am against sanctuary cities, harboring illegal workers, etc.  However I do believe these are people that deserve a chance to be heard. Not "problems". 

I'll finish this later... Now I am going to the Anoka Halloween parade. :-)  Well, that was fun.  :-)

To end the story... Of course he gave no answer as to why these folks should be treat less humanely than his grand parents...  He just unfriended me instead.  The good news is I will not be exposed to his tribal memes anymore. The bad news is that he will not have any feedback loop questioning the tribe's hateful dehumanizing rhetoric. :-(