AIBU to be annoyed at 'Britain First' Facebook statuses.

[Latara]

Actually I know IANBU... a lot of my Facebook friends seem to have 'liked' the 'Britain First' Facebook Page.
They keep sharing 'Britain First' statuses on the news feed.

'Britain First' pretend to be an ordinary patriotic organisation but they are in fact a far right fascist group run by an ex-BNP fundraiser.
Paul Golding of 'Britain First' has actually gone into Mosques during
prayer times to give out bibles which is obviously very disrespectful.

They are using the imagery of D-Day to promote their page at present which to me is wrong - how can a fascist organisation celebrate the WW2 heroes who fought against, er, fascism??!

Sadly a lot of my FB friends have either fallen for it or actually don't care that 'Britain First' are Fascists.
Only a couple of people have seen through it and are putting statuses up against Britain First.

I have put a status up saying that 'BF' are a racist fascist organisation and that it's everyone's individual choice to like the page but they should be aware of what they are liking.
It is giving me the rage to be honest - AIBU to be annoyed, angry, fed up with this?

Several friends have shared pics / articles about the D-day veteran who went AWOL from his care home to attend the 70th Anniversary ceremonies etc. They have come via Britain First or BNP so I haven't felt I could 'like' them, purely for their origins.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion - but they may not be entitled to share it on their home page next to their place if work, and could be disciplined depending on their company policy

It's such a relief to know I'm not the only person suffering extreme angst about this. YANBU. At all. Why are people so bloody thick?

I've got one of those acquaintances that if you block them on Facebook you inevitably bump into seven times the next day and they ask why you did it (the type it's far easier to be "friends" with than not).
She works at a doctor's surgery in an incredibly diverse area, with lots of Indian, Eastern European and North African people living there.
I've never asked but she must have some of them as patients and colleagues, by definition of where it is.
She shares these things all the time, and when I had a rant on Facebook about UKIP being worse than the BNP because the BNP don't deny being racist scum, she said "Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, even if you don't like it."
I have told her to be careful as she might be jeopardising her job if the wrong people see the posts she's shared but she genuinely can't see why.
I have a feeling it won't end well.....

I put a status saying something like do people linking to Britain First pages realize that he guy who stated it was too racist and right wing for the BNP.

Several people have told me that they didn't.

I think my plan will be to comment with a link telling the truth about BF, if they share something dodgy. If they only like it, that's more tricky. I might tag them in my status pointing out what BF stands for. They'll either be grateful and educated, or unfriend me. If the latter, then that's doing me a favour I guess.

If anyone posts stuff that is blatantly not true (the asylum seekers/pensioners one does the rounds quite a bit, and have recently seen an awful one about saving yourself from a heart attack by coughing!), I just post a link to Snopes or similar explaining that it's made up. That way, you can just give them the facts without it seeming like a telling off.

Having said that, I did this once to a colleague and she still insisted that what she had posted was true!

A friend of mine has just shared a BNP photo - the guy escaping from his care home mentioned above. All respect to him, but I WILL NOT have BNP links on my facebook!! Have tried to write a tactful response to a very gobby friend, but not sure fb is the place to play it out.

The person who works at my school shared a BNP one this morning. It's awkward because she shares a profile with her dh and technically she works for an outside company - our school name is on her profile though. I messaged her advising her to check her company's social media policy.

She replied saying it was her dh, that she was going to tell him to set up a separate profile if he wants to post stuff like that - but that he isn't a racist, he just loves his country!

I've seen a lot of those posts from BF come up from people I know who are definitely not racist. The problem is that many of the posts do not make it obvious what the BF is about. They see what is masquerading as a patriotic statement or photograph, as opposed to the fascist, racist bullshit that's behind it.

Thank you for alerting me to this. A very lovely friend shared a Britain First status. I knew he wouldn't knowingly support them so pointed out that they're a bunch of fascists and he sent me an apologetic message, took the post down and posted another one expaining why.

I've been posting "Do you know who Britain First are?!" statuses for the last few days to try and alert some of my friends who clearly post- first think later--.

The best response to their vile rants I saw was this image

If you want a good link to share explaining the Britain First page, I've been using this one

I agree with tidy most of their pictures/message are in the papers and are perfectly acceptable, it is only if people do research into who they are that they wouldn't be so keen!
I have a young man I know through DD on my FB who keeps posting these, but they are all very patriotic message ones. Something he believes is right. His family are ex-military. He has SEN and really wouldn't 'get' what the background message is. Therefore I don't comment or 'like' them I ignore. I won't defriend him because actually he is a lovely lad.
Unfortunately BF jump on the patriotic message/picture to make them appear palatable.

who honestly believes a logo with a smashing fist in it is any kind of force for good?

Me :D SWP, I'm saying no more.

One friend (who is a distant cousin) shares Right Wing News as well! I didn't know they were dodgy too. She regularly shares BF statuses. I'm going to have to keep some people as friends but block their status updates.

I won't delete FB altogether because I've got lots of good friends on it and relatives who I don't see regularly.

It's just this ultra neo-Nazi nonsense that's stressing me out.

I'm fuming, you should see the bile and rubbish spouted on the Britain First fb page under the photo of their new "Group Development Officer" (whatever one of those is).

A complete load of sexist shite about what she is wearing and her "nice rack".

For fecks sake, what is the matter with these morons?

I have a very good friend who has shared two Britiain First posts in the past few weeks. Had never heard of them so went to have a look. I don't know if I should ask her is she has actually looked at their page and the folk who comment there or if she is just mindlessly sharing a few posts and hasn't even looked at the organisation. It really isn't like her - I normally have no problem just deleting folk but she is a very old and a very good friend.

Oh God I am so glad I am not the only one. I had a total melt down over the weekend about this and have subsequently refused to go back on fb. I tried posting things to inform people but it seems like no one even read my posts. The trouble is, I can't tell the difference between those who are naive and just don't realise what they are posting and those who genuinely agree with what Britain First stand for. In the end I asked people that if they really want my DS shot for being mixed race could they please unfriend me, as by supporting BF and the BNP that is basically what these groups want. I then decided to step away because I was shacking with rage and fear!

This is how the nazis got in! They didn't tell the German public "we're going to murder 6 million Jews". People voted for them because they played on their fears. I worry though that if we ignore it, it will only get worse.

*shaking, never heard of shacking

It is very worrying indeed.

It has also made me question how many of my friends and acquaintances secretly harbour xenophobic views, which will manifest when/if a very right wing party gets more sway (say UKIP). In that situation they will feel confident that nothing will be done to protect minority groups against discrimination and they will speak out openly.