Click the gray arrow on the right-hand side of the name. There should be an option to "Unfollow".

Oh, right -- I used the wrong term, because in my brain it's hiding them. FB calls it unfollowing. That way you're still technically FB friends, but you never have to see the nonsense they post unless you choose to go back and re-follow them. It's made my feed so nice.

've been choosing to not reply to the bigoted/ignorant shit other people have been posting on their own FB walls, because they are not commenting on my posts with bigoted shit

Yeah, yesterday I had to hide a dancing friend of mine. He himself is definitely more conservative than I am (although he's a gay man of a certain age!), and will often/sometimes post things I disagree with. But the final straw was not anything he posted, but rather one of his other friends tagging him in a bunch of awful bigoted shit. I just couldn't anymore. I felt bad--he's a good guy (he's the one who helped me when my smoke detectors went crazy, and he came over and replaced them all for me on a Saturday night!) but I couldn't handle seeing all that and the only way was to hide him.

Does this mean there's a way to hide someone's posts without unfriending them? Because I could do with that right now.

Heck yes there is! It's fabulous. I wish there was a way to not-quite hide some people? To only see like, "important" posts (I want to know if you got married or fired or had a baby...but don't want to see every post you write?), but it's better than nothing.

I wish there was a way to not-quite hide some people? To only see like, "important" posts (I want to know if you got married or fired or had a baby

At least with my aunt, I assume my mom will tell me if anything important happens in her life.

It's handy, but part of me wonders if we're not creating an echo chamber with no room for dissenting opinions and thought. How can we think critically when everything we see is basically reinforcing our confirmation bias?

The filibuster was a thing of beauty. I need to catch up on what I missed.

'suela, that's horrific re: Oakland PD. I have heard nothing of it on the east coast.

Tom, I echo what everyone said upthread. Progress is progress, no matter how small. Much love to you.

I'll unfollow people's sources, not the people--unless said person becomes really annoying.

I generally unfollow people who only post Bible verse, or people who are involved in some kind of direct-selling business, or people who respond to factual corrections with "I don't care."

(There's only been one of that last kind.)

It's handy, but part of me wonders if we're not creating an echo chamber with no room for dissenting opinions and thought. How can we think critically when everything we see is basically reinforcing our confirmation bias?

It's not dissent I'm unfollowing; it's Tim's nephew who calls women "cunts" in his posts. It's my aunt who is a hateful bigot and believes she has to tell gay people that God hates the way they live. That's not dissent; that's hate.

No one is obligated to tolerate people's hate on a social media platform. I'm good with my echo chamber of non-hateful shit being spewed.

I'm forced to follow my über-conservative Quiverfull advocate cousin to get info about other relatives from that branch of the family. About once in every 50 posts of Bible verses intended to shame the heathens or deny evolution/climate change/civil rights/gravity there's a health update on another cousin's progress in his fight against cancer.

What is annoying is there used to be a "see less from this person" option, which I used on a friend's husband, and now I can't figure out how to see more from him again! Because I didn't unfollow him, I can't re-follow him, so I'm just out luck. The good news is that he tags his wife in anything kid-related, so I do see that still, which is really what I'm interested in.