And you think a 'sad face' will do the trick do you?

The only appropriate response to such a post - which by the way is questionable to write in the first place - is to reply with actual words in a private context.

If people are posting their cancer news on Facebook, followed by reaction icons, shares, likes and notifications... I'm glad I'm not on Facebook.

Consider what I said as a placeholder for very bad news.

And I use FB mainly for events around my area and chat. I'm not much for posting or resharing garbage. And it's not like my "Rah rah candidate" shitposting is going to make someone else vote differently.

Yeah, I agree exactly with what you were trying to do. You picked a bad example is all.

I have poked fun previously at this very thing you alluded to - that a news story about a natural disaster or murder has a "like" button at all, is plain stupid.

Adding new reaction icons to better represent the more appropriate response could backfire in that even they are still trivializing and almost gamifying our responses. It might end up a tacky mess.