I just dont talk politics.
She also mentioned “BDS”. Had to look that one up. Has something to do with the Palestinian issue. Gee, someone really needs to get a real life.
You know, nothing in her “questions” is in any way “forward thinking”. There is nothing in say issues of mutual likes/dislikes such as hobbies, favorite tv shows or movies, favorite ice cream flavors, coke or pepsi, etc… Its all politics and hating the world. Gee great dinner conversation.
Plus has she ever heard the phrase “nobody is perfect”?
So are you saying straight white males have disproportionately superior mental abilities, which is why we have all the good jobs?
That sounds about right. Friends with conservative? Sure. Friends with a Trump supporter or apologist? Never. I won’t even knowingly do business with a Trump voter.
Here’s a theory: conservatives tend to be older than liberals, so they still remember a time when communities weren’t self-segregating over politics (over other things yes, but not politics.) They also tend to be rural. They also tend to be religious. These things make it more likely that they find it confusing to lose friends over politics. If you grew up in a town with 500 people and you start ostracizing people that don’t agree with you over a random politician, you quickly find yourself out of friends, so you learn to live with political differences more easily. Similarly, if you go to church with someone who has a different political affiliation, you sort of have to be nice to them or else the pastor gets on your case. You’re taught to separate the person from the belief in the interest of harmony within the group.
They also come from a generation when mixed political marriages were also more common (My mother was a Democrat, my father was a Republican as an example.) The party makeups of older generations were also more fluid, there were conservative Democrats and liberal Republicans really up into the 90s, so rather than party affiliation, disagreements were on an issue by issue basis which made it more likely to find common ground at least on some issues, so losing a friend over a single issue makes less sense than today where we essentially package our political beliefs all together. The modern generation which leans much more liberal has grown up in self-segregated political communities with little contact with others who have different beliefs and when the contact occurs, it’s generally conflict with another group, rather than within their own group, so failure to identify with the political beliefs of the group makes it much easier to place this person in an ‘out-group’ where in times past, that wouldn’t have happened.
A final point to consider is that younger generations are more conflict averse for a variety of reasons. Older generations are more likely to confront a friend when they think they are wrong and this can paradoxically lead to an easing of tensions. It doesn’t bother them as much to read a dissenting opinion because they are used to confronting and being confronted by differing opinions. Younger generations are more likely to feel discomfort when assaulted with a differing opinion which leads them to draw away from the person. In other words, if you tell your Dad that supporting Trump is wrong, he’s likely going to lay into you as to why you’re wrong. You’re more likely to go upstairs and close the door. The first method maintains contact and the second breaks it.
So my real answer isn’t that it’s conservatives vs liberals, but rather a generational divide which also correlates heavily with political affiliation.
No, it’s because there is a conspiracy to keep women and minorities down. Except Asians.
Regards,
Shodan
To live in a society together we have to see each other as people not as caricatures. Look at post #5 to see where that kind of thinking gets you. There are many issues that need people of good will on both sides to work together. How can those things happen if we treat people who think differently as enemies? How can we think critically about issues if anyone who dares think differently is ostracized?
And simple answers, whether they be right or wrong, take less effort to understand.
“For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong.”
-H. L. Mencken
Nothing shows how right you are like a quote from a dead guy.
I voted for Trump. I don’t go about singing his praises, anywhere. Most people that know me would not know what political affiliation I have. Why? Because I was taught never to talk about politics or religion in polite company (I’m an atheist too, yeah I definitely don’t mention that either). And I think that applies now more than ever. Anybody I know in real life that bashes Trump gets a pleasant nod from me and nothing more.
I certainly don’t dissociate with them (though I have unfollowed some screeching liberal “friends” on facebook), but anybody that would refuse to affiliate with me because I voted for Trump can get get bent as far as I’m concerned. How I vote, and the reasons for it, are none of anybody’s damn business.
That’s clearly sarcastic. Do you think white males have greater mental acuity?
I’m aware there are other choices, but I do feel like a lot of people think that this is an "obvious truth no one is allowed to say’. so it’s worth clearing the air. This is one of the issues I would end a friendship over, for what it’s worth. I can’t imagine socializing with someone who really felt people of African descent were genetically stupid and criminal relative to whites.
Why do so many on the right think ending friendships over political differences is wrong?
It’s not just the right. But it’s because no one ever realizes why they are actually unfriended, so they chalk it up to political differences – or the even milder “what, I’m not allowed to disagree with your opinion?” – because it’s easier to defensively claim the moral high ground. Hardly any friendships end solely over political differences.
Sally and Beth are each intellectually lazy (e.g., reposting fake news that is easily verifiable), overwhelmingly negative, often illogical, and sometimes downright offensive. Neither of them recognizes those things, though, so Sally assumes I unfriended her simply because she voted for Trump while Beth assumes I unfriended her simply because she “dares to tell the [liberal] truth.”
It’s the exact same thing as “I can’t see/believe that I’m really the one who caused our breakup, therefore you must be an asshole.”
Good Christ…a board this heavy on “Republicans/Conservatives/Trump Supporters are teh Evul BIGOTZ and hate wimmenz and tranz nad teh BROWN PEOPLE!!! and they’re NAZIS!!!” rhetoric. Where we have long since established that such people deserve to…nay, MUST be excluded from society…and we’re going to blame the right for ending friendships over politics?
Really, it is breathtakingly unself-aware.
Your vast overreaction to any and all criticism of your political beliefs is duly noted, and will be taken for what it’s worth.
Hyperbole much?
I looked, maybe I missed it, but I don’t think anyone here has “blamed the right for ending friendships over politics”. It seems that the thread is attempting to point the finger in both directions.
Regarding the “unself-aware” - I know in my case I am abundantly aware of the level of vitriol I engage in, and am quite comfortable in triggering the snowflakes on the right. (Something I learned from you guys).
And this sort of thing is why regular folks can’t be friends with conservatives, because they’re easily offended hypersensitive snowflakes who take any disagreement as intolerance.
No, liberals think that conservatives are stupid people.
Which is closer to the truth…
That’s funny-I usually hear that one done the other way around, but if “No-U!!” is all you’ve got…
The differences that break up these friendships aren’t political differences; they’re differences in values.
If you think that my friends don’t count as human beings and should be denied basic human rights, then you are not a person of good will as far as I’m concerned, you have established quite clearly that you think of my friends as enemies of your own accord, and your position is that you want to ostracize them. ‘Do my friends count as humans, and deserve at least as much respect as people give to dogs?’ is not an issue that I am willing to accept ‘critical thinking’ if it ends with anything other than a ‘yes’.
There are a lot of political issues where there is room for disagreement. But whether my friends deserve to be treated as humans or to even live in the first place is not one of those areas.