Would you remain friends with someone who has different political views?

[BabyYoda]

Honestly losing friends over political stances makes me uncomfortable. As a social science student I probably shouldn't be saying things like these, because I've seen posts by my coursemates that state that it makes sense to lose friends over politics. I mean as an agnostic I wouldn't have a problem being with non-agnostics just as long as they respect me and I respect them. People act like they can afford to lose friends while I am here doing my best to make things right with my friendships. But this doesn't mean I tolerate hate or discrimination. I doubt someone who is pro-hate would be friends with someone like me in the first place. Maybe I just have a poor understanding of these things, I dunno.

Majority of society is pro-life, and if I were to cut ties with pro-life people I'd lose all my friends with nothing left. Friendships turning unstable during this time of social isolation only makes it worse. Why divide ourselves when there are people who can't stand the isolation because they lack social connections.

 

[Epsilon0]

Yeah, definitely. I would just avoid those topics of conversation that could potentially lead to conflicts.

Being friends with someone does not mean you have to share the exact outlook on everything.

The question is what you, personally, view as important in a friendship:

If it's vital that you and the other person can talk about politics and agree on this subject, then it's probably wise to make friends with like-minded individuals.

If, like in my case, you care more about other things (such as humour, kindness, generosity and respect for other people), then it doesn't matter if your friends have vastly different views on politics.

 

[Apathy79]

Most of my friends and all of my family have different political views to me. It's fine. Life would be boring if everyone agreed.

 

[Lethe]

My bestie is like the opposite of me in terms of politics and views on religion, but we get along great.

 

[Brick In The Wall]

Avoid political and religious discussions entirely. That shit is for the birds.

 

[mediocre]

It seems like nowadays nobody can have a political discussion or debate without it crossing the line and turning into personal insults or thinking that the other person is an idiot for believing differently. I remember having a political discussion with a family member and they made me feel stupid for having certain views. That's why I would avoid talking about politics with people because it never ends well.

 

[Eridanos]

Friendship with someone who has completely different political ideas is definetly possible but usually I think the relationship doesn't get too deep.
Political ideas comprehend all of one's world view in various degrees, if someone has a political idea that is unreconciliable with yours usually it means that all around those two people are not compatible.

 

[faust]

It is the matter of politeness and ability to accept a different point of view.
My friend is a rightist, but he does not impose his political views, I don't too, it is not my business to criticize people because of politics.
He often says he regrets he is not a national socialist anymore, but even when he was, that was just his own view, he did not harm anybody and was friendly to all the nations.
Yes, he blames leftists for "making everything worse", but okay, is that the reason to terminate the friendship?
If I start telling him about pro-choice and equality he will have a brain explosion but it won't ruin our friendship.

 

[mesohappy]

Politics are silly..All these politicians are saying the same,just fuckin' your brain...

If you have a friend based on politics,probably not a friend.

I dont really talk to much politics in social situations...If it gets that serious,I politely dip out and find something else to entertain me.Politics aint shit but a popularity/power contest.

 

[Disintegration]

I could care less about politics. That being said, I made friends with this guy a while back and had to end it because of his political and religious convictions. I wouldn't have thought it would be that big of a deal, but it totally is.

 

[Life sucks]

I almost don't contact others but would I be friend with someone with different views? Absolutely no and although I don't talk about religion and politics garbage with others but its one of the reasons I try to avoid everyone as much as I can. Why? Views exposes many shit, many people hide their racism or phobias and stuff like transphobia, xenophobia or homophobia or any type of shit they hold and cover it as a "political view". "Political view" my ass. Most of it is actually absolute assholery. So each "view" has its share of wars or internal conflicts. Do you want me to side with any? No. And I can't be hypocrite and befriend someone with a different "view" and believes propaganda that killed countless people for example.
Humans sucks and life is shit, politics and religion are no exception. Both are just different names to control humans and force a system, the religion as an ancient method while nationalism pretend to be "modern". Both are just made so minority of people gain resources and the other people fight each other, they name it "politics", "religion" but actually its just economy aka humans doing a "species project" by eating and reproducing and hiding their shit. Do those people know what they really want? No, but they keep fighting each other for nothing.

 

[Lorntroubles]

I don't care what your politics are, just give me your legit viewpoints with good stance behind it and your arguments. As long as you don't get butthurt and try to shove your views down my throat or start being an asshole, then I have no problem. Not being friends with someone due to political views is silly to me. I dislike a certain color, doesn't mean it should go away or get the hell out of my life...we all preach acceptance, but do we really practice it?

 

[waterbottleman]

I've never had any problems with people disagreeing with me, however many times I've upset other people by disagreeing with them and explaining why I think they're wrong.

I'm a detail oriented person so in politics that usually means when I disagree with someone I have plenty of detailed/researched reasons why I disagree with them and I've often been told that I come across as a dismissive know it all who thinks he's right.

I think that's funny because in my own mind I have the total opposite mindset. I very much adhere to what Socrates said which is that the more you learn the more you realize just how ignorant you are. So my views are often in flux and willing to change based on new information I get. It is for this reason that I often refrain from having strong opinions on anything before reading about it.

I think my wonky/detailed/researched approach comes across as arrogant to many people.

 

[GoodPersonEffed]

It depends. I've had friends who were genuinely good friends and our political views didn't align, so we just didn't talk about politics, it had no bearing on the genuine affection I felt for them as a whole person. But they also weren't wrapped up in politics. I lean toward the left, but I don't get along with all lefties any more than I have problems with all conservative-leaning folks. In fact, some people have a problem with me because I stopped voting after the Bush-Gore debacle except for local issues I cared about where my vote counted. Voting is such an emotionally charged topic in the US, I didn't bring up my choice unless I was with open-minded people. In my experience, expats are much more open-minded and reject the absurdity of politics and government, which was refreshing for me to experience.

But folks who love Trump...there's something more personally fundamental than just politics there, it's an acceptance of abuse and manipulation. I find that folks who love Trump are people I already had fundamental difficulties with, like my mother.

 

[alexthegreat]

I don't care. I have friends who are racists right wingers and then Communists as well.

 

[motel rooms]

Yes, I would fuck a friendly Nazi up the ass.

 

[stygal]

Yes, I would fuck a friendly Nazi up the ass.

I often thought about hate-fucking a cop when I was younger but nowadays I have no more desire or interested.

I personally could not be friends with someone who's worldview differs completely from mine...there are degrees to that which would still be okay but I just couldn't be friendly with a nazi or ultra religious person.

 

[OrcWitch]

Yes, I would fuck a friendly Nazi up the ass.

Without any evidence I'm just going to assume they have the highest amount of closeted types in their ranks. There is a high chance they'll like it and change their world view.

 

[TheHatedOne]

I used to be friends with a fascist once and I'm moderate left. How it worked? Well, we avoided talking about politics or religion. We had a monstrous argue over religion once and since then we both agreed to avoid these topics. The friendship ended cause he lied to me about something and then we slowly drifted away.

 

[netrezven]

It depends. Different doesn't mean bad or something. Different might be more positie and correct calculated. However there are political and social views that i define as very stupid and dangerous for me and my family, so anyone there is stupid as f*ck. And if someone is stupid should stay very far far away from me. So in some cases - yes, in some no, Happy that my friends are not in that spectrum, no way to be there actually.

 

[deflationary]

I don't think I would stop being friends with someone over political views, no. But mostly because I think my idiot detector is good enough that I wouldn't become friends with someone that secretly harbored stupid political ideas in the first place. My bar for friendships is pretty high.

 

[cambrai33]

Yes no problem at all being friends with someone who has different views.

Who is to say that mine are the right ones? In addition there are many other values I place in friends than who they might vote for. There is something very claustrophobic about only surrounding yourself with people who think the same.

To be honest I much prefer animals to people anyway

 

[TotallyIsolated]

Fuck no. Fascists need to be ostracized from society altogether.

 

[Manaaja]

I've tried and in some ways it can work, but it depends. If the person never opens their mouth about politics, it's much easier to be friends, also works if your views on important matters are similar. But if you, let's say, saw a 70 year old disabled person who was poor and homeless, and you said "I wish government taxed the rich more and gave the money to those who cannot work" and the "friend" complained "just because someone is blind, deaf, limbless, paralyzed, in coma, down syndrome etc. doesn't mean they can't get and work a normal 8 hour job, that guy is just lazy" then fuck them.

I cannot stand those who don't help the poor and unfortunate. Or people who are lgbtia-phobic or sexist.

But I'm apolitical, I don't think a single human on this planet is fit to lead a country, because power corrupts humans so easily.

 

[motel rooms]

I often thought about hate-fucking a cop when I was younger but nowadays I have no more desire or interested.

I personally could not be friends with someone who's worldview differs completely from mine...there are degrees to that which would still be okay but I just couldn't be friendly with a nazi or ultra religious person.

I've penetrated skinheads. They all enjoyed it, maybe they didn't realize I'm gay.

 

[MyStateKilledMe]

I'm gonna give a hardline "no". I'm a conservative. My state's liberal politics on Covid lockdowns and quarantines were the reason why I joined this site last year. I didn't want to live under social isolation with no end in sight, and preferred to die instead. So if any liberal friend supports those views (all while rooting for big crowds of maskless looters and arsonists), they'll be thrown out of my faster than a leaky bag of dog shit.

That said, I met some nice, new conservative friends last year. We bonded with each other very quickly: in just a few weeks, we went from shaking hands to taking road trips together. I guess sometimes, a scamdemic does the opposite it was set out to do: bring people together instead of breaking them up.

 

[Shadowplay]

I'm gonna give a hardline "no". I'm a conservative. My state's liberal politics on Covid lockdowns and quarantines were the reason why I joined this site last year. I didn't want to live under social isolation with no end in sight, and preferred to die instead. So if any liberal friend supports those views, they'll be thrown out of my faster than a bag of dog turds.

That said, I met some nice, new conservative friends last year. We bonded with each other very quickly: in just a few weeks, we went from shaking hands to taking road trips together. I guess sometimes, a scamdemic does the opposite it was set out to do: bring people together instead of breaking them up.

As a libertarian I'm digging your user name. :-)

 

[Dr Iron Arc]

I kind of have to because I don't know where I am politically and due to my heavy contrarianism even if I have an opinion, I can have it reversed just by being around people with the same opinion.

 

[MyStateKilledMe]

As a libertarian I'm digging your user name. :-)

If you look at my political views closely, I guess I'm a libertarian too. For instance, the idea of abortions doesn't bother me---something most conservatives would clutch their pearls at! After all, the less people are born, the less people feel the misery of life. So, aborting life aborts misery.

But since libertarians are too few in numbers in the US to have critical mass, and liberal politicians almost killed me, I choose to self-identify as conservative. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, after all. As for personal friends, I maintain existing friendships with liberal friends who haven't yet promoted their agendas to me, but all my new friends are exclusively conservative. Unless they're RINO's; those get kicked to the curb upon being found out!

 

[ascetic_]

Well, if I had friends, I would say.... it depends.

I can't really in good conscience, or seriousness, be friends with someone who isn't red-pilled.

What does that have to do with political beliefs? Well, for some reason, a lot of the people who know "what's going on" tend to be categorized as "far-right".

But I think that's only because what used to be considered the neutral, moderate left went so far left that they became Bolsheviks.