Poll of the Day > Can you be/are you friends with people with opposing political views to your?

(+) Yeah! (+)

The situation being described in the topic can be where you know said person has opposing political views than you, as they speak about them sometimes, however they do not actively try to get you to agree to their political views. At the same time though, they cannot tolerate it if you constantly try to push your opposing political views onto them.

Or it can at a level where you constantly argue with this person about politics but you still consider them a good friend, etc.
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I'm bffs with Zeus.

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Sure I got friends on both sides of the spectrum some of whom lean pretty hard towards their side

Yes, because I live in a place where there isn't just one team.

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Depends on how much of a loudmouthed shit you are.

You can believe pretty much anything you want as long as it isn't utterly repugnant and you don't keep trying to bring up your ideology constantly to the point of being gratingly annoying.

To be perfectly honest, I probably couldn't tell you which way 90% of my real life friends even voted in the last election. I could certainly make guesses here or there, but I go out of my way to avoid having political discussions with people.

I tend to have the same point-of-view when it comes to religion - I don't care if you're a Catholic or a Methodist or a Muslim or a Hindu or an Atheist, so long as you don't go around being a preachy fuck about it. Don't try to convert me or tell me why all of my life choices are bad because they don't fit your dogma of choice, and I don't really care what you believe about the underlying nature of the universe.
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oh yeee, let me put my preachmember in your god hole

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if you mean someone whose ideology is opposite mine, probably not, because i don't like people who view trans people as subhuman, who believe black people commit crimes because they're racially more predisposed to it, are antiscience to the point where very many people would die if their views were adopted, etc

politics is more than just whether you want team red or team blue to win

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Depends on what kind of views we're talking about really. Politics is a very broad subject.

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i dont expect people to 100% agree with me on everything, but there are certain things i consider non-negotiable (mostly wrt LGBT rights and race)

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No, because I'm morally against the opposite beliefs as mine.

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Kanatteru posted...

i dont expect people to 100% agree with me on everything, but there are certain things i consider non-negotiable (mostly wrt LGBT rights and race)

i live in the south and a lot of people (especially older people) hold some incredibly vile opinions about those two things; i don't understand how someone could be friends with a person who thinks you or your loved ones shouldn't exist

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I am, but some of the stuff they say really pisses me off. I just stay off the subject

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Yes, and in actuality I find it hard to be friends with people who have the same political views as me, mostly because they want to do nothing but talk about them and create an echo chamber between us. I would rather have my viewpoint challenged constantly then have someone just parrot it over and over again.

Good thing my viewpoints are so radically different then most people that it almost never happens.

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Kanatteru posted...

i dont expect people to 100% agree with me on everything, but there are certain things i consider non-negotiable (mostly wrt LGBT rights and race)

Pretty much this. You can have all the differing views you want on the most efficient way to structure the tax system, but start insisting that people are undeserving of basic human rights because they're attracted to the "wrong" person, and we're going to have a problem.

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nowadays, probably not

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No. I don't have much patience with people at the best of times. If you're going to be an ignorant shite then leave my presence. That includes family members. And people with differing politics from me are all invariably ignorant. Its certainly the case of the ones I've met. The thing they all have in common is total lack of common sense or logic. What's more is they have the gall to act like they're the educated ones and you can't tell them anything. When it should be the other way round. I'm the one that took time to inform my views. They formed their views "just because" they feel like it. Eg. The gays are evil, global warming isn't real, vaccines are a conspiracy etc.

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Duh, considering I'm unlikely to see eye-to-eye on everything with anybody. A lot of things we'll be simpatico with, but then we'll be oceans apart in other areas. And honestly, if I agreed with somebody on everything, I'd probably find them boring.

Generally politics aren't going to be a huge issue unless they never shut up about them, but that's the same with any number of issues and at that point it doesn't even matter whether or not you agree with them because it's obnoxious either way.

And I find using politics to screen friends incredibly stupid, considering that's pretty minor compared to other issues.

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Dikitain posted...

Good thing my viewpoints are so radically different then most people that it almost never happens.

I'm sure lmao so UNIQUE

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Yes. I don't live in an echo chamber.

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Yep. I already am. Have quite a few, tbh...
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Only if they arent stupid and closed minded about it.

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I dont think i have a single friend that would be in general agreement with me on politics. But i dont really care about politics and its not a common topic anyways.

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I've cut "friends" out of my life like dead wood because they refused to accept my fiance as a human being, on account of extreme political views they'd inherited like a cancer gene. There's some shit you shouldn't ignore or forgive.

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Criminalt posted...

I've cut "friends" out of my life like dead wood because they refused to accept my fiance as a human being, on account of extreme political views they'd inherited like a cancer gene. There's some shit you shouldn't ignore or forgive.

If you dont mind me asking, what was the view that made them treat your fiance like that?
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Yes. My mom is a conservative and my friend is a huge trump fan, whereas I do not like trump or conservatism.

I just don't talk politics with 'em. It isn't too difficult. I don't think being on the opposite political side makes somebody inherently bad, so it isn't like I feel as if I'm friends with a bad person.

LinkPizza posted...

If you dont mind me asking, what was the view that made them treat your fiance like that?

She was black, and the gist of their view was that I should marry someone "of [my] own kind" ... to put it politely.

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Zeus posted...

And I find using politics to screen friends incredibly stupid, considering that's pretty minor compared to other issues.

That really depends on the politics. For some people, "minor politics" are a literal matter of life and death. To dismiss all politics as being minor issues is a privilege only afforded to those for whom the status quo works.

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Criminalt posted...

She was black, and the gist of their view was that I should marry someone "of [my] own kind" ... to put it politely.

Ah. I see. That sucks. Im glad my BFs family isnt like that. Hes white and Im black. But they still treat me like family. Even his newphew is married to a black lady, and one of his cousins is dating a Asian lady. So, they pretty much dont care about race, which is always nice...
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argonautweakend posted...

Yes. My mom is a conservative and my friend is a huge trump fan, whereas I do not like trump or conservatism.

I just don't talk politics with 'em. It isn't too difficult. I don't think being on the opposite political side makes somebody inherently bad, so it isn't like I feel as if I'm friends with a bad person.

i mean, could you be friends with someone like strom thurmond though, who was a super duper fucking huge supporter of segregation, opposed black voting rights, sexually harassed women throughout his career, and was overall a gigantic racist?

biden certainly had no problems being friends with him tho loooooooooooooooool

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LinkPizza posted...

Ah. I see. That sucks. Im glad my BFs family isnt like that. Hes white and Im black. But they still treat me like family. Even his newphew is married to a black lady, and one of his cousins is dating a Asian lady. So, they pretty much dont care about race, which is always nice...

You're lucky a lotta people aren't like that, including blacks too. Many here have an attitude of no serious thing with a white person. If it's just a fling then whatever, people might talk but they move past it. But like marrying etc is a problem. On the other side too, the whites and Indians generally stick to their group. They would have friends of other races but no closer than that.

PS I forgot to mention earlier my standards are somewhat lower online than irl. I talk to people on here and Twitter all the time that have drastically different views than me. Thing is these people are strangers and I don't have to see them if I don't want to. If someone is my friend they can't be an idiot.

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MeteoricBurst posted...

You're lucky a lotta people aren't like that, including blacks too. Many here have an attitude of no serious thing with a white person. If it's just a fling then whatever, people might talk but they move past it. But like marrying etc is a problem.

Eh, I'm pretty sure some of my fiance's family were secretly relieved that she was marrying a white guy and not an Igbo.

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Yup. Fortunately I dont base my life around politics.

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I guess the caveat is people with abhorrant views, like segregation. The people I know are conservative leaning but not to that end.

Like, my friend the other day was saying "If minimum wage gets raised to 15, it'll speed up automation and prices will rise significantly"

I feel like thats a slight load of crap, but thats what I mean mainly. Differences like that. Doesn't matter to me he thinks that and I feel like is misguided to some degree.

argonautweakend posted...

If minimum wage gets raised to 15, it'll speed up automation

Ill guess the reason he thinks itll speed up is because business owners wont want to pay as much...
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@Criminalt This dumb site refused to let me post your message and gave me warnings lol.

And yeah well there's that too. Like its automatically assumed by many black people that because you a white man you got money. And therefore a better "catch" than a black guy. So it's like a prestige thing where the woman/family wants "the white man". They literally call it like that it's like he's not even a real person. Just the white man. It happens here too (Caribbean) but the aversion to mixing in usually overrides that. I remember it being more common when I was growing up with local women going after white foreigners to get overseas. It was never a big thing with white locals though, they are very protective you could say.

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I'm not sure, because you're supposed to be able to - I mean hell - I remember back to the election of GWB while I'm a silly easily influenced white boy and our neighbor friends were for Gore - and that didn't really SEEM to matter... Like it's just an election, who REALLY cares - Oh, you believe in evolution. Okay. All that stuff doesn't really matter to me. But then you're like - Or did it matter?

But I say supposed to be because this son of a bitch was a master troll in his younger days

and I'm just like -_-

not sure if he still is one or not

But it's just like, one day, you kind of realize these differences, and it's like, how much do you actually give a shit? I dunno, I guess I am slow.

But politics really makes everything a little stupider IMO, of course they matter, but then, at some point, you just get tired of shit mattering

I like to believe that people are actually capable of decency - and they are - but I personally have this weird unwavering capability of paranoia or skepticality to anything and everything because there is no real proof that things weren't as plain or discernible as they were presented as fact, and this isn't just some imaginary dream world that came out of someone's ass and they decided they were going to troll whoever had the unfortunate scenario of being sucked into it before they were born - so if you are so caught up on the weird details that you never have any fun anymore in life - fuck that I ain't going into that buttworld ever again

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Unless it's the only place I can score a joint

Then I gotta make it out of there, alive

Otherwise I may have to kill myself

Then have to start all over or some stupid bullshit -_-

This is the problem with life's uncertainties

It's best not to think about them, until the unfortunate day that you end up having to

Too risky

Like, sometimes I don't care if I'm the butt of the joke, or the face, whatever, but if it's entirely about me, and it's just one big buttface of a joke starring me, then that's horrible, and unless I can ignore it, I'm leaving in one form or another. Cause I can't even go in public without every single thought that goes through my head going through everything else first.

Imagine you are going to the store for whatever reason, and every single thing you're thinking of goes through - Wait, why am I explaining it to you people? It's all you people in the first place!

And you already knew how it worked but agh okay so who cares right

People who can't turn it off, that's who

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rexcrk posted...

Yup. Fortunately I dont base my life around politics.

yeah it must be nice to not be personally affected by anything political but that's not how it is for everyone

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Easily. My political views are in opposition to almost everyone anyway.

Under the current political climate its hard, since both sides seem to have increasing animosity towards each other.

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aus is fairly partisan compared to SOME OTHER countries but i still don't talk politics with friends even those who are aligned to me because it creates toxic echo chambers

therefore it's no problem

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Depends on the view. If we disagree on what appropriate tax levels are then yes. If you think I don't deserve to have as many rights as someone else because of some inborn characteristic then no.

I have friends who have opposing political views.

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As long as we respect each other, yes.

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