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Forums - Politics - Unfriending due to Political Differences

 

Would you unfriend someone due to political differences?

Yes 53 21.54%
 
No 152 61.79%
 
Unsure 41 16.67%
 
Total:246
Mummelmann on 05 November 2016

If you want your life to be an echo chamber and only surround yourself with like-minded people to get "enlightened", taking away all contact with people who don't fit your views is a perfect strategy. I don't think I see eye to eye with more than 10% of my facebook friends politically, but that's fine because I don't take facebook friendships very seriously and I don't mind people having different views and don't want a social interaction without nuances.



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Ljink96 on 05 November 2016

That's what children do. I don't put much faith in politics so politics isn't that import to me... I mean, I'll stand up for a candidate but by my faith, they don't dictate how my life is run. I don't put all my trust in people because people let you down. It's one of man's infamous traits. But uh, that took a turn down dark road. Anyway, my cousin is voting for Trump. We played Mario Party and Smash Brothers all the time, he's a great friend. Just because he's voting for Trump doesn't mean I'm going to stop playing games with him or stop talking to him. It's just silly.



Angelus on 05 November 2016

Ya, I can't blame anyone for not wanting to be associated with anyone who supports Trump. And I say this as someone who
A) Isn't a US citizen, living there, or (obviously) voting on who will be president
B) Doesn't care for the current Democratic party in the least
C) Could go on for literally hours about what kind of terrible politician Clinton is, and what kind of shady people her and her husband are

And yet........
Trump is so blatantly, and egregiously worse. The content of his speech, and the thoughts and ideas he puts out into the world, so incredibly vacuous. So ridiculously antidemocratic and free speech in his beliefs.......

Is it immoral to "unfriend" someone who wants to vote Trump?
I think it would be immoral not to



curl-6 on 05 November 2016
FloatingWaffles said:
curl-6 said:

See the way I see it, part of the "person they are" is their values. I wouldn't want to affiliate with somebody whose values were repugnant to me.

Well the way I see it is that a person should only be judged on their actions and what they do in their life, hence "Actions speak louder than words", not what they say they agree or disagree with or what they think, since everyone is entitled to think what they want. It's not up to anybody to dictate what somebody else is allowed to feel or think about something. 

So even if someone I knew supported something that I disagree with, to me it's like "Alright, well you do you then", and I don't mean for that to sound in a negative way or anything, it's just like "Well if that's how you feel, while I might not agree, you're allowed to think what you want so". Like, it's just their opinion. It doesn't affect anybody or change anyone's life. 

I would argue that speech is action, at least when we're talking about declarations made on a public platform, like Facebook.

People are allowed to feel/think what they like, but I'm under no obligation to remain friends with someone if their values are abhorrent to me. Me unfriending them does not encroach on their freedom of speech/belief, they're still free to say or think what they like, I just don't have to listen.



LivingMetal on 05 November 2016

As I've said in another, thread politics is the bane of humanity.



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LivingMetal on 05 November 2016
Hiku said:
FloatingWaffles said:

Anybody who is willing to end a friendship over someone else having a different opinion is probably someone who doesn't have much friends to begin with and probably isn't even worth being friends with. That's just pathetic.

So if one of your friends voted for Adoph Hitler, you'd still be cool with them?

As for me, no I wouldn't be.

The year is 2016.Aldof Hitler has been long dead.



LivingMetal on 05 November 2016
Veknoid_Outcast said:
padib said:

People who judge their friends based on political differences are not true friends.

A person can be convicted to trust a politician or another. Though you may see Trump as a racist, misogynistic, cruel and selfish person, someone else may find him entirely the opposite.

It often just depends on the angle you are looking at something. I have listened to Trump and Hillary speak, and I can tell you I understand now a lot more deeply why Trump says the thing he says, yet only two months ago I thought the man was a complete idiot.

I had a dialogue with two girls (I know, bad move but I just wanted to talk about the things I had been listening to), and both were so disgusted by Trump. Yet both told me they barely knew what he was actually saying by listening to him. They got their perspective from the media.

So while in one case a person could have a completely hateful view about a candidate, in another case they might see it differently.

And that's OK, it doesn't make the person evil or to have poor values. It just means they see the candidates in different ways. And the thing America needs most is open-mindedness. This year's elections  prove that people are very closeminded, more than ever. I think Trump has been completely misunderstood and that's just the way I see it.

If any friend of mine likes me less for it, they are not my true friend.

So you'd be friends with someone who subscribed to the neo-Nazi party? You'd be friends with someone who thinks women shouldn't vote?

I think a severe gap in political affiliation is perfect grounds for the end of a relationship.

Maybe people should unfriend you for liking Hillary Clinton. Just saying. But they'd probably unfriend you for just being self-righteous. That could be sufficient grounds.



LivingMetal on 05 November 2016
Hiku said:
LivingMetal said:

The year is 2016.Aldof Hitler has been long dead.

Doesn't change my point. You don't have to be as bad as Hitler for there to be a line to be drawn. The point is, it exists. The question is where someone draws it.

As for being dead, tell that to the Neo-Nazis who officially endorse Trump (in my post above), and will arm themselves at voting polls in minority areas. His spirit is not dead among these people.
Yes, it's 2016 and the neo nazis are coming out of the woodwork in many places around the world.
We have a party in Sweden that's rooted in Neo-Nazism, where the party leader has been caught on tape singing white supremacist lyrics, etc, and they got enough votes to make it into parliament a few years ago. Other political party members and some leaders were in tears on live TV during that moment.

These people have been waiting and waiting and waiting ever since 1945. Do not underestimate the resilience of these people.

Neo-nazis do endorse Trump but not everyone who endorses Clinton is righteous. Fact of life. So get over your self-righteousness. The Nazis thought they were righteous. So in that sense you're no better.



Azuren on 05 November 2016

I'm more likely to unfriend someone for that kind of attitude.

If you want to vote for Trump, fine. Start World War 3 with China.

If you want to vote for Hillary, fine. Start World War 3 with Russia.

We're fucked either way.



Watch me stream games and hunt trophies on my Twitch channel!

Check out my Twitch Channel!:

www.twitch.tv/AzurenGames

StuOhQ on 05 November 2016

I don't think wanting Trump votes to unfriend him is necessarily political. If we were talking about a usual candidate, things would be a little more clear cut. I worry about the morality of Trump votes when it isn't clear that the individual has a learning disability of some kind.



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