Quote:
Originally Posted by PepsiFree
I was similarly hanging out with friends the other day, one of which we haven't really seen for two years (here and there). I was warned that they'd "gone off the deep end." The rest of what followed was me watching someone singularly focused on one topic area, bringing every topic back to it. The government was controlling us, we're going to socialist hell, the fascists are forcing vaccines on us, etc. When they started to make it personal (we have a friend who is a new dad, and they started telling him that he was abusing his child and sentencing them to death for following along with everything) that was it.
I don't plan to see this person ever again. I'm sure it's harder if you're older as I know making friends as time goes on gets harder, but it was like common ground just ceased to exist in a way that I don't think could ever be rebuilt.
I'm happy to disagree with someone, even if it gets catty (you know this, Cliff!). But I was honestly shocked. Like you said, it was someone living in an entirely different reality. I have plenty of friends I disagree with on political, social, or moral grounds. But this was beyond that.
So I don't know what you should do, but for me, there's definitely a line where a friendship no longer gives equal to what it takes.
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A lot of anger is misplaced, and perhaps the reason for your friends behavior is all about other things going on in his life.
I have long standing friends who are "Fox News Enthusiasts" and "Trumpians", and friends who have been staunch Environmentalists and have run for the Green Party. If they insist on talking politics, I try to see things through their eyes and appreciate where they are coming from, before countering. I see good and bad in both extremes.
However, I think with all that has been going on over the past few years, politics has started to occupy more of people's minds, and obviously become very polarized. I think a lot of it has to do with social media, the biased press, financial pressures, and the feeling of being powerless. Combine this with other problems in life, and things can get emotional pretty easy... although usually not to the extent of your friend.
You are right that if you are older, the harder it is to make new friends...close ones anyway. It seems the older you get, the more you have to work to keep the friends you have.