Well, an event happened today that I was hoping would never occur. I ended a friendship over politics. Actually, that’s a very over-generalized statement. I had to cut the person off (“cancel” in today’s lingo) because this person would send me several emails a month (he doesn’t use social media) expressing his views on the day’s events, with vitriolic commentary and sometimes personal insults thrown in. His emails had become so nasty and rude that yesterday I had to tell him to stop contacting me.
Here’s the thing, I see posts on social media from friends that I disagree with or consider misguided. A few of the posts I respond to, some sharply, but most I just ignore. When I do respond, however, I always try to be civil and not engage in personal attacks or insults. In most cases, I just see the post, shake my head, and move on.
May I say that if you are responding to disagreeable political posts by calling the writer a “fascist”, “communist”, “Nazi”, or whatever, realize that person will eventually reach a tipping point and cancel you. They will determine that you are not really their friend and end the relationship. So always be mindful, especially if you value your relationships.
It really pains me that it came to this, especially after almost forty years of knowing this person, but I will only tolerate so much name-calling before ending the relationship.
A dilemma for me was trying to weigh how much of his actions were driven by his reaction to the media content he was consuming, and how much was driven by a personal inability to understand and respect the other person’s views. In the end, I say that he is responsible for his own actions and I am responsible for how I respond to those actions. It is not the media’s fault this happened, though I think the content of a certain publication was a contributing factor by whipping up anger and hysteria solely to generate clicks (and donations).
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