Who are you not speaking to?

[H2ODude]

Don't do social network stuff but in person only approach political subjects tentatively. Then like minded friends can share amazement at the goings on. Have a former SIL I just can't correspond with anymore.

Next month on 10 day cruise with two couples, one pretty far apart from us and the other very far. Intend to just say let's leave that subject alone. No one's going to change any minds so what's the point anyway?

 

[Tadpole]

I have two selves on Facebook. My personal self and my political/opinionated self. Family and personal friends are my "friends" on my personal self and I keep up with their desire to share vacations, children and grandchildren, social events and the like. I tolerate some things but they are family and people I grew up with or met along the way. My political/opinionated self is merely a member of a closed group that expresses, well, opinions and interesting news items. A "friend" on the personal self account started posting poster after poster of political views that were just plain venomous. I unfriended her after a few days of this without comment.

 

[FUEGO]

My wife asked that I not intentionally bring up politics in polite company because a candidate she favors isn't among favor for most of our friends and it could lead to awkward conversations (and she doesn't feel like arguing some of the planks of her favorite's platform, some of which are grossly indefensible objectively speaking).

As for facebook, I'd say I have several dozen out of my several hundred friends and "friends" on my "unfollow" list. I rarely see things they post. It's mostly a high signal to noise maintenance issue - not necessarily politics, but more often it's people that don't post things I'm interested in or that are mere casual acquaintances and not real friends (my next door neighbor, for example, shares lots of down home cooking stuff and silly political stuff; we're friendly neighbors and she's great but we're not BFFs due to not a lot of overlap in interests).

 

[Bir48die]

I deactivated my FB account a month or so ago. Politics was part of the reason, though not all of it. My new account is under the name of one of my cats (with profile pic to match) and I only have 12 friends on it. I haven't missed the old account yet.

Although I will pay attention if there are any big developments in this election cycle, I am, for the most part, checked out. I am far more interested in getting along with the people I know than in arguing politics with them. Huge waste of time, IMO. As far as they're concerned, I'm an idiot and as far as I'm concerned, they're all idiots. By that logic, we are all idiots.

Perhaps indeed we all are idiots, but I'd rather enjoy the company of my fellow fools than argue with them

+1

 

[haha]

I'm listening to a story on NPR about the demise of friendships on Facebook due to the current political environment.

And I also just read this last week: Trump and Clinton wreck Facebook friendships - POLITICO

I've muted many "friends" and family on Facebook because I just don't care to hear what they have to say right now. In real life, we're also finding ourselves steering away from people who are very vocal about their views that differ from ours.

I suspect this is happening to others as well. Have politics impacted who you talk to, or what you talk about?

Not who I talk to, but certainly what I talk about. I am basically a fiscally conservative, lifestyle tolerant man living in one of the most liberal cities in America. Liberal in the sense that this word is used today. Like "die mofo if you ever thought that better off people should perhaps not be held up to support everybody else".

If I didn't keep my mouth shut I would have very few friends. So what? Friends are important for many things, but elections are what determine governance. Until others get to accompany me to the voting booth, if I can keep my mouth shut I think I am safe.

Ha

 

[rodi]

I've unfollowed a few folks. But not unfriended.

As others have said - I try not to discuss politics outside my immediate family. I don't want to think more/less of the person because they have differing views. Better to change the subject and move on. Especially my neighbors and former coworkers... I live in a neighborhood that majority leans a different direction than I do. I worked with folks who also leaned a different direction. My neighbors, former coworkers, etc are all good people... so why engage in conversation that will make us like each other less.

 

[ivinsfan]

We do not have any friends that do not agree with us politically. We do not socialize with members of the opposing party on an intimate level where we discuss such things, they are merely acquaintances and while we respect their opinions, it stops there. As all our friends are smart, intelligent level headed and successful we all agree by default.


We and our friends vote the party and not the candidate. The President cannot do anything for the overall populous really of substance without an accommodating congress, we have experienced that for ages now.

We are only interested in a few policy things anyway now as we get older, that is Healthcare at prices we can afford without stressing, Maintaining SS, paying folk a living wage, one more that I cannot mention and that kind of thing. All the rest is noise and should not even be part of the debate.

That is a change in itself as we voted VERY different when we were younger.

HaHa this takes care of friends, but what about family, that's where the rubber hits road and no prisoners are taken in politics.

 

[brewer12345]

I cannot wait until we go back to plain old bread and circuses (and the election is over). I despise both sides and really hate hearing about either. I have had to work hard to avoid taking the bait, either on FB or in real life. Other than one manipulative, abusive piece of garbage that I was happy to kick to the curb (for reasons other than her incessant posting of political diarrhea), I haven't blocked anyone or unfollowed. I think it is a little creepy how easy it is for any of us to create an echo chamber of our own views by selecting specific media, facebook content, people we associate with, etc. and I think this sort of thing is one of the main causes of the incredibly divided and nasty political climate. So I am reluctant to recreate the same thing for myself and I try to listen to both sides, but holy cow I cannot wait until the volume on all this nonsense gets turned down.

 

[Major Tom]

I try to listen to both sides, but holy cow I cannot wait until the volume on all this nonsense gets turned down.

+1

Politics in general, but especially the way it is being practiced in the US right now, encourages tribal behavior on the part of voters. Instead of being willing to consider differing approaches to dealing with issues, we simply pick a team and root for them with all our primitive might.

 

[Downtown]

I don't do Facebook, so it hasn't been much of a problem. It just seems there's too much potential downside to being on Facebook, so I have refused to go that direction. I'm not averse to all social media platforms, just Facebook.

As for politics this election season, I also refuse to go that direction! Too much potential downside. It's all been kind of depressing and surreal this cycle.


Sent from my iPad using Early Retirement Forum

 

[Midpack]

There's no one I've stopped talking to, but there are a handful of people I don't know very well, who I don't want to know better specifically because of their political posts on FB. Until this election cycle, I can't remember thinking less of anyone who supported the other major party candidate from myself...

 

[HadEnuff]

I have been "unfriended" by one FB "friend" because I challenged him to back up a political "meme", with actual facts. So now I try to walk away from it. Some of my best friends and I are politically diametrically different. With some of them we can challenge each other and it's good, but some of them, it doesn't work so well.
In my family, growing up, every dinner it seemed was a political debate. If you made a strong political statement, you would be challenged to back it up. It made us effective "critical" thinkers, but also made us way too argumentative for most people. All of my siblings have discussed among ourselves how, as we made our way through life we had to try to tone that down in order to not pi$$ everyone off.
I give myself credit for having toned it down a lot, but DW still needs to remind me to shut the hell up, more often than I'd like.

 

[Marita40]

I don't do Facebook. However I've actually found this ridiculous political climate easier in terms of friends. The majority of my friends as well as myself dislike both candidates, so there isn't the die-hard advocate for one or the other in my group. Rather it is a lot of hand-wringing over "out of all this talent in the U.S. how in the world did it come to this??"

 

[dixonge]

I think this sentiment expresses my views on politics in general:

"If voting changed anything, it would be illegal!"

Now imagine being on Facebook with that attitude. hahahaha

Yeah, it isn't pretty.

I think I made most of my friend changes back in 2007-9. My high school class used Facebook a lot during planning for our 25th reunion. Shortly after that, I started unfriending most of them due to the fact that my general viewpoint on life, specifically religion and politics, has shifted in the last couple of decades. I'm on the opposite end of the spectrum now, so we can't even have a nice, fun chat. I have nothing else in common with them, other than our shared schooling.

At one point I had over 400 'friends' there. I'm down near 90 now. They are basically closer friends, relatives, and people we've met while traveling. That's plenty.

 

[eytonxav]

I have not unfriended anyone on Facebook and steer clear of political arguments with others. Any how, I find the media on TV to be much more offensive when stations start pimping their networks specific political viewpoint.

 

[Bestwifeever]

I don't do FB because I prefer to ignore people to their face . But if someone proclaims something on their own page, I don't think that would bother me--I would just ignore it. I wouldn't get into a discussion about it anywhere.

 

[candrew]

I follow the sage advice given to me by my dearly departed Dad.

One should never discuss politics or religion in mixed company.

In addition, I think it is typically best to look for those things we have in common rather than focus on those that divide us.

 

[Texas Proud]

I'm listening to a story on NPR about the demise of friendships on Facebook due to the current political environment.

And I also just read this last week: Trump and Clinton wreck Facebook friendships - POLITICO

I've muted many "friends" and family on Facebook because I just don't care to hear what they have to say right now. In real life, we're also finding ourselves steering away from people who are very vocal about their views that differ from ours.

I suspect this is happening to others as well. Have politics impacted who you talk to, or what you talk about?

Since this is the first post and the only one I have read so far I do not know if anybody has responded like me...


DON"T DO FACEBOOK!!!! Yep, I do not do facebook... I do have an account that I opened many many years ago and I still get emails from them I do not care to get, but I have not logged in in over 3 years, maybe more...

I do not see any advantages in it but do see the downside of letting a company make big money off me after I tell them everything about me and who my connections are...

 

[easysurfer]

Since this is the first post and the only one I have read so far I do not know if anybody has responded like me...


DON"T DO FACEBOOK!!!! Yep, I do not do facebook... I do have an account that I opened many many years ago and I still get emails from them I do not care to get, but I have not logged in in over 3 years, maybe more...

I do not see any advantages in it but do see the downside of letting a company make big money off me after I tell them everything about me and who my connections are...

For me, unfortunately, in order to stay in the loop of events to some interests and family news, a few years ago I reluctantly gave in. I'd find others talking about stuff and found myself saying "I was now aware of that" again and again.

That said, I'm not a serial FB poster like some.

 

[Amethyst]

I have been shocked to learn, via FB, that a few of my friends and relatives have this exact same trait (a morbid rigidity on certain topics, which never showed itself in person) - and their viewpoints, to me, are especially shocking b/c they don't comport with the rest of the "person I know."

I also know one person who deactivated her own FB account because some of her friends asked her not to post any more disgusting, revolting pictures of animal abuse, not to mention satires of animal abuse (e.g. a tied-up woman being force-fed, a la geese being forcibly fattened for pate de foie gras).

As for the thread title: There is no one I won't exchange at least a few polite words with, except one person. I stopped speaking to a hateful, cruel supervisor. I have never worked for anyone so evil - well, actually, I have never worked for a truly bad person, other than this one. He managed to make everyone around him the worst they could be. It cost me professionally to get away from him, but I had to do it for the sake of my health.

I un-friended one person because she was militant on one particular issue. Her posts were emotional, sometimes sensationalist, and she refused to respond to any other points of view, discuss possible mitigating factors, etc. She'd just parrot back her beliefs and that was that. It was a shame- I can usually find common ground with just about anyone- but I felt better immediately after detaching.

I

 

[ShokWaveRider]

The only people I really unfriend (or unfollow) are the folks who insist post posting Religious stuff all the time, or trying to bless me at every opportunity. Religion is private and not to be pitched on anyone IMHO. Most end up being family though LOL.

 

[haha]

+1

Politics in general, but especially the way it is being practiced in the US right now, encourages tribal behavior on the part of voters. Instead of being willing to consider differing approaches to dealing with issues, we simply pick a team and root for them with all our primitive might.

And you think this is a US only phenomenon?

 

[Nemo2]

And you think this is a US only phenomenon?

Doesn't seem to occur in Pyongyang.

 

[pb4uski]

I am registered on Facebook but only so I can look at certain Facebook pages... I don't friend anyone and have no intention to do so.... so I'm blissfully ignorant.

While I have some friends who are politically very different from me, we rarely talk politics and when we do it is very civil because we are friends.

I do have one friend who sends me emails that are sometimes annoying, but I find it as a good opportunity to educate him.

All things considered, not a big deal for me and to address the central question... I can't think of anyone that I am not speaking to because of politics... life is far to short for me to do that.

 

[MRG]

And you think this is a US only phenomenon?

I have a few friends from all over the world. They act as it is.