I have a friend I've known since childhood. In the last 20 years he has become an off the rails liberal who marches lock step with the progressive narrative. He is so easy to rile up, and I can't help myself. I like to remind him that he voted for Reagan, twice! Earlier this week he and I were discussing ACB, and of course I got the lecture about how she is going to set women's rights back 100 years, will rule against gay marriage, wants women barefoot, pregnant and in the kitchen, blah blah blah.

I told him that he was drinking too much of his party's koolaid and that six months ago he'd probably never even heard of ACB. He immediatelly snapped back "Not true, I have known about Amy Comey Barrett for a long time!" I damn near soiled myself I laughed so hard. I'm still chuckling about it. He actually said "Comey"

This message has been edited. Last edited by: chbibc,

I have a co-worker who is a reasonable who buys the whole network news narrative. Sometimes I'll take the time to talk to him. You can see a glimmer of understanding in his face when I'm on a roll with observation combined with reason. But, he walks away and his brain reboots and he's back to default. That's okay. I have no illusions about "turning" him. It'll never happen. I use the encounters to sharpen my presentation.

quote:

Originally posted by goose5:
I have a co-worker who is a reasonable who buys the whole network news narrative. Sometimes I'll take the time to talk to him. You can see a glimmer of understanding in his face when I'm on a roll with observation combined with reason. But, he walks away and his brain reboots and he's back to default. That's okay. I have no illusions about "turning" him. It'll never happen. I use the encounters to sharpen my presentation.

i have many conversations that are similar to what you describe

i have a career that allows me to engage with many people from all types of socioeconomic backgrounds. 99.9% of the time i avoid controversial topics in conversation.

but every once in a while -- when i think it's appropriate - i will discuss politics in a factual / non-confrontational way. I have had numerous interactions just as you describe.

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I’ve got a real good buddy... he’s not off the rails liberal, but his wife is and she pretty much keeps his balls in her purse. It gets really annoying at times. We don’t discuss politics at all. Biggest problem is that his little girl and ours are friends too. His wife has them quarantined from covid like it’s Ebola. Really quite sad

It's time. Liberal ≠ Friend.

quote:

Originally posted by Doc H.:
It's time. Liberal ≠ Friend.

I've mulled this over many times with regards to my friend and I am conflicted. I grew up with him, known him for 50 years, we share a lot of history. But he and his ilk are an increasing threat to my way of life. If they had their way I would not be allowed to hunt, shoot, carry, operate an internal combustion engine, burn firewood, etc.

I lost a best friend from HS myself this year. I’m a cop. I’m an active duty GWOT vet. Her Dad is black and her mom is white. (Both of them she’s excommunicated years ago, which I didn’t approve of). She lives and works in a big city in OH. She is upper middle class with quite an education and credentials. She full on drank the BLM koolaid and now I’m the enemy. I tried explaining to her the concept of occupational bias (being hated for being blue) and it’s all in my imagination. Her loss.

quote:

Originally posted by dry-fly:
I’ve got a real good buddy... he’s not off the rails liberal, but his wife is. . .

I know the feeling. A good friend for the past 35 years, his wife is very liberal politically, very outspoken, and is arrogantly offended if someone has a different view (ie, she is always the smartest person in the room, how dare anyone have a different view).

quote:

Originally posted by Doc H.:
It's time. Liberal ≠ Friend.

Pretty much.

Since Trump took office in 2017, as the months, years went by, our contact with leftist friends and family basically dried up, largely on their part. And my wife and I don't lose any sleep over it.

quote:

Originally posted by Scoutmaster:
I know the feeling. A good friend for the past 35 years, his wife is very liberal politically, very outspoken, and is arrogantly offended if someone has a different view (ie, she is always the smartest person in the room, how dare anyone have a different view).

You are describing my sister to the T.

quote:

Originally posted by Doc H.:
It's time. Liberal ≠ Friend.

Yep.

I have a few liberal acquaintances that I keep at arms length. But the truth is that at some point you are just going to have to take them for either a figurative (or literal) helicopter ride.

Unfortunately, McCarthy was right. The John Birchers were right. We have to either choose Freedom and America or commies. I've decided to go with Freedom and America.

I have a cousin who is super liberal. We grew up in the same city and were almost like siblings. We don't see each other very often. When we do, we talk about her kids and grandkids.

flashguy

The time for reasoned discourse with those on the left is over.
I think a significate number of Leftists want us disarmed, disenfranchised, dead or imprisoned.
I dont have anything to say to them.

quote:

Originally posted by chbibc:

quote:

Originally posted by Doc H.:
It's time. Liberal ≠ Friend.

I've mulled this over many times with regards to my friend and I am conflicted. I grew up with him, known him for 50 years, we share a lot of history. But he and his ilk are an increasing threat to my way of life. If they had their way I would not be allowed to hunt, shoot, carry, operate an internal combustion engine, burn firewood, etc.

If things get confrontational, I make sure that it's them that decide to cut the cords of the relationship.

The way I look at it, me having a lefty friend, doesn't diminish who I am but, if they think the relationship can't be find some common ground, that's on them. If I go to their place, I make sure I'm not the one instigating or, inserting politics into any discussion but, once it comes up, I'll be the calm voice of reason and pointing out the contradictions to their positions.

Exposing them to all my gun ownership, truck driving, meat eating, off-roading ways, is more influential on them and forces them to deal with the world. I'm perfectly fine having a broad and diverse group of friends, and I remind them, with a gentle push of irony, that diversity is a good thing especially in their lives

Eh, I've got a friend in the same boat. The thing is, Trump's chewing him up like Obama chewed me up so I don't have the heart to take a dump on him.

I've considered starting a thread like this for a long time. My best friend and roommate in college claims he's not a "democrat", but the only news he ever watches is CNN. He lives in Massachusetts and just being there associating with other residents, doesn't help his mindset. The last time I saw him in May, we got into a controversial discussion about the "pandemic". He's swallowed everything they've fed him. During that discussion we touched on the constitution and how some states were clearly overstepping their boundaries. A week or so later, I sent him an interesting article about red flag laws and he replied he agreed with them. I haven't communicated at all with him since. Now I've become the intolerant one. I'm not happy about it, but I am more at peace.

I work in the fossil and nuclear fuel power generation industry and have a few coworker’s and a BIL that works in a profession that is directly connected to the power generation industry, who are full-on and clueless Progressive’s.

Their lives, economic security and prosperity and that of their families are largely and wholly dependent on them working in this field, and they absolutely cannot grasp and come to grips with the fact that if their ‘man’ wins or had their ‘gal’ won four years ago they’d very fucking likely would be SOL!!

They just don’t fucking get, no matter how many times you try to explain the bare basics to them or draw pictures with crayons!

Yes, I believe that ’Progressivism is a mental disorder’.

I had one of those too. He flipped his shit at me when I told him that, no, the courthouse in Portland did not in fact need to be burnt down. This was in July and he hasn't talked to me since.

I’ve lost a lot of friends and family to the dark side since 2016. Some of them gulped the Kool-Aid, and some seem to have been simply unable to escape the bombardment of propaganda and wound up believing enough of it to snap on me in ways that surprised and shocked me.

A little over two years ago, I finally stopped talking to my best friend of nearly twenty years, half my life. His mother-in-law lived with him and his wife and she was a rabid Trump hater who watched CNN all day long. After the bumpstock thing, he started to spout off about how horrible Trump was, and he was a single issue voter and when Trump attacks the 2A is where he gets off the train. Then when we ran that air strike on Syria, he had a big blow up about it being the start of a new war, and I said “no, it won’t be” which pissed him off. He had some comment about “big floppy clown shoes” in reference to the President and when I defended Trump, he attacked me and basically said I was just being a fanboi. I let it go.

Then Trump withdrew forces from Syria and no war happened and I joked with my friend: “Something about big, floppy clown shoes.” He got mad, took his ball and went home, saying he wasn’t going to just sit there and take me throwing shit in his face. I was stunned. It was ok for him to basically say I was a blind fanboi for not believing we were going to war with Syria, but how dare I joke with him about his being fantastically wrong about it when it didn’t come to pass. So we didn’t talk for a week, and I decided that if all our friendship was going to be was fighting about the President with him launching CNN propaganda attacks and getting pissed at me when they turned out to be nothingburgers (and they have been nothing but, before and since), that I didn’t need that in my life. So I stopped replying to his messages online. I used to feel bad about it until I realized he still has my phone number, he knows how to reach me, but he wasn’t tried. I know he reads this forum and he’s even tried to pick a fight with me here sometime back. But my phone hasn’t rang.

Maybe some day, we’ll be friends again, but a lot has changed since then, and more will keep changing. I still believe that Trump being in the Oval Office is the best thing for this country, despite all the criticism. You go to war with the army you have, not the army you want, and this man fights for us. He isn’t perfect, but he’s the best we have and he’s done more good for the country than any president in my lifetime. All the unrest and division In this country isn’t his fault - it’s the fault of the people behaving like absolute children from the highest levels of government on down.

So if you end up reading this, brother, that’s where I’m at. Couldn’t take the negativity anymore and needed to start making some healthier choices for myself. Didn’t want to cut you out, but in the end, I had to.

Sorry for the wall of text. Needed to finally get that out.