I had a group of friends that I spent most my sophomore year with at a very liberal east-coast college. Most of the friends in the group studied international relations and we frequently discussed politics. As I got to know them, I realized that we differed on a lot of things. Two of them told me that they wanted to join the CIA as analysts. Now I'm not a poli-sci major, but I know enough about history to know that the CIA has done and continues to do some evil shit. Now I do have a bunch of moderate leaning friends, but it felt different talking with this group of friends they had good understand of history and political philosophy. One of these guys, let’s call him Matt, was a huge Aaron Sorkin fan and Blairite (weirdly obsessed with British politics for some reason). Matt also wanted to work in political finance. I thought we were bonding over are mutual interest in the space related stuff until he showed me a Aaron Sorkin mini-series on the Apollo Space Program. And then proceed to tell me that he like the Apollo Missions because of all the political wonkery involved. The tipping point in our friendship was when he told me, at a BLM protest, that he was happy to finally get his "liberal street cred". Liberal wonks are some of the worst people to be friends with if you genuine care about making life better for people.
My girlfriend at the time was a huge Joe Biden supporter, her mom worked at the World Bank. She would often jokingly say that I was a communist and would side with the group of friends on domestic and foreign policy issues. She started fighting with me when I explained to her that the public health think-tank that she was applying to was just a health care lobbying group. This hurt me because I was really in love with her at the time, but I could see that she wasn’t open to critically challenge the world around her. She also got upset that I owned a gun, as many people from the south do. And when I decided to switch my studies from finance to computers science, she wasn’t supportive. Anyway, I broke up with her later and stopped talking with group of friends.
Anyway, I really wish I could meet some cool people with socialist outlook that are down to crack a cold one and do some grilling.
our political views are an expression of our moral values, most of the time
so yea, they do affect my relationships, i have no room in my life for people who have no empathy
I've been slowly coming to this realization over the last year or two, and it's been incredibly difficult to deal with. People who I've known my whole life including my parents who I love dearly, it's jarring to think that their shitty beliefs about politics is actually a reflection of their values and it really makes me re-evaluate things.
Like, the one thing I've noticed about right-leaning friends and family members is when it comes down to it, how much they just fucking hate poor people. No compassion, no empathy. Just... poor people deserve everything they get and we should help them less than we do already.
Those people are thieves and they're guilty and they know it and they believe predation is normal. Are you cool with them not making into the Promised Land when the revolution comes?
edit: not intended as a threat or call to action or anything like it, but going prodigal and estranging yourself from them is an option worth considering, and it seems to me like they're all but asking you to stand by on party night by being so bourgeois.
Even fascists will get exactly what they deserve: four walls and a hot meal. These people are shitty because of their material conditions, socialism won't just be a judgement day for shitty people. We'll just hope living in a better society will make their grandkids better people