Would you unfriend or blacklist someone over politics?

Yeah that lady parking attendant is pretty good but she’s clearly neurotic if not psychotic and in need of a doctor’s care, whereas the incidents
involving frivolous 911 calls by white people to the police were done with malice, and each given a name:


Babysitting while Black

Swimming While Black

Grilling While Black

Going to College While Black

Eating at Subways While Black

Watching your son play while being a Black Soccer Dad

Staying at an Airbnb While Black

Hanging Out at Starbucks while Black

Selling Bottled Water while 8 Years Old and Black

Playing Golf While Female and Black

Mowing the Wrong Lawn by accident while 12 years Old and Black

 

6

So you think this is a good joke - ‘I'd never fuck a black woman. Bestiality is illegal where I'm from’

I mean it breaks the rules of polite society and has an offensive element and shock value to it.

Why do most people not laugh at a racist joke? Is it just because they are frightened they might be called a racist, because that it’s against the rules of polite society or because they find racism offensive because it is irrational, mean and nasty?

Anyone with a sense of decency and empathy usually doesn’t have to police themselves against been mean and nasty they just don’t be mean and nasty.

And AGAIN I’m not saying you are a racist I’m saying you seem to have a mentality and attitudes that are similar to those of racists that same irrational and unreasonable view towards those you don’t like.

And AGAIN things are not black and white – it’s not you and them - that people have a sense of humour that is the same as yours or they don’t have a sense of humour.

I mean as I’ve pointed out there are those that would find the ‘joke’ about black women and bestiality funny.

LOL But people can be a jerk and a racist, in fact I don’t think I’ve met a racist who wasn’t a jerk.

As I’ve said you mental architecture is so similar to some racists I’ve met because they have said very similar things to me. That they don’t care about others only about their people.

LOL - And when they do and you can’t defend your ideas, you run away

 

And bingo that’s the problem.

My kid has had black babysitters and black nursery staff and since this tangent is not just about racism but bigotry, she has also had gay babysitters.

I remember a few years ago someone telling me that they would never allow their child to be looked after by a ‘queer’ because ‘they’ were all paedophiles. Remember in many places being gay meant you could not adopt and I believe the Georgia Senate has recently approved a bill that would give adoption agencies the ability to decide not to work with LGBTQ couples.

I’ve also heard someone say they would never allow their kid to be alone with a Muslim because they might ‘radicalise’ them, but things are changing.

Thing is in London I often see white people with black kids, black people with white kids, hijab wearing women with kids. its common, its normal, so why would I instantly think the kids were in danger or that it must be a kidnap situation?

My girl now has black teachers, Muslim teachers, gay teachers and white teachers, she also has a mixed bag of friends black Muslim and at least one who identifies as gay and went with her parents to the last Pride March.

There is and has been racism and bigotry in the world all we can do is try and fight against it. How do we do that, by trying to bring people together not by dividing them, the problem is that many mostly on the right, want division, they like division, they can use division.

 

I believe better education for ALL citizens--as in Bernies idea, would preclude/ameliorate the need to remain petty/hateful toward fellow humans who have had no choice as to who they are, where they were born and what color they are. It's such a waste of time to continue the human frailty of hate and exclusion.

 

That's why I wouldn't cut a friend off, for anything, even if I couldn't respect the ideas or views they'd adopted.

I have been thinking more about it, and I think there is obviously a level it could get to where I would step back from someone, not interact.. But "un-friending" someone implies leaving their life in a negative way that let's them know, and that creates division. I'd want to always be there if that friend ever had a change of heart. I wouldn't want to leave someone I called a friend with only other racists (for example) for friends.

 

I've thought about this thread a bit more in terms of racism and bigotry rather than politics and i've come to the conclusion that a situation where i'm friends with a racist or bigot would simply never present itself. I'm picky about who I befriend and i'm generally attracted to people with very big and very kind hearts. Open minded people. Non judgemental, tolerant people. I dont think I would want to be friends with the type of personality type that generally leans towards racism and bigotry in the first place

 

Except for the fact that this thread is about politics as the title states. Even though I agree with you. I can easily have nothing to do with anyone that thinks I'm racist. Easy peasy.

 

I wouldn't do it but it's been done to me.

 

No one has ever thought i was racist so there's another scenario i dont think will ever present itself

 

I won't unfriend or blacklist over politics, but I know of plenty of democrats & liberals that will. I also mention liberals because of a few forums I was a supporting member of, and whenever the elections came around, admin would show thier true colors. A couple of them the admin are from outside the US and one the admin is an "independent voter". They say one thing, and it's full of crap. I correct them providing links to where they can verify that what I'm saying is true, and I get banned. Oh well.
You know, for all of these insults us conservatives get, people claiming that we're so intolerant, I just don't see it. If the democrats and liberals are supposed to be so big in this "I love freedom & I love you" ideology, then why act like they do? You don't just tolerate other races and cultures, but also those that you disagree with.It's a two way street.

 

Not

Wasn’t it you that posted in another thread something about a black man throwing his kids off a bridge in Alabama, while we having a discussion about racism?

As I said then I could find only one incident that fitted the description of these murders and the man responsible was from Alabama and called Lam Luong, he wasn’t black he was of Vietnamese ancestry.

Now as I said at the time it wouldn’t be racism to describe the man as black or Vietnamese as that is a description (although just man would service) but it would be racism to hear a story from Alabama about a murder and assume that the murderer must be black.

 

I'll talk about ANYTHING to anyone as long as it doesn't get to the point of violence. That's my exit point. I have had many acquaintances over the years who I have always accommodated simply to oil the social glue, but few true friends.

 

Logan

Interesting as a leftie I had the completely opposite experience (and many others have told me they had the same)

I tried to go on many US forums and found that I was either banned or shouted out (post that were just abuse not comment) it was only when I got to Hipforums that I was able to talk.

I can’t remember many of their names now but i now last time i looked that many of them are now gone but I think the Free Republic is still going, I think I lasted about three days there.

Where did this happen?

Things are not black and white it’s not a matter of being tolerant and not tolerant, there are degrees, I have friends that do have right wing views that I’m ‘tolerant’ of but I would be ‘tolerant’ toward a racist.

Could you ‘love’ a white supremacist neo-Nazis that was calling for ethnic cleansing?

 

I did have this misfortune once or twice. It's because I like and crack racist jokes from time to time. But its not like with 6-eyed. They actually have to be good/funny.
Some people find provoking and breaking the civil manners (which they see always as something political... sigh) so important that they act (or fool themselves) like its funny or good. Now, some jokes do have humorous merit just because they're so crude, but yeah, depends on the details. Not nearly all of them

 

Ged

So you would ‘tolerant’ as a friend someone all the way up to but not to the point that they become violent?

But would you have as a friend someone that wasn’t violent themselves but tried to incite others to violence? What about someone that ordered others to political violence?

 

If I was involved with someone who was inciting violence I would do my best to defuse it within my physical limitations or notify the law. I am generally a peacemaker and a diplomat.

 

In life you often have to rub along with people you don't really like. Because of circumstances it is not always possible to avoid them. It's a bit like being a social actor. I always try to see the good in people however and perceptually occlude the bad.

 

Ged

Yes but the question is would you be friends with people whose views you found abhorrent?

To ask the same question could you be friends with a white supremacist neo-Nazis that was calling for ethnic cleansing for example?

 

No. That is beyond the pale. I would hope to challenge them through whatever channels available to me and hope to change their mind. Some do you know.

 

To go back into something I was trying to say earlier – I don’t think this is matter of real ‘defriending’ and it’s not something that is black or white.

It seem to be about lefties been more open and willing to discuss differing political views and so talking to a wider range of people they then might ‘defriend’ them if they find that in the end they can’t tolerate their views. But the thing is they never really were ‘friends’ to begin with. Their real friends are going to be people whose ideas they have long since tolerated.

But on the other side right wingers are more likely to just mix with those people whose ideas they tolerate and less likely to ‘befriend’ those with alternative ideas and so ‘defriend’ less often.

I might talk to a racist, discuss their views, ideas and why they have them, but is that ‘befriending’ them? And if I later stop talking to them is that ‘defriending’?