A friend of mine, in the course of a semi-professional context, was chatting to a similarly ranked fellow professional, when she was told “… unless, of course, you like [a politician], in which case, we cannot be friends.”
They meant it, apparently. Exchanges like this are becoming far too common these days – the idea is that we should be making decisions on who to hang out with, have a beer with, even to speak to, based on their loyalty to one or another political person or belief. The whole idea is nuts. Basing our friendships on politics – an everchanging, ever-disappointing, ever-silly (when not scary) feature of the social geography – is ridiculous.
I’m not talking about toxic beliefs that may have political implications; racism, anti-Semitism, and the other ugly “-isms” that accompany a base hatred of other humans are – of course – to be avoided and despised in any situation, but those are diseases, not political preferences.
