How should we talk to our friends?

I find that I’m much more apt to use profanity when talking to my friends than to strangers.

I don’t get the dilemma. Unless you feel you profane too much with your friends.

I would suggest that if you want your friends to remain friends, and unless you and your friends are those rare folks who don’t let vehement disagreement impact their relationships, the best guidance is to not talk politics with your friends.

The climate has become so toxic, so divisive that there are now studies out there showing just how segregated people have become along political lines.

Now, if the question is “how do we reverse this trend”…that’d be an interesting subject to consider.

I mean, grab em by the p is friends talk.

I would say that different friends have different triggers, and being friends, you probably have some sense of what those are. I have one friend I avoid talking to about anything medical, and especially about vaccines. I have a couple of friends I avoid talking politics with, and others who enjoy talking politics, even if (maybe especially if) we disagree. I have a friend who had a couple of still births, and I avoid bringing up anything that might remind her of that…

My ex (white) was in law enforcement and had his opinions about BLM. I’m your typical gay liberal (asian), but I’m both for BLM and against defund the police. We’re also friends with my ex’s ex (white) from 20 years ago (who I can assume is semi liberal), and we’re friends with his fiance who’s black.

We haven’t killed each other yet whenever the issue of BLM and defund the police came up (which was a lot in the past year). Most people know how to be cordial in person.

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:iatp: That’s really the destructive part of social media. All the social interactions without the whole in-person not being a jerk senses

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I agree wholeheartedly. It’s too easy to be a turd in type. It’s hard to do it in person.

I have a lot more grace with and faith in my friends than I do with people on the internet, including your lot.

When my husband and I started dating, he was a liberal and I was a conservative. Thankfully we agree on a lot more now. And had we met over the internet instead of IRL, I doubt we would have made it.

I can tell you’re out of practice with social interaction. From what I’ve seen, many people do not find this difficult at all.

keep your friends close, and your enemies closer