Life on the outside

Posted by Michael at 12:18 am on November 19, 2008 in Politics

It gets old being the contrarian after awhile. Somehow I’ve managed to assemble a group of friends that disagree with me on 99% of my political opinions. Ultimately whether or not people agree with me or not is unimportant so long as they respect me and any other person that disagrees with them rationally. Dissent should never be offensive, but that’s exactly what it is to a majority of the people I deal with on a day to day basis.

It puts me in an endlessly frustrating position of either just trying to ignore people who constantly villify people who disagree with them or fighting a futile uphill battle with them. I almost always choose the former, which leaves me with so much pent up frustration that I can’t really do the latter very effectively the few times I choose to do it.

So where that leaves me is just having to avoid most of my friends. It sucks, but you can only absorb so much hate before you just start to give up on people.

I have a few friends who are in the same boat as I am, but disappointingly a few of them broke ranks and decided to just go with the majority. I suspect because it was easier. Defecting over to them you’re treated like some kind of enlightened returning hero, which beats the hell out of being shit on constantly. I understand the temptation, I don’t fault them for it but I’m disappointed to see people I respect abandon their ideals. It leaves me feeling pretty lonely.

It’s tiring feeling like most of your friends view you as an enemy first and a friend second, but its doubly so when what few allies you have disappear.

The reality I of course have to face is that I’m betraying my values and positions just as much as they are through my sins of omission. I know that on some level I have a responsibility to stand up for what I believe in and speak my mind regardless of the consequences.

Ultimately that’s what I’m going to do, I just need a little time to recover from having the shit kicked out of me by people I care about for a solid couple of years.

Tags: Friends, INTERNET, Politics