Un-friended an actual, real-life friend today. A classmate from Physician Assistant School.

[Aristus]

She's always been rather softly right-wing. Perfectly pleasant in real life, but her social media profile is awash in fulsome praise for cops, firefighters, military service personnel, the flag, the anthem, etc. etc. etc.

You know, the kind of overcompensation common to people who have never served in the military. (She was a firefighter/EMT before being selected for PA School. And no one has any grievances against firefighters.)

Her other charms were enough for me to keep her on my friends list until now.

This morning, she shared a huffily-self-righteous rant from some asshole who is boycotting the NFL due to the unity demonstration. They didn't kneel during the anthem; the flag wasn't involved. They just displayed their solidarity with people being targeted by murderous, out-of-control racist cops. And the screamers are going berserk, proving it was never about the flag or the anthem.

I quietly un-friended her. She probably won't notice that my posts are missing.

I feel bad. We had a nice, rewarding friendship in school. But some things are more important.

[GeorgeGist]

1. She and her friends won't be missed ...

by the NFL.

[Aristus]

3. Well, I've always had my doubts about the boycott.

I really don't think that the kind of people for whom football is important enough to get outraged over flag-and-anthem stuff are ever really going to give it up.

I mean, what the hell else are they going to do with all that newly-discovered leisure time? Read?

[Harker]

2. It's hard.

I de-brothered a brother in 1992.

Not being exposed to his toxic side is worth missing his good attributes.

You'll be rewarded.

[catbyte]

4. Racists are always going to be offended by people protesting racism.

It was never about anything else. Sorry your friend turned out to be one of them.

[NRaleighLiberal]

6. At 64, I've decided to go through the rest of my life with no republican contact -

no friends, no family - as far as I know. It does come down to values. Anyone - ANYONE - who is one of today's republicans (or part of the suicide cult) must share values with those assholes. No way....life's too short to waste it on such relationships.

[Baitball Blogger]

7. Yup. It's like a chess game.

Yesterday I must have struck a deadly blow, because I got unfriended by someone whose post needed an indulgence of truthful facts. And it all makes sense. I look back at the life circumstances that brought us all together and realize they won't pass the test of time. So I followed suit and unfriended someone else in that circle. This is probably the most honest thing we can do for each other in our late stage of life.

[AmyStrange]

8. I don't blame you, but...

-

I'll never do it.

I have a couple Facebook friends that are outrageously for the trumpet, but I'll never de-friend them, because I need someone from whom I can get the flip side to our side.

I always like to critically analyze my beliefs and assumptions.

Anyway, thanks for posting this.
========

[Aristus]

9. If this was an issue about which both sides had valid views, I would agree.

But the cops committing extra-judicial murder are objectively terrible people. And the only ones who think they aren't are other objectively terrible people.

[yardwork]

10. I've had to do the same. I never miss them.

[Niagara]

11. I unfriended my own mother about 8 weeks ago.

She's a Democratic voter, anti-republican and anti-tRump. Her 90 year old mother, my grandmother lives in a low-income independent apartment. My grandmother votes republican and my mother reminds her all the time that her living situation is the result of Democratic policies.



All of a sudden my mother is sharing right-wing memes and talking points from tRumpanzee's. These are not people that are on her friends list, it's just memes or talking points that originally came from their page that she picked up from somewhere. I really have no idea where.


I took several screenshots of some of the things that she was sharing for my own reference. It was awful and it makes me sick to my stomach. I still text with her, I'm just not friends with her on FB anymore. I don't understand exactly what's going on and I don't live within close proximity to her to be able to talk to her in person.


I wanted to let you know that you're not alone in these bat-shit crazy times.

[Aristus]

12. Thank you.

Just knowing one is not alone in difficult times helps tremendously. It's why DU exists...

[Niagara]

15. You're welcome, Aristus.

Absolutely. I'm extremely thankful for DU.

[Aristus]

16. For good times, and for bad. "We win together, we lose together,

we celebrate and we mourn together. And victories are sweetened and defeats are softened because we did them together."

[qwlauren35]

13. If you want to

you can still be friends in real life. Just limit your conversation to safe topics. Dogs, personal ailments, weather...

[Aristus]

14. We don't see each other very often.

We don't live near each other, we are pursuing different paths in medicine, and she's a newly-wed. So it's not like we have a lot of time for in-person stuff.

If I don't meet her again, I'll be fine. If we do meet, at a class reunion or whatever, I'm sure we'll be cordial.

[SharonClark]

17. I blocked my nephew's widow today. Her whole family

are trumpers and she posted pictures of their trump boat parade on Saturday.

[Lady Freedom Returns]

19. Welcome to the club!

Many people are showing sides of themselves that we never knew they had.
The orange slug is bringing out the worse in many.

[Paladin]

20. Don't feel bad. It's way past time for right-wingers to pay for their stupidity. (nt)

[Mad_Dem_X]

21. I unfriended someone about a week ago

I know him as a friend of my husband's, a retired cop. He kept posting pro-Trump stuff...on *my* timeline. Finally, I just said, "F this," and unfriended him. It was a relief.