When the heck did all my high school classmates turn into raving religious wackos?

[MissMillie]

Seriously.... it's like they've all become Stepford adults... or something.

[seemunkee]

1. It's easier than thinking

Makes me think of the Mark Twain story The Mysterious Stranger. The angel tells someone that another person will either die or be happy for the rest of their life. The person of course chooses that the other person be happy. I forget the circunstances but the angel causes events to unfold so the person has brain damage.

[Kali]

2. I think it happened in the late 80's

guilt for having fun in the 70's and for giving up on that fun to enter the world of greed

[Aristus]

3. I know; Facebook can be disappointing that way. So many of my Facebook friends

are people from high school who were anti-establishment or iconoclastic in some way. When they friend me, I check their profile to see how they turned out, and a lot of them are "strongly Republican" or "pro-life" or libertarian (which basically means freedom for me and no one else...) Like I said: disappointing...

[Dogtown]

4. The fashion of the Christ....n/t

[Zomby Woof]

5. My closest friends are fine

The three I have stayed in touch with continuously since high school are all progressive or moderate liberals - which probably explains why they were friends in the first place, and contact has been easy to maintain. FB has made that even more enjoyable and easier.

But some high school acquaintances have popped up with friend requests - mainly to pad their friends list I suppose, or as a function of mid-life induced nostalgia - and most of them have turned out to be conservative/fundie dolts. But I went to high school in a very conservative city, so I think I came out ahead with the small handful of real friends who are like-minded politically or otherwise. I am thinking for where I came from, that's par for the course to be rife with idiots.

Regardless of your school's demographics, it's sad either way. Many of these people who have friended me were likeable in high school, and I had no problem welcoming their requests. But I keep them on an 'acquaintances' list, where they have very limited access to my profile, and I hide their news feed.

[jobycom]

6. They must have joined the same club as mine.

Sad to see.

[abq e streeter]

7. I'm lucky; only had to "unfriend" 2 people that have turned into Palinistas

I'd say at least 85-90% of people I know from way back have internalized what they learned from the 60's and 70's, and wouldn't be republicans if you put a gun to their head.