I try VERY hard to understand both sides of the political table. I know which side I'm on, but I like to respect the opinions of the other side. And, silly me, I try to understand their opinions.
When I try to have any sort of conversation with the other side, it almost always starts with the "oh ya well your candidate does XYZ". I'm not trying to be argumentative. I just want to understand. And I've come to believe that if you don't believe like them, they don't want to explain why they believe the way they do. Maybe they don't even know.
I've kept most my far LEFT and far RIGHT friends. I appreciate their opinions and for the most part, I ignore the crazy. Sometimes I can't help myself and I try to argue with them...both sides. It never ends well.
In all this, I've never unfriended any one on Facebook from either side. And as far as I know I've not been unfriended. Today that changed. And I'll admit I'm a little sad and a little happy.
I did the unfriending. It's a friend from a life long ago (high school) and she doesn't even live in the US. I'm unsure if she's a US citizen, but I know she hasn't lived here for years, decades. She has very strong beliefs towards Trump. And I respect that.
Recently I posted on FB asking BOTH sides to be aware of disinformation and misinformation. Many bad actors are pushing bad info out there. Most of it isn't true and little research shows you that. I've noticed one side doesn't like to do any research or provide any sources for their words. Ahem.
Anyhow, this "friend" responded with a video from Instagram where it was showing a woman trying to vote on an electric voting machine and it wasn't allowing her to vote for Trump.
Ok, let's look into this. Because I'm sure there's NO WAY that would pass as a major situation without us hearing about it. A simple search on sites of media that are middle ground shows that yes this did happen. The voting machine malfunctioned. The woman brought it to the attention of voting officials there. They closed that machine and gave her a ballot for her to fill in manually. She even says in many of these articles that she was impressed with how they handled it. Turns out it was a faulty machine.
What the impression this "friend" was trying to imply was that the democrats were stealing the vote again. When I asked what her point was, she commented as such. THEN it got personal.
She doesn't know me. She knows what she sees on FB. I don't post anything political and have never said I'm one side or the other. She assumed it. She made a comment about me being "blindfolded".
That was all it took. What pissed me off, is her post had NOTHING to do with what I was saying. I was asking people to think before they post or believe anything. And for her to respond with an instagram without any context was just weird. And yet, again, she wouldn't open her little mind to have an adult conversation.
That's the most frustrating around people who are on a certain side of the political arena. You can't have an adult conversation with them. They ALWAYS seem to bring their argument with the "Oh ya well..." and that's not what I'm after. I want to understand. I want to listen to why you vote the way you do. I may not agree, but let's at least be civil. It appears the orange man they follow, who spits out hate with every word, means that they too cannot be open and interested in understanding, listening and learning.
Vote! Get out and vote! That's all I can say.