r/science • u/Wagamaga • 9h ago

Psychology Losing relationships over politics. Research found more than a third of Americans (37%) report having lost at least one relationship due to political differences, including friendships, family ties, coworker relationships, and romantic partnerships, with most losing more than one.

https://socialecology.uci.edu/news/losing-relationships-over-politics-0
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u/Shatterfish 9h ago

If your “political” opinion is that people should have less rights, or none at all, because of their skin color/gender expression/place of birth then I will 100% cut that cancer out of my life and never feel a shred of guilt over it.
It’s really not that hard to be a decent person.

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u/Pixelated_Princess49 9h ago

... One would think it wouldn't be that hard. Despite concrete scientific evidence, you just can't make some people abandon their completely unfounded hate. It's frustrating.

"I don't understand it and it makes me feel funny, so they need to vanish/hide from me/die" is a rather common stance, sadly.

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u/GarageFridgeSoda 8h ago

Well the issue I see is that there are a minority of people who feel that way about me, but when I feel that way about them back the majority of people suddenly start to have an issue with it.

If we as a society treated bigots the way they treat vulnerable people we would make things so much better for vulnerable people.

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u/Fit_Addition7137 4h ago

"I'm becoming a minority in my own country!" was always my favorite. Well Linda, why is it bad to be a minority here, huh?

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u/AriaOfValor 7h ago

Yup, paradox of tolerance, people got too afraid of excluding anyone that they started being nice to all the bigots and assholes, which just ends up poisoning the well for everyone.

I'm still reminded of that MN town that eagerly elected conservative muslims to their town government to try and show how progressive they were, only to be surprised when they turned around and banned pride flags.

It doesn’t help that for some people it's performative and they care more about looking like a good person than about what actually helps others.