My midlife crisis: I am shedding friends :(

I have always appreciated the two-word phrase that M used to describe me: Gregarious hermit.

From my school days, I have always been that way.  Very few friends, and not open to many.  The older I got, the more difficult it became--as it is for most people--to make new friends.  But, despite the odds, I made a few friends.

But, over the past two-plus years, I have been shedding friends.  All because they revealed their true colors as fascist sympathizers!

Political differences have never bothered me.  After all, we are different from one another, and our views of the world won't always converge.  In broad political discussions, we will, of course, have disagreements on the appropriate roles for the government and the market.  This gets reflected in our understanding of, and the favored solutions to, problems such as homelessness.  Our respective understandings of humanity might lead us to differ on how we ought to respond to humanitarian crises around the world.

All those differences are fine with me.  Those differences have always been fine with me.  Which is why I have never had problems interacting with people whose political preferences were not anywhere close to mine.

So, yes, we can certainly differ on whether or not one should hand out money to the person the street corner.  We can differ on whether churches or the government should take care of the homeless.  We can differ on whether high income earners ought to be taxed in order to provide for such services.  I will be less than pleased if others did not agree with me, but that never ruined friendships.

But, it is another thing if the friend turned out to be a Nazi sympathizer.  Or supports a Nazi sympathizer. If the friend votes for people who demonize Muslims.  If the friend consistently makes jokes with blacks and watermelons as the punchline. If the friend actively defends supremacist sentiments.

Source

Many friends of the old days revealed their dark sides.  And I have been shedding them.  Our lives are short, and I would prefer to die with as few regrets as possible.  I do not want a tortured mind struggling at the end over the mistakes that I have made.

This blog used to attract a few comments; the lack of comments over the past few months is a reflection of friendships that did not pass the devil test.

Two more friends are now practically off my metaphorical Christmas list.  I wrote in an email recently:

I would love to be there. However, it is highly likely that a significant number of attendees--perhaps even an overwhelming number--will be ardent trump supporters. As a brown-skinned non-Christian immigrant, looking like an Arab Muslim and with a funny accent, I will not be at ease among a trump crowd.

It is an event that is important to them. But, ...

I am now more of a hermit than ever before!  But, that is okay too.