I got a few downvotes around the time Trump got elected[0] because I tried to say here that maybe we should look into why people made this choice instead of being angry with them.
At that time, for days on end it felt a good chunk of users would bulk downvote everyone whos opinion was more nuanced than black and white and most voters are too dumb to understand their own good. (A good chunk of users also upvoted but since I think I write reasonable comments I hope they upvoted me because of that, not just because I seemed more aligned with them :-P )
[0] I still don't like him, and I repeatedly said so then too
> how can you tolerate being around them even if they try to keep that stuff quiet?
Relationships are not defined by someone's beliefs. To take a less emotional relationship, that of coworkers, its healthy if people of different religions can work together even if most religions denigrate unbelievers. Polarization and strict separation of people under different religions has a long history of violence and nations that have people of multiple religions "getting along" is usually seen as a sign of progress.
Going back to relationship within a family, it likely when there is a strong difference in political or religious believes that both parties will view the others view as laughable and ridiculous. There might be someone expressing a religious experience and the other person mentioning Flying Spaghetti Monster. Neither is ground for not having a nice Christmas dinner and reminiscing about childhood memories. Occasionally politics or religion will pop up and in my experience it is either dropped instantly or becomes part of friendly banter.
I believe on the contrary that you can have political beliefs that are philosophical and ethical and way above some group-politics that sees some groups oppressing others.
what I'm saying is that if you believe in universal Healthcare or into the free market, it shouldn't change relationships.
I wish it was Universal Healthcare vs. Free Market, that way we could have rational discussions on most issues.
How am I supposed to square this ideal that politics doesn't need to involve oppressing people, when I see this one friend who's basically being told she can't legally use the bathroom that's right for her?
Like, how is that not oppressing?
It’s not some pious virtue. It’s just what you learn to do as a functioning adult.