In the spirit of rifting and drifting... If you're losing friends over shifting position about science, economics or somesuch then you're doing it wrong.

I've maintained close friendships to people who've gone literal flat-earth for several year spans. It's not the content that drives rifts, it's delivery. After work bar chats with friends are even better when the friends disagree, I find.

If you can't hold a pleasant adversarial conversation, I reckon you can't be good at skepticism. The two are linked.