So, as I mentioned earlier, I sat up half the night last night talking politics with an old friend. The conversation — which occasionally flirted with becoming an argument but thankfully never went too far in that direction — was pretty standard liberal vs. conservative stuff and isn’t worth detailing here. (Not that I could reconstruct much of it anyhow; one consequence — or perhaps it’s a blessing — of having these conversations at two in the morning is that they end up looking pretty hazy the next day.) But one thing my friend said struck me as noteworthy, because it was so unexpected and, from my point of view, so very odd.
My friend said that he and others he knows who share similar views often feel like they don’t dare express their opinions, for fear of offending people, starting an argument, and/or being unfairly judged. Now, I completely understand and sympathize with that feeling. As a self-identified liberal* living in the reddest state in the Union, I experience it to one degree or another just about every day. It’s the reason why I rarely blog about politics or controversial topics, because I know the bulk of my audience doesn’t agree with me and I don’t want to pick fights with my friends (or, indeed, with anyone; I don’t need the elevated blood pressure and anxiety that comes with it). But here’s the thing that I found so strange about my friend’s comment: his opinions are basically the same as those of roughly 75 percent of this state’s population. In other words, the overwhelming majority of people around these parts are on his side. So realistically just who does he think he’s going to offend? Why should he of all people feel insecure about speaking up?
I don’t mean to make light of what he said or invalidate his feelings in any way — if he feels intimidated or inhibited, that’s what he feels and it’s not my place to say he’s wrong for feeling that way. And perhaps I misunderstood what he was getting at; maybe he was just saying what my mom has always told me, which is that it’s impolite and generally a bad idea to discuss religion and politics openly. Maybe his job places him in situations where he’s more likely to find himself interacting with that dissenting minority and he’s had to learn to keep his mouth shut to avoid problems (welcome to my world). But given the overall demographics of our environment here… well, it just struck me as a very odd thing to say…
* For what it’s worth, my friend told me he doesn’t think I’m as liberal as I believe myself to be. I suppose I should take that as a form of compliment.
