I am friends with a lot of people. I would say that I have more liberal friends than conservative friends, but I have lots of conservative friends too. Some of my friends are moderate.
It is RARE for me to unfriend/unfollow someone because of a viewpoint that person holds. I believe it's good for me to be challenged by ideas different than mine--slightly different to wildly different.
I enjoy reading multiple points of view on controversial topics and I enjoy engaging in dialogue about it. I have started to notice that most people DON'T enjoy dialogue. (Some people do, but it seems like many do not.) Many people love to share their opinion, but would rather not provide audience to anyone else sharing an opinion. Lots of talking, not much listening.
More often than not when someone posts some sort of controversial opinion, or article, or meme, if anyone questions it, or speaks against it, the poster often takes it as a personal affront. OR, when someone posts something inflammatory against the idea and the original poster does not respond in an equally inflammatory manner (or does not respond at all) the commenter begins to take issue on a personal level with the poster.
It seems more and more lately that people are acting surprised when their controversial opinion draws attention from people who disagree with it. I guess it is surprising when it turns out your friend is a troll or an intellectual bully, but if someone just wants to push your thinking, or ask for qualification, isn't that okay?
Isn't the point of social media to interact? To be social? Isn't part of being social, discussing issues that matter to you? It's not about changing minds; it's about exchanging ideas.
