This is actually kind of a thing for me right now. One of my co-workers is very political and likes to discuss political stories he sees on the internet... and by doing so often bashes the political party I happen to identify with. He has no idea how I vote and certainly didn't bother to find out before he started going on these political rants, and I have yet to tell him "So you DO know I totally didn't vote the same way you did last election, right?" I'm not exactly offended by the things he has to say, but the language and tone he uses is so judgmental and... angry... it bothers me.
But at the same time it's nothing new. I've been friends with people before who go on long anti-religious rants - almost always anti-Christian specifically rather than just general religion - filled with hate and venom, and when I pipe up (or point out again, as some people forget repeatedly...) that I'm Christian, I get "well I don't mean YOU" (which is like if I were standing in front of a friend from Korea and start ripping on Asians and then said 'well I don't mean YOU.' Yeah, my comments are still offensive and bigoted.) or my personal favourite, "You're a Christian? But you're so COOL!" (because being Christian and cool are mutually exclusive.)
And really what's most amusing/sad is... for so long I've known a lot of my friends do not vote the same way I do. I don't judge them for it, it doesn't change how I feel about them as friends, I really don't care. And yet I know that if some of them ever found out how *I* vote, they wouldn't want to be my friend anymore. Because they are SO convinced that the other side/Christians/Jews/people with green eyes/cat people are SO MEAN and SO STUPID and SO BIGOTED and SUCH JERKS.
Normally I love irony... not so much in this case.
But at the same time it's nothing new. I've been friends with people before who go on long anti-religious rants - almost always anti-Christian specifically rather than just general religion - filled with hate and venom, and when I pipe up (or point out again, as some people forget repeatedly...) that I'm Christian, I get "well I don't mean YOU" (which is like if I were standing in front of a friend from Korea and start ripping on Asians and then said 'well I don't mean YOU.' Yeah, my comments are still offensive and bigoted.) or my personal favourite, "You're a Christian? But you're so COOL!" (because being Christian and cool are mutually exclusive.)
And really what's most amusing/sad is... for so long I've known a lot of my friends do not vote the same way I do. I don't judge them for it, it doesn't change how I feel about them as friends, I really don't care. And yet I know that if some of them ever found out how *I* vote, they wouldn't want to be my friend anymore. Because they are SO convinced that the other side/Christians/Jews/people with green eyes/cat people are SO MEAN and SO STUPID and SO BIGOTED and SUCH JERKS.
Normally I love irony... not so much in this case.