Fantastique wrote:
No worries, I wouldn't. The last time we met, I think the only thing related to politics that came up was when I stated that "taxes suck" (because I finally had to pay some) and Eturnal's face was this:.
The problem is, the way I would read into that, is that you can't really be friends with this person unless you enable his antisocial behavior by sanctioning it.
This is someone who owes
literally everything he has in this world to other people's taxes and now thinks it is somehow unfair he is compelled to contribute as well.
I take friendship seriously, and I believe friendship is based on respect. That is an attitude that is simply impossible to respect.
I don't believe that people's opinions attitudes etc are discrete or arbitrary. I don't believe someone who has inherently selfish and antisocial beliefs can be a moral person.
That's not to say I feel it necessary my friends have to agree with me with everything, but I do have to feel I have a decent level of respect their reasons for believing what they do.
People accuse me of being some sort of sociopath. I believe that is projection, and I have strong reasons for so believing. It is clear that I am inclined to make moral choices and be generally truthful and do what I believe is right regardless of what I have to gain or not. Such is the antithesis of antisocial behavior.
All the people (without exception) who complain about my perceived sociopathy are without exception individuals whose behavior and attitudes etc seem to diverge wildly depending on how they benefit or whether others approve. In other words, classically antisocial behavior. And what they seem to really not like is when that behavior is questioned or impeded.
The same people who bitch about the perceived moral decline of America and all the things they don't like in society seem curiously quick to turn to perceived voices of authority in that society (or at least the particular ones they like to listen to) to complain about my character. Isn't that ludicrously hypocritical?
So who's got the bigger problem, the guy who makes the choice to distance himself from a society that is obviously troubled, or the guy who bitches about the BS while selectively buying into it?
My thinking I'm better than others. Does anyone on this forum actually think that they are no better than anyone else? So what is really the problem...that I'm a sociopath...or that I'm simply more honest than most people and this makes others feel guilty? Isn't that a classic case of projection/inversion?