OT: Does knowing someone's political standing change your view on them?

mystixboi1

mystixboi1

Kick Henry Jackassowski
We can delete this thread if it's against the rules... and I don't want people to get into a pissing match about their beliefs, but does learning about someone's political/religious beliefs change how you feel about them?

For example, say if you hear that a baker won't make a cake for a gay couple because it's against their religious beliefs.

Or if you find out that your favorite singer just performed at the Democratic Convention.

or if you hear that your favorite actor wants to deport every immigrant..

Does it change your perception?

Do you no longer buy a cake from that bakery?

Listen to that artist's music?

Watch that person's movies?

Well?
 
I normally try not to let politics color my perception of people.

Of course, when they are blathering loud mouth idiots about it, I have a hard time enjoying their company. The same can be said about any fanatic type of person, whether they are fanatical about politics, religion, diet, exercise, whatever.
 
As far as 'famous people' I could care less. Less than half of what you read, good or bad, is actually true anyways.

As far as personal friends, I'm agree with Mark. As long as they are not total asshats when I am around it really does not matter. I have friends that are politically and socially both to the left of me and to the right of me (politically speaking).
 
Only if their political views are bonkers. It’s hard to take people seriously if the honestly advocate craziness like Maoism or 9/11 conspiracy theories.
 
I tend to not want to know too much about the personal lives of actors/musicians/athletes/etc. It goes against our culture that seems to thrive on who's dating whom or who tweeted this and that.... 95% of the time it's just disappointing to me. You really like someone's work but you find out that they're a shallow twatwaffle and it just bums you out.

I can't even listen to Ted Nugent on the radio anymore. I grew up on his music but... ugh....

With actors, I'd rather see them as their character with each movie... with some it get's difficult because instead of seeing them as a character you say "... and then Markie Mark figured out that all the trees on earth were trying to kill us... or help the Apes take over... or the robots... or something...." Rare exceptions are people like Chris Pratt who I just want to have a beer with and as long as his characters are funny or kick ass then I'm in. As soon as he stretches his range and becomes a serial killer it'll freak me the fuck out (IE: Robin Williams).
 
This gives me an opportunity to throw something out there to discuss.

I think the current forms of communication create more intense group identification than in the past. The variety of channels in television, special-interest web sites, and social media groups allow people to associate mostly with people who agree with them.

I don't think it's a good or bad thing but it does seem to affect how we interact.

Within a like-minded group, one way to gain prestige is to take your commitment further than anyone else in the group. It goes from "I don't like this" to "I'm going to boycott them" to "I'm going to picket the guy's house" to "I'm going to burn it down".

We've seen people publicly shamed and threatened because they ran afoul of a twitter mob.

Before you think it can't happen on MWGL, let me just say: "Gibson"

I don't think the technology itself is to blame. Rather, it is amplifying something that seems to be a part of human nature. We sometimes refer to these modern-day pariahs as being "drawn and quartered" or "publicly flogged". The metaphor is valid. In centuries past, humans did the exact same thing with even more violence to anyone who strayed too far from the herd.

My hope is the generations coming behind us will be more aware of this and better able to resist it.

My fear is they will be so indoctrinated they will never question it.
 
Yes, of course, absolutely.

But that doesn't mean that I will automatically label this person as the human equivalent of Michael Bay's remake of The Godfather Part II. Plenty of room for grey shades.
 
Mark Wein said:
No. It's how they behave around me that matters. I could care less about someones politics if they are a decent person.
Click to expand...

Prages said:
I normally try not to let politics color my perception of people.

Of course, when they are blathering loud mouth idiots about it, I have a hard time enjoying their company. The same can be said about any fanatic type of person, whether they are fanatical about politics, religion, diet, exercise, whatever.
Click to expand...

Denverdave said:
As far as 'famous people' I could care less. Less than half of what you read, good or bad, is actually true anyways.

As far as personal friends, I'm agree with Mark. As long as they are not total asshats when I am around it really does not matter. I have friends that are politically and socially both to the left of me and to the right of me (politically speaking).
Click to expand...

+1 To the above - be a decent person, and don't yammer away/shove your beliefs in my face if I don't want to hear them, and I'm fine with you. Unfortunately, we've all encountered people either personally, or through the media, who don't seem to want to follow this rule. My brother tried playing "Jr. Preacher" at family gatherings some years back, to the annoyance of everybody else (he felt we "all needed saving"). It got so bad, that my dad finally had to read him the riot act, stating that either him and my sister-in-law cool it with the preaching, or they wouldn't be welcome at family get-togethers anymore. He did cut it out, but still occasionally seems to feel the need to "instruct" everybody in the family of the "error of their ways." Unfortunately, since he's my brother, I have to put up with it to an extant (although there have been cases, where I've just walked away from him, when he's started to exhibit that kind of behavior).

My friend (who lives out of state), calls me on Fridays to keep in touch (since I'm on vacation today, I'm debating calling her this afternoon, rather than having her call me tonight, keeping me on the phone until who knows when). She's a decent person, but a conspiracy nut (she listens to Alex Jones daily online, and thinks he's the greatest), and also thinks Ron Paul is the bomb. Oh yeah, and she gets kind of New Age at times. As a result of these three things, I usually have keep an eye on keeping the phone conversations from veering off into politically oriented, or health related topics, since they have a tendency to veer off into never-never land, when I talk to her. Otherwise I get annoyed, and occasionally angry - especially when my friend responds to my annoyed responses, by saying that she's just trying to "remove the blinders from my eyes", which has occasionally in the past, resulted in me hanging up the phone on her.

As for celebs - well we have no control over their outbursts, and since most of the time, IMO, they don't have any expertise, in the topic they are spouting off about, I just ignore them.
 
I guess I have some pretty strong moral convictions about certain issues that have become political hot topics these days. When I find out that somebody has views that are opposite mine I guess it does change the way I think about them. Usually not for the better. I can't help it. Especially when I know that there's no way to convince them to see my side of the issue.
 
USian Pie said:
This gives me an opportunity to throw something out there to discuss.

I think the current forms of communication create more intense group identification than in the past. The variety of channels in television, special-interest web sites, and social media groups allow people to associate mostly with people who agree with them.

I don't think it's a good or bad thing but it does seem to affect how we interact.

Within a like-minded group, one way to gain prestige is to take your commitment further than anyone else in the group. It goes from "I don't like this" to "I'm going to boycott them" to "I'm going to picket the guy's house" to "I'm going to burn it down".

We've seen people publicly shamed and threatened because they ran afoul of a twitter mob.

Before you think it can't happen on MWGL, let me just say: "Gibson"

I don't think the technology itself is to blame. Rather, it is amplifying something that seems to be a part of human nature. We sometimes refer to these modern-day pariahs as being "drawn and quartered" or "publicly flogged". The metaphor is valid. In centuries past, humans did the exact same thing with even more violence to anyone who strayed too far from the herd.

My hope is the generations coming behind us will be more aware of this and better able to resist it.

My fear is they will be so indoctrinated they will never question it.
Click to expand...

True. The question is though, when do we reach a point where the espousing publicly, unpopular views, quits being the right to express your presonal beliefs, and enters into the realm of "hey, you're starting to annoy me, be quiet"?
 
Prages said:
I normally try not to let politics color my perception of people.

Of course, when they are blathering loud mouth idiots about it, I have a hard time enjoying their company. The same can be said about any fanatic type of person, whether they are fanatical about politics, religion, diet, exercise, whatever.
Click to expand...
Middle pickups? Harp players?
Solicitors?

Where do we draw the line?

;-)
 
mystixboi1 said:
We can delete this thread if it's against the rules... and I don't want people to get into a pissing match about their beliefs, but does learning about someone's political/religious beliefs change how you feel about them?

For example, say if you hear that a baker won't make a cake for a gay couple because it's against their religious beliefs.

Or if you find out that your favorite singer just performed at the Democratic Convention.

or if you hear that your favorite actor wants to deport every immigrant..

Does it change your perception?

Do you no longer buy a cake from that bakery?

Listen to that artist's music?

Watch that person's movies?

Well?
Click to expand...

Except for the singer, these specific examples would change my perception of those people.

They are either breaking the law or sticking their nose in where it doesn't belong...and being dicks about it.
If your job is to make cakes, make the fucking cake. It doesn't matter who is buying it as long as someone is paying your advertised or quoted price.
If you're an actor, you have a right to your opinion on any topic, but don't use your position in the public eye as a platform. If you support a specific cause, be active in that support and let your actions speak for themselves. People will figure out whether you're a good or bad person.

As for the singer, it's a gig. Whether they actually support that particular political party or not really has no bearing on their talent as a singer, nor should it affect your enjoyment of their performance.

In the general sense of the question, I don't let it bother me at all but as many have said above, if someone is being obnoxious about it, I don't enjoy their company so much.
That would be true for someone that supports the same political party as I do. So, it's not so much about politics. It's more about whether or not they're an asshole.
 
I guess it depends on the length and quality of relationship with the other person. Public figures and businesses - I don't really give a crap, but if one of them says something I really don't agree with I will avoid their work if possible. Friends, family, etc - the relationship comes first, and discussion can be good, but I usually don't bring up hot-button stuff because I don't care for confrontation.

Work contacts - smile and nod and use the 5,4,3,2,1 anxiety coping mechanism. :embarrassed:
 
dodgechargerfan said:
In the general sense of the question, I don't let it bother me at all but as many have said above, if someone is being obnoxious about it, I don't enjoy their company so much.
That would be true for someone that supports the same political party as I do. So, it's not so much about politics. It's more about whether or not they're an asshole.
Click to expand...

My thoughts exactly. Too bad social media, 24hr news and political pundits have turned too many people into assholes.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top