America is in the middle of a very contentious election and the subject is brought up often on our social media networks. I suppose it was coming – we support the products we buy on social media, the bands we listen to on social media, the causes we care most about on social media, so why not use social media to promote our favorite candidates?
But it’s almost becoming a hassle these days to keep up with my favorite people on social media. Seems everyone has an opinion – an opinion that’s rigid and intolerant of dissent. I’ve seen some messages along the line of “Please unfollow me if you don’t vote for my favorite candidate.” Or, “Don’t worry – I’ll take pity on you if you vote for a candidate I don’t like.”
Really? Has it come to this? We all have to agree with each other to maintain our relationships? The world will end if I vote for someone different than you? Mayan apocalypse aside, I don’t think that much will change if the person you hate is elected to office.
It always surprises me when people take this all-or-nothing approach. No one is just like us or agrees with everything we have to say. That’s never going to change. We can accept that fact or keep subtracting friends from our list every time they disappoint us by having their own opinion. (How dare they have their own opinion?)
I love differing opinions as well as the people who express them and have the passion to vehemently defend them. I abhor people who are intolerant of other people’s opinions. Disagree with me all you want, but I don’t have to change my mind if I don’t want to. I get one vote just like you do. I can do whatever I want with that vote. If you can’t handle that, then perhaps you should wrap your precious, delicate ego in bubble wrap and Styrofoam peanuts and stay locked safely in your home, wishing the entire world – or even the universe – was more like you.
Grow up people. It’s just an election. You’ll get over it.
