How To Keep Your Friends When You Have Political Differences

In November, those of us in the United States are going to vote for a new president amongst many other amendments. When it comes to politics everyone has different opinions and sometimes those differences can affect relationships and cause people to become mean and lose friends. My friends agree on some political issues, but we don’t agree on a lot of things and that is okay because you don’t have to agree with everyone’s point of view and it’s okay to agree to disagree. When you disagree on politics it is possible to still keep your friends because you don’t have to be mean, and I think that sometimes people don’t know how to disagree with someone and be civil at the same time. I have never shared my political views on my blog and never will because that is not what my blog is about and people knowing who I am voting for is not helpful. I have never lost friends over my political views because we don’t talk about it much and I think it’s silly to end friendships over politics but unfortunately, it is common in an election year. How do you keep your friends when you can’t agree on politics? In this post, I am going to talk about what you can do to keep your friends when you can’t agree on politics.

Don’t talk about politics- There is nothing wrong with sharing your political views with your friends because sometimes we may have similar opinions, but your difference of opinion should not turn into a screaming match that upsets or offends your friend and if it does that should be your cue to change the subject. If you can’t have  civil conversation about politics with your friends, then don’t talk about it because there are a lot of things you can talk about with your friends that have nothing to do with politics. I don’t often talk about my political views with my friends because we don’t have a lot of the same opinions and sometimes it can cause avoidable arguments, and I don’t think losing friends over politics is worth it. If you can’t be nice to your friends when talking about your political views, then talk about literally anything else because you can disagree with someone without making them cry.

Learn to walk away- When you are very passionate about something sometimes people feel like they have to convince everyone they know that their opinion is the right and are unable to let it go until you are both on the same page. There are going to be times when you have a strong opinion on something and there is nothing you can say to your friend that will convince them that your opinion is the right one and sometimes you just have to learn to walk away before things get heated. You don’t always need to have the last word, and it is okay to walk away from a conversation and still have a different opinion than your friend. People sometimes think that they need to convince people that their opinion is the right one, but you don’t have to always be right, and sometimes the best choice is to agree to disagree and walk away. If you can’t agree with your friend sometimes walking away is the best decision because it doesn’t matter what your opinion is, it’s not worth upsetting someone and losing a good friend.

Listen and try and understand their point of view– You don’t have to agree with every opinion your friends have but you can still respect someone and not totally agree with their point of view. When I disagree with my friends, I still listen to them because you are not being a very supportive friend when you cut people off and don’t listen and friendships tend to go south when you don’t let people get a word in. You can be respectful of your friends while disagreeing with them and you don’t have to be dismissive and mean about it because that is what causes friendships to end. I always try to listen to my friends even if we don’t have the same opinions because I will still love my friends even if we vote for different people. Respect and trust are so important for a relationship to work, and you will not have that if you always cutting people off. Listen and try to understand your friend’s points of view because it’s a lot easier to get through to people when you can understand their point of view. There will be times you don’t understand your friend’s point of view and that is okay but if you want to be a supportive friend you should still hear them out!

When you disagree with your friend’s political views it is possible to still keep your friends, and the problem is a lot of people think that if they yell louder it will get their point across but all that is going to do is end friendships. You are going to meet people in life that aren’t going to agree with you and that is okay but that shouldn’t change the fact you still love them. I think it can be good to talk with people who have a different opinion than yours because it can help you think about things in a completely different way and that is how we grow. You can learn a lot from other people who think differently than you because if we all had the same opinion life would be pretty boring. Remember what really matters and don’t lose friends over politics because there is so much misinformation online that it can be very difficult to know who is getting correct information and who is not. I disagree with some of the opinions my friends and family have but that is okay because I am friends with you for your personality, not your political views. How do you keep your friends when you disagree with their political views? If you liked this post, please leave a comment below and share it with your friends.

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