Dumping friends over politics or religion

[Thal]

Ah the old gender is a "social construct" argument, I guess taste is also a social construct then? What about gravity? You're defending a loosing point if you're going to argue men and women are identical but feel free to make a thread about it. 

I remember the first time I met an openly gay person and I was legitimately scared to sleep in the same room with him because I was fearful of being taken advantage of

(emphasis on "the first time")

Although I love how you jumped at it as if "See?!! Women live in fear of men all their lives!!!". It's natural to feel anxious in new unfamiliar situations, however if a woman lives in fear of men her whole life she is as mentally ill as a cuckoo on a popsicle.

1) Yes, taste is influenced by social construct (assuming you by "taste" mean people's preferences in colours, clothes, films, music, etc). What we like is individual (with nothing to do with gender), but what we as individuals tend to prefer is deeply rooted in what our surroundings have been feedings us since we're babies. There is nothing that connects a vagina and uterus to the preferance pastel colours, for example, and we tend to prefer things that are familiar (so if you've grown up with pink clothes and toys, you're more likely to keep liking those colours). 

2) Could it be that you emphasize "the first time" because nothing bad happened, and not half of your friends have stories about being sexually harassed or assaulted by gay men? 

3) You're paraphrasing and exaggerating with your sarcasm. If that's how you interpreted what I wrote, I guess you didn't take enough time to reflect on it.  

4) If a woman lives in fear (btw what level of fear are we talking about here?) of men her whole life she probably has some experiences from her past that's given her a good reason for it.

[ErGingerbreadMandude]

"1) Yes, taste is influenced by social construct."

Nope. What I meant was that the same argument you use for your gender is a social construct argument can be said about the taste you get in your mouth when you put food in it.

"2) Could it be that you emphasize "the first time" because nothing bad happened, and not half of your friends have stories about being sexually harassed or assaulted by gay men?"

Nope. Many of my friends have had those experiences, that's why I was anxious in the first place. Besides, I myself have had a negative experience. Sexual assault are not exclusive to women.

"4) If a woman lives in fear (btw what level of fear are we talking about here?) of men her whole life she probably has some experiences from her past that's given her a good reason for it."

That's a weak argument and ultimately a dangerous mindset. Would you be this supportive if someone lived in fear of Muslims because their past experiences justify it?

[Thal]

"1) Yes, taste is influenced by social construct."

Nope. What I meant was that the same argument you use for your gender is a social construct argument can be said about the taste you get in your mouth when you put food in it.

"2) Could it be that you emphasize "the first time" because nothing bad happened, and not half of your friends have stories about being sexually harassed or assaulted by gay men?"

Nope. Many of my friends have had those experiences, that's why I was anxious in the first place. Besides, I myself have had a negative experience. Sexual assault are not exclusive to women.

"4) If a woman lives in fear (btw what level of fear are we talking about here?) of men her whole life she probably has some experiences from her past that's given her a good reason for it."

That's a weak argument and ultimately a dangerous mindset. Would you be this supportive if someone lived in fear of Muslims because their past experiences justify it?

1) Taste buds in the mouth would be a different thing. That's got no more to do with gender than, say, our ability to smell, so I don't see why you're even bringing that up, then. To be clear: Sex is anatomy, gender is a social construct. Sex is the anatomical differences in the male and female body, gender is how society judges our abilities and preferences based on our sex.

2) Many of your friends, really? Many of your friends, and you, have experienced sexual assault from gay men? Sorry, but I don't believe you, because out of the small amount of gay men there are around the globe, far from the majority are assailants. The odds of you and "many of your friends" would happen to run into these very few gay sexual assailants are small, to say the least. I think you're exaggerating in an attempt to prove a moot point. I know sexual assault isn't exclusive to women, but for us, it's normal. It isn't for men. 

4) Okay, let's get a few things straight: Very, very few women go around constantly being afraid of men. Despite all our experiences with rape and harassment, it's not like we shiver whenever we see a male person on the street. However, if we see, say, a male person walking not too far behind us on an otherwise empty road, when it's dark, then yeah, we tend to get frightened. Or when we're alone with a guy we don't know very well and he starts getting a bit pushy. That's not a dangerous mindset. That's normal, and it's also what prevents even more assaults from happening, because we can identify the signs and attempt to remove ourselves from the situations before something happens. We know all men aren't assailants, but we know enough of them are that 1/3 of women have experienced assault, and over half of us have experienced harassment - and most importantly: We don't know which ones it is until it's too late. So excuse us for taking precautions. (The irony of this is that if we do NOT take precautions, we get that thrown in our face if/when an attack actually happens. "What were you wearing?" "You shouldn't have been drunk, then." "Why were you walking alone?") Damned if we do, damned if we don't.

Also, yes, I would be supportive if someone had experienced a personal attack (not "some crazy terrorists placed a bomb in a country far away from me") with Muslims and because of that were vary of them. I wouldn't support them hating Muslims because of it, but I would understand and sympathize with the fear, absolutely. Just like I support people in Norway living in fear of the far right, after Anders Breivik blew up our government building and slaughtered 80 kids on an island. It's a natural consequence of a scary, personal and traumatic experience.

[ErGingerbreadMandude]

1) Taste buds in the mouth would be a different thing. That's got no more to do with gender than, say, our ability to smell, so I don't see why you're even bringing that up, then. To be clear: Sex is anatomy, gender is a social construct. Sex is the anatomical differences in the male and female body, gender is how society judges our abilities and preferences based on our sex.

Taste buds is anatomy. Taste is a social construct by which society judges acceptable tastes derived from different foods.

See what I did there?

P.S It's almost blinding how woman you are lol

[Chad32]

Didn't know if this went here, in politics, or religion, so tadaaaaaa!

Would you dump your friend due to political or religious differences?

I have been dumped for being atheist, and I don't give a shit, because ultimately I don't really like those Christians anyway. I have a few theist acquaintances, but they're not really committed to their faith. I just can't be friends with dedicated Christians. They annoy the hell out of me.

Politics. I simply cannot be friends with someone who voted for Trump. I can't. Someone said that we can't look at people and only see what they voted, labeling them as such. She said people who dump friends over politics are part of the problem in this country. She said politics should be separated from friendship. I disagree. How you vote (especially in these elections) says a lot about you. If you can vote into presidency a fool who mimics someone with cerebral palsy, you are a douche bag. End.

What do you think?

Apparently I would not, because I have a friend who is a christian Trump supporter. But that doesn't interfere with our social time, so it's not a deal breaker. There's just a part of him that I disagree with, and don't really understand, but I like hanging out with anyway.

[Thal]

1) Taste buds in the mouth would be a different thing. That's got no more to do with gender than, say, our ability to smell, so I don't see why you're even bringing that up, then. To be clear: Sex is anatomy, gender is a social construct. Sex is the anatomical differences in the male and female body, gender is how society judges our abilities and preferences based on our sex.

Taste buds is anatomy. Taste is a social construct by which society judges acceptable tastes derived from different foods.

See what I did there?

P.S It's almost blinding how woman you are lol

Yeah, I see what you did there. You're deliberately trying to misunderstand in an sad attempt to be clever, since you're completely lacking any proper arguments. (But actually yeah, men will get judged today if they order fruity drinks and cocktails (accusations about being gay, with the following ridicules, is particularly common), so thank you for proving my point.)

But I get it. This is too complex a subject for you to understand (it's almost blinding how man you are lol), so I won't waste any more time trying to explain this to you. Men like you are the reason we need feminism. Congrats.