*inhale*
*heavy disappointed sigh*

I didn't want to have to make this journal.

So yeah, I wanted to do the next journal with more fun stuff, but NOPE. This is what I'm doing instead, so sorry guys, fun journals will have to be put on hold for a bit.

But wait, this one is kinda important. Or not. I don't know, I could be stupid as usual. I could end up with significantly less friends after this journal. Or be called a snowflake. This will be the first and last political related journal.

And FYI, if this does get into a heated debate in the comments, I will delete this journal. Because I aim to have every interaction with me to be a positive experience and political talk in general does not contribute to said experience, regardless on what side each person is on.

tl;dr - I don't engage in political talk out of fear of being lumped to one side and losing friends, you as a person is all that matters to me, political opinions be damned.

And now, the long version.

So I'm sure a lot of you guys know the events that happened this weekend and the entire week has been displaying the fallout of it all, including more angry people, broken friendships, true colors being brought out, etc. All for political talk. I've seem people turn their backs on people they once loved over something as a political view. In my opinion, that is the dumbest reason to hate anyone ever. Unless said opinion causes harm to actual humans, I don't care if you're left or right. You're middle as far as I'm concerned. The entire reason that I have reached out to you because I find you an awesome person at heart, political view be damned.

Now, you might be thinking: "Double Dee, come on, you don't have to worry. People will love you for your personality and because you're a good person."
But I do have to worry about it, innocent reader. People can be the nicest person out there, yet one opinion has some people automatically lump them to the Left or Right... mostly the Left in my observations, but that's just me being dumb about politics in general. And that's what I'd like to talk about. The entire reason I don't engage in political talk is because I don't want it to have a huge negative impact on me as a person and I don't want to lose friends over something stupid as politics. I'm scared that it might turn me into a total douche with no friends.

Of course, I know people that already like me for the person I am and don't judge me for what I think about X topic. But imagine some of those friends are actually judgmental and starts ignoring all the other positive traits because apparently, said opinion overrides those positive traits. Wouldn't you be concerned if people like you for you and not solely because of opinion on X? I don't want to be known solely as the guy who has X opinion about Y and have everything else good about me be completely ignored.

And I will concede that I'm practically being ignorant of the issues, even though I'm probably not. I will acknowledge that what's happening right now is absolutely terrible. However, as much as I want to blame it on either the left or the right and even though I do have a target in mind, I don't want to be part of that blame game a lot of people have been doing. I just won't share it. Is it me worrying about who it will trigger? Yes. It may cause a massive shitstorm and the above issues I have with political talk will happen and I will be caught up in it. And besides, even if I did name the target, the reason is gonna be incredibly stupid anyway, which could result in those broken friendships anyway. And this is my unpopular opinion: while I do think the Left is a problem, I do not think they're the whole problem or even the cause of the whole problems in the first place. That sentence is the one that I'm betting on that this will be the sentence where I will lose friends and credibility, cause apparently, the Left is 100% wrong in every which way and if you agree with the Left in any shape or form, you're one of the left and therefore, the worst person on the planet. The same tends to go true for the right, but the reason I specifically highlight the Left is because I've known some genuinely nice people on the internet and IRL that are wrongfully lumped as a leftist. I don't know. I guess I'm not "woke" enough... that is how you use that term, right? I don't know, I'm politically stupid because I actively avoid it.

Now, I know people who are... well, good people and I'm a good person too. But lately, I feel as if being a good person has become slowly irrelevant and being an asshole to people is the way to come out on top, and to me, it all relates back to political talk. I could be imagining things, but it feels as though if you show any amount of compassion or empathy, you're a leftist. Okay, maybe that's a bit extreme, but trust me, there are people wrongfully put on either side when they just don't want to pick a side.

So I know what you're thinking: "Are you a sympathizer of *insert extreme group here*?" No. The extremes of both sides are dumb and should not be trusted, praised or even have any attention whatsoever, despite what some people tends to be doing. But people of those extremes have done terrible things to fellow humans, or are planning to do terrible things to fellow humans. Those type of people are not worth my time unless they prove that they genuinely no longer agree with their previous extreme views. If you've done something terrible to a fellow human and regret it, if you show genuine remorse, then we're cool and you're worth my time. Notice how I didn't name any specific organization, even though it is obvious as to which organization that I would most likely condemn the most. It shows that I don't care what side of the political spectrum you're on, terrible people are terrible people. But I still don't let political views be the end-all be all factor of if a person is worth my time.

The only thing I care about is how you are as a person, I'm not gonna abandon anyone based on political views. That's the equivalent of leaving a person trapped in a snowy mountain to freeze to death just because he doesn't agree with your opinion. That is why I avoid political talk at all costs, to avoid rifts caused by it.

Now watch, I probably created rifts anyway and will have no friends and will probably be blocked by some people. I don't blame you if you decide to block me. I'm just a stupid person who should never engage in political talk ever again, and I agree too.

Okay, I've got that out of my chest. I'm never gonna get all political again. We'll be back to fun stuff in a couple of days.