A man and his friends

[fpb]

I don't understand this. There is an American conservative I know who has considerable stores of intellectual honesty, learning and understanding. I like him and I appreciate debates with him, even when they get tetchy, because he understands what facts are and has a good store of them. But for some reason his LJ seems to draw the very dregs of conservatism. For the second time I have felt forced to defriend him, not because of anything he said or did, but because of the hideous crew to be met in his comments threads. To make a comparison, he is rather less extreme and arrogant than johncwright, but his comments threads are consistently less interesting, because his f-list is a roster of intellectual thugs who share neither his learning nor his decency - whereas johncwright seems to attract a reassuring amount of independent and argumentative minds. And that is what really stumps me. He is an upright person. Why can't he see that many of them are no better than online thugs? Does belonging to the same party necessarily have to blind you to the wrongs of others? I don't think so, but I can't see any other reason why some kinds of filth appear in the company of gentlemen.

Comments

[eliskimo.livejournal.com]

Friendships and networks are complicated and delicate things. Were my online existence limited to LiveJournal, I might share your confusion, but being on Facebook, simply by the fact of it's size, has shown me differently. I have many friends, from many walks and life and many phases of my life. It's as comforting to realize that someone I went to grammar school with shares many of my opinions, conclusions, and views, as it is to discover that someone I was worked closely with on a project during my university days embarrasses me on a political level now.

Don't judge me by my friends. Some of them I keep around in hopes (perhaps faint and vain) that I can help them see reason.

[rfachir.livejournal.com]

I agree - Don't deprive your friend of your company based on the people who chose to comment on his thread. You may need to "go dark" for a little while, but ignoring them doesn't mean you must ignore him, too. Take your conversation "off-line" and ask if he would like to keep communicating privately since the mob has hijacked you discussion. Have a happy, joyful, silly Christmas!

[fpb.livejournal.com]

What I hope is that the person in question will stay friended with me even though I can't stay friended with him, so I can continue to get the contribution of his views.