How do people with right-wing views still have loads of friends?

[AmusedTaupePlayer]

Genuine question. There’s a guy at work who’s openly right-wing—thinks Brexit was great, doesn’t care about immigrants, women’s rights, gay or disabled people, constantly posts pro-Trump, Reform UK, and even likes Andrew and Tristan Tate. His dad’s the same, his mum is obsessed with “Britishness”. Basically, the full red-flag package.
Yet... he’s well-liked at work, always invited to drinks and group holidays. People act like he’s totally harmless. How?! I don’t get how someone with views that are basically hostile to entire groups of people can still be so socially accepted. Why don’t people care? He isn't actually shy about them... he openly declares them.

Is it possible that people secretly agree with him?

I swear I've already read this post a couple of days ago.

Me too.

I can only assume they agree with his views or they don't care enough to disagree. An it doesn't affect me mindset.

This was definitely posted the other day.

Answer - because lots of people agree with him. This is how Reform etc get votes. It’s not hard to understand?

Maybe people can go for drinks with someone even if they don't share all the same ideas as them.

erm... because about 50% of the country are right wing, if not more (see Brexit vote, Reform etc etc).

My confusion is how left wing can be so convinced of the merits of their own ideology that they can't possibly believe anyone might disagree? (despite Stalinism, Khmer Rouge and various other socialist failures being left wing)

Left wing, right wing, atheist, religious zealot - take any of these things to extremes, and while one might be at 11 on the clock, and the other at 1, they're still only small degrees apart

Birds of a feather....

I’d draw the line at Tate. But I do have more right wing friends. The important part for me is if someone is internally cogent and means well. If they are, for example, small c conservative because they believe in fiscal responsibility, very slow change and people being responsible for themselves, and they exhibit those qualities themselves, I could be friends. It’s very good for us to talk to people we don’t agree with frequently.

If they were like Trump, talking about Christianity while being a venal, self-serving twat, hard no.

I have friends and we don’t share the same political views. It really doesn’t matter.

Btw you say doesn't care about... not dislikes, rude about, derogatory about....

No one has to 'care about' anything. It definitely doesn't make him right wing if he doesn't care. It makes him a floating blob who doesn't input either way. Or are you saying he IS zealously anti-immigrant, pro-Farage etc

And yes, you are repeating a post. Journalist?

Many will agree with him. Maybe he’s a good friend and colleague. Have you seen the latest polls? Reform at the top. I wouldn’t vote for them but obviously many want to. I find that I judge people on how they treat others rather than political views.

You've already posted about him, no?

It's because some people will agree with him, and because plenty of people are able to have friendships with people who have different views to their own. It used to be the norm. It's only in recent years that people have started cutting their friends (and even family) off if they disagree with them about things like Brexit or the trans issue, for example.

Why is his political views wrong and yours are right? It would appear with the rising popularity of Reform, that more people share his views rather than yours!

There are tons of people who are right wing behind closed doors nowadays. I’ve noticed it too. I think the left have been so loud and attacking, they e forced a lot of right sympathisers into silence. Loudest voice doesn’t mean most well thought of.

Most people don’t care about politics and ignore anything that could be regarded as politics. TBH they’re not necessarily wrong. Jung Chang wrote in Wild Swans that during the Chinese national nightmare that was the Cultural Revolution (or IIRC even earlier than that) she simply stopped taking account of what someone’s politics were supposed to be, because the labels being used literally to justify torture of individuals could turn on a dime, and someone who was busily denouncing others could be denounced and killed themselves tomorrow. She simply took a view of whether someone was a decent person or not and whether they tried their best to do right by at least the people they knew. Is that wrong, do you think?

I would call myself a social democrat and I think Farage and Reform are a toxic joke on British society, and I think they are run and promoted by foreign billionaires of various nationalities. But I’m not going to say that everyone I meet who likes them should be ostracised. I want to know why they like them tbh. Though I do feel the need to spend time with friends who feel like me about them as well.

Maybe they don't know/don't care, share some of his views. Maybe he has qualities that make him a good friend/colleague aside from his opinions.

When I was kid in the 70s/80s my Dad had a friend whose views were at the opposite end of the political spectrum to his but they got on well and had shared interests and hobbies and went to the pub together every week. These days people seem far less tolerant of different opinions than they used to be.

I could say the same about lefties.

I have friends who voted for Brexit and, I assume, vote conservative at elections. Just because someone disagrees politically doesn't make them a bad person. I'd draw the line at homophobia and Andrew Tate though.

I have plenty of friends with right wing views - fair enough not agreeing with the Tates etc., but I don't think it's healthy to only speak to those you agree with.

This whole thing of everything being polarised is something we really need to try to buck away from - as an intelligent adult you should be able to have your views challenged without running away to hide from anything 'offensive'.

More alarmingly I have some friends who are "woke". They are more trying than my conservative friends but we just don't discuss the things we disagree on and then we get along just fine.

Op, would you regard someone who has far left views as being socially acceptable?

You know that MPs from opposing political parties often get on well together? People don't need to have the same politics to be friends with each other, and you're being a classic leftie by assuming that's the nice baseline for humanity and that those who don't agree with you are bad people who can't be likeable. The reality is that plenty of left-wing people can be unbearable just as plenty of right-wing people can be good company. I'm not right-wing myself but I get wound up by the self-righteous echo chamber-led assumptions of the left. Plus as PPs say, maybe more people share the guy's views but daren't say as much. People are more complicated and contradictory than you seem to think - I've met immigrants, gays and disabled people who are right-wing, pro-Brexit etc. Being in a minority group doesn't make you a socialist, especially not these days when the trad left position has all but gone to pieces and everything is in flux.

Shock, horror! Some people have different views to you. We need Iranian style thought and speach suppression!!!

I think having right wing views is different from why you described. What you described is quite a bit of bigotry. Anyway, you could say the same about anyone that is vocally far right or far left - I personally wouldn’t like to associate with either.