Different political views

[NotGotAClue1]

Just that really. My partner and I have VERY different political views on most things and I don’t want to bring things up and feel tense when the news is on because I don’t want to argue. I love him, we have a toddler and he treats us both well, we’re very happy together but some of the things he says really really bother me and don’t sit well at all and I certainly don’t want our child having these views.

A few examples… he makes sweeping statements, he’s anti illegal immigration, thought Rwanda was a good idea, thinks the rnli shouldn’t be involved and he stopped donating to them because of it. He also makes a lot of assumptions. I recently showed him an article about someone who was stabbed to death and I obviously thought how sad but his first reaction was oh it’ll be gang related. He disagrees with children being told they can identity as whatever in schools at a young age etc.

I should mention he was in the police for a long time and served on very deprived London boroughs and has seen and experienced terrible things so I definitely feel what he has seen/ dealt with has skewed him somewhat. I just didn’t realise how far apart we were on things.

Please don’t flippantly say leave him. I love him and will not break our family up over politics, I just wonder if anyone is in relationships with different views and how you navigate it?

It is increasingly common, particularly in the US, for people to say they won’t associate with people with whom they disagree politically. Surely that leads to forced conformity, even if not forced by government. How many people working in public services or universities can go to work and say they agree with the Rwanda plan?

Squilliant
I can almost understand it in some ways in the US because on many policy areas the Democrats and Republicans tend to be quite broad churches.
I tend to get the impression that it's not uncommon for people to be socially liberal within the Democrats but hold a broad range of financial positions across what would be centre right to centre left ground in the UK.

I'd probably struggle to be friends with a republican if their main reasons for being republican were on the moral issues (eg abortion, gun control, homosexuality etc) because those topics for me would stray into values territory rather than politics territory.

Completely agree, @LolaSmiles, much of politics is about values.

FWIW, I am getting increasingly pissed off with being made out to be some kind of left-wing extremist on Mumsnet because I don’t consider all views to have equal weight. The anti-asylum-seeker rhetoric is based on lies and prej. In no way is it simply ‘another pov’. You can have another point of view on these matters but if it’s not based on the facts it’s not valid. The same with Brexit - fine to support it on the basis of an accurate economic or political argument but not fine to support it because you think that otherwise we’ll be ‘swamped’ by Turks and denied our right to bent bananas.

*lies and prejudice

hmmmm, I think if you express opinions on immigration based on actual facts on this website you will still be called a right wing extremist. Mumsnet is one of the most left wing spaces I’ve encountered. A very centrist opinion shared by the majority of people on the U.K. will he called far right here.

"I am getting increasingly pissed off with being made out to be some kind of left-wing extremist on Mumsnet because I don’t consider all views to have equal weight."

Oh dear, it must be really unpleasant to be characterised in a way that you feel unfairly misrepresents you as a person by complete strangers who've based their view on a single opinion that you've expressed 🥺

I'd tend to go along with that 🙂

Nickknackpattywhack
I'm left leaning but I'm not into a certain type of left wing purity spiral politics.
Sometimes I can even appreciate that someone with centre right views might have good intentions, even if I disagree with them. You can imagine how that goes down on here.

Glad you managed to sort things out.

hmmmm, I think if you express opinions on immigration based on actual facts on this website you will still be called a right wing extremist. Mumsnet is one of the most left wing spaces I’ve encountered. A very centrist opinion shared by the majority of people on the U.K. will he called far right here.

Three statements there and you’ve provided zero evidence to back any of them up.

@notwavingbutdrowning1 sorry what do you mean? These are my perceptions of mumsnet, not statements that need facts to back them up.

Don't worry, @Ngmi, I completely understand that you don't want your views to be troubled by the facts. How inconvenient would that be.

@notwavingbutdrowning1 what views? What are you on about? Happy to answer but you’re not been very clear about your question and jumping to being confrontational straight away. Calm down a bit, I’m happy to talk in good faith.