Can I Be Friends with an Angry Liberal?

I’d like to say yes. I have friends of all kinds of belief systems and it’s never been an issue. Never. No kerfuffles, no heated discussions, just love and light. Respect for differing views, respect for each other.   Besides, I think it’s important we all be cut from different cloths. If we were all the same, I think it’d be a disaster in ways we can’t imagine. I like balance and considering different view points. That’s how I’ve always rolled. Shoot, I’m not even sure what political party all my friends and family belong to and I don’t necessarily care. Unless they’re an angry liberal turning every topic into a political fight despite social cues it's a casual convo.  Well, we can say liberal since I think the prerequisite for being a liberal is that you are angry. 

The problem with anger is it keeps you from a balanced perception & effective communication. When you are emotionally driven, you are not using left brain which is where the logical region fires. When dealing with a person who's emotional, you can ask them 3 fact based questions to pull them out of emotional right brain.  For example, What time did you wake up? What did you eat for breakfast? Who are you meeting for dinner tonight? It’s a way to “reset” the surge of emotions by pushing their brain to start firing off in the logical left brain so you can attempt to effectively communicate, possibly even resolve conflict. Trust me, sometimes you’ll have to try it more than once in order to pull them off a ledge. I’m not a psychologist, I learned this when I worked in escalated concerns for an Insurance Company. I had a talent for diffusing angry customers and my employer sent me through a lot of training to fine tune that talent. Because you won’t ever get to the point of working in partnership with someone towards a resolution if they are stuck in their emotions. Soon, I was in a special department that took nothing but angry calls all day long and I was quite good at it. One, because I genuinely care. Two, I treat people the way I’d want to be treated.  

One of my friends is not only extremely opinionated, she’s pushy, snarky, loves to tell you how you’re absolutely wrong if you don’t see it her way. The part that alienates me the most is her sense of entitlement, need to attack other belief systems and her desire to turn EVERY topic into a political debate.  It's as if in her mind we are gladiators in the arena fighting to the death when all I wanted was some giggles, casual convo and a cocktail.  She hasn’t always been this aggressive and I’ve made some great memories with her over the years. However, I’m struggling to enjoy her company these days. She thinks my divorce changed me and it has. I have less tolerance for shenanigans, ridiculousness and people who lack common respect or sensibilities.