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There's a difference between engaging with people who have different viewpoints and being friends with them. I consider friendship to be an endorsement of the o

There's a difference between engaging with people who have different viewpoints and being friends with them. I consider friendship to be an endorsement of the other person. Same for "loving your enemies". MLK is advocating for peaceful protest here, not saying that you should excuse and forget your enemy's actions. I'm not sure I agree with any argument made in favor of being friends with white supremacists. Defend their right to free speech and engage in debate? Sure. But society should strongly condemn and criticize them for racist thoughts and words. Freedom of speech doesn't guarantee you freedom from consequence of those words.

meri_dian 9y ago
"I consider friendship to be an endorsement of the other person." Not everyone feels that way.
iambateman 9y ago
Friendship can’t be an unqualified endorsement of another person. I have an alcoholic friend. Does that mean I believe alcoholism is healthy? I have an anarchist friend. Do I call for the end of government? I have a Muslim friend. Does that mean I abide by Sharia? Of course not. If I must agree with every view a person holds in order to be friends with them, I shall sooner or later find I have but one friend - myself.
ghthor 9y ago
If you want to have no idea what your enemy is doing, then by all means cut all types of communication with them. If you want to be caught unexpected by the actions of your enemy, then by all means pay no attention to them. If you want to be destroyed by your enemy, then by all means ignore and belittle them as there is no faster way to your own destruction. The most efficient way to understand and predict the actions of your enemy then by befriending and walking among them.
- scarface74 9y ago
  I have friends who lean toward the conservative side of libertarianism and I lean more liberal, I have a friend who is the opposite politically from me in almost every way but they all seem to believe that one shouldn't be judged by their color or discriminated against. That's basically the only line I draw.
zerb 9y ago
There's an Italian proverb that "one can never have a friend if one must have one without faults". Obviously, the degree of the faults matters, but your implication that friendship is a tacit endorsement of all the complexities of a person is extreme. Edit: I feel this also applies to politicians. Sometimes I just dislike all the candidates for a given election, but for different reasons. And I have to choose which of my principles I value the most. It's awful! But it's reality.
Vaskivo 9y ago
> I consider friendship to be an endorsement of the other person. In that case I have no friends. Nor I believe I'll ever have. All of my friends have some conflicting opinions. Not just with me but between all of us. I don't think people should be valued as a sum of their parts. People are an aggregation of experiences opinions ans characteristics. We should evaluate each part individually. Example: John Doe is an excellent programmer, a 10x programmer even. But he is known to have a neo-nazi blog. One thing is "good2 and the other is "bad". Does being a neo-nazi make him a bad programmer? No. Does him being a 10x programmer make his social ideas good? No. He is both things. One "good", the other "bad". And they can live side by side. Based on John's opinions I probably wouldn't invite him to dinner at my house. But I would damn sure go to him if I had a programming problem.
gusfoo 9y ago
> I consider friendship to be an endorsement of the other person. That's odd. May I ask how old you are, and what culture/country you're from?
drewbuschhorn 9y ago
Since you only seen to be getting "disagrees" I want to say I agree with you. Obviously no friend is going to be without fault, but also there has to be a line where you say "no, given this, we can't be friends." White supremacy is certainly one of those lines for me. I could associate with terrible people for work or to try and get them to be less terrible, but I couldn't be friends with them.

meri_dian 9y ago

"I consider friendship to be an endorsement of the other person." Not everyone feels that way.

iambateman 9y ago

Friendship can’t be an unqualified endorsement of another person. I have an alcoholic friend. Does that mean I believe alcoholism is healthy? I have an anarchist friend. Do I call for the end of government? I have a Muslim friend. Does that mean I abide by Sharia? Of course not. If I must agree with every view a person holds in order to be friends with them, I shall sooner or later find I have but one friend - myself.

ghthor 9y ago

If you want to have no idea what your enemy is doing, then by all means cut all types of communication with them. If you want to be caught unexpected by the actions of your enemy, then by all means pay no attention to them. If you want to be destroyed by your enemy, then by all means ignore and belittle them as there is no faster way to your own destruction. The most efficient way to understand and predict the actions of your enemy then by befriending and walking among them.

scarface74 9y ago
I have friends who lean toward the conservative side of libertarianism and I lean more liberal, I have a friend who is the opposite politically from me in almost every way but they all seem to believe that one shouldn't be judged by their color or discriminated against. That's basically the only line I draw.

zerb 9y ago

There's an Italian proverb that "one can never have a friend if one must have one without faults". Obviously, the degree of the faults matters, but your implication that friendship is a tacit endorsement of all the complexities of a person is extreme. Edit: I feel this also applies to politicians. Sometimes I just dislike all the candidates for a given election, but for different reasons. And I have to choose which of my principles I value the most. It's awful! But it's reality.

Vaskivo 9y ago

> I consider friendship to be an endorsement of the other person. In that case I have no friends. Nor I believe I'll ever have. All of my friends have some conflicting opinions. Not just with me but between all of us. I don't think people should be valued as a sum of their parts. People are an aggregation of experiences opinions ans characteristics. We should evaluate each part individually. Example: John Doe is an excellent programmer, a 10x programmer even. But he is known to have a neo-nazi blog. One thing is "good2 and the other is "bad". Does being a neo-nazi make him a bad programmer? No. Does him being a 10x programmer make his social ideas good? No. He is both things. One "good", the other "bad". And they can live side by side. Based on John's opinions I probably wouldn't invite him to dinner at my house. But I would damn sure go to him if I had a programming problem.

gusfoo 9y ago

> I consider friendship to be an endorsement of the other person. That's odd. May I ask how old you are, and what culture/country you're from?

drewbuschhorn 9y ago

Since you only seen to be getting "disagrees" I want to say I agree with you. Obviously no friend is going to be without fault, but also there has to be a line where you say "no, given this, we can't be friends." White supremacy is certainly one of those lines for me. I could associate with terrible people for work or to try and get them to be less terrible, but I couldn't be friends with them.