If I witnessed a family member commit murder, what's ultimately my core political views are what would determine if I did or did not turn them in for it. And I probably would turn them in.
People are out for themselves. And if someone is in your way, and takes some hit because you have the Chevy Suburban and they're on a Honda SuperCub, so be it. It's not that you hate their beautiful red and beige paintjob, it's that they were in the wrong lane at the wrong time when you decided to overtake whoever was in front of you. Colloquial pronouns, of course.
This is also an assumption that is a luxury due to me living and growing up in a stable and prosperous country, and I can certainly see different circumstances producing different mindsets.
But I also think there is plenty of good being done by organizations (at least the ones I’m familiar with in the US) to justify giving them some benefit of the doubt.
I've maintained close friendships to people who've gone literal flat-earth for several year spans. It's not the content that drives rifts, it's delivery. After work bar chats with friends are even better when the friends disagree, I find.
If you can't hold a pleasant adversarial conversation, I reckon you can't be good at skepticism. The two are linked.
The ones that don't come over anymore are the ones that think about it and decide they don't want to see you bad enough to take the time. Doesn't mean they hate or despise you. They may still consider themselves your friend, but they're not, at least in the way you had thought.
Ten loyal friends is a big number :-)
You will hate 'big pharma' until you get breast cancer...
Many of them don't really talk to me much anymore. I've grown more skeptical of the news media and big pharma. A few of them are silent only because they're dead after moving from recreational prescription opiates to heroin and eventual overdose. But the majority that I don't see anymore, I suspect their reasoning is that I'm too far "alt-right", or "anti-science". At least based on their social media posts before I deleted my accounts. I still don't trust big pharma any farther than I can throw a multi-billion dollar industry. And I still believe the same logic we all shared, that the news media's top shareholders and board members are not primarily interested in the free exchange of information.
I don't doubt that I've shifted positions in 10 years. Though, I feel they have somehow shifted position even more. It saddens me to have lost those close friendships. I think society is changing at a more rapid pace than it did previously. The internet and social media are likely partially to blame.
I'm not sure where I'm going with this. It's my day off and I've had a couple afternoon beers while doing chores. Probably just getting something off my mind on what was one of the few remaining rationalist websites. Though I feel like even here the tide is changing. Sad times, friends.