[Brian Swartz]

I hope my situation will be of some use to the people here. In recent weeks I've lost relationships, none of them by my choice, on both ends. A former co-worker who I've tried to help before and be a positive influence on, genuinely decent guy, doesn't want to speak to me anymore because I'm not down with Q. Two of my brothers and their wives have cut me off because I'm not liberal enough.

I could say more specifically but won't because I really want to keep this apolitical. What really bothers me most is the cultural divide. Our extended family being split in half is literally something I never imagined could happen prior to the pandemic. We've always accepted each other and been tolerant. It's painful for me to be told that people I've genuinely cared about for years only want to speak to people who agree with them completely on what they consider key issues - and in one case it's way beyond issues that aren't even current hot buttons of debate in our society. Voting for the 'right' person isn't even enough.

Not in the least bit of a mocking sense, I find myself questioning why we can't all just get along. It eats at me fairly equally on both the personal and societal levels. When we're split enough that, even if it's 100% my fault, I can't be tolerated by either extreme - and relatively speaking, my family members aren't even that extreme so there's further levels beyond that - yeah. I've never been less at ease about our society. The irreducible minimums that I've always assumed of people continuing to treat each other with what I would consider basic respect are increasingly no longer there. I've bent over backwards to keep the doors of communication propped open, but I can't get on board with a 'my way or the highway' approach.

I'll get over this. I don't know if our society will. I don't mentally, emotionally, or in any other way want to deal with the consequences of that.