Yesterday, for the first time in my life, I’ve unfriended someone on Facebook.
Disagreeing with me is fine. Using phrases like, “Arrogance and superiority in attitude and LOCKSTEP DOGMATISM AND CLOSEMINDEDNESS” is not fine, and I told her so.
And she replied, “Too bad you find things that disagree with you to be ‘rude’. I’m sorry you’re also so closeminded.”
Which I think rather confirms my point of view. Her disagreeing with me = the essence of sweet reason. Me disagreeing with her = closeminded arrogance.
I really have to learn not to let people like this get under my skin. Ironically, I think I find them stressful precisely because I do consider the other point of view. I copied the original exchange into an email and asked a couple of friends whether they thought I was being arrogant. My own opinion would obviously be biased, right?
One said, “No.” The other said, “Would an arrogant person ask that question?”
Good point.
So I resisted the urge to message my unfriend back. I explained my reasons as clearly as I could the first time. Since she can’t or won’t understand that, she’s not going to understand, whatever I say.
I slept a lot better after that.
