In this age of political correctness, a lot of people seem to have gotten the idea that if someone has a vastly different view than you on any topic that excludes them from being your friend.
On the radio I heard someone pointing out that he and a friend were to give a political speech to a high school. He was giving the republican side and a friend of his the democratic.
Since they were friends they car pooled to the school, and were joking and, ... well, just being friends on the way into that school. They gave their respective presentations and then tried to have a question and answer session with the kids afterward. The kids were silent, not even whispering among themselves. Other then one question by a teacher to try to get the ball rolling, there was silence in the auditorium.
He and his friend thought they botched the presentation. It wasn't until the next day and he called the school and was told that it was his obvious friendship with the democrat that was confusing the kids. They didn't know how to take two people who had radically different views, expressed them openly against each other during the presentation, and yet were seen coming and leaving together as friends.
I think this "you can't be my friend if you have different views" type thinking is a result of the political correctness of our time. There is too much stress on cooperation and working together as a team so that it can be "win-win" all the time. People are no longer taught how to deal with competition when it is forced into their lives. They don't know how to play the game when it becomes a "win-lose" deal.
Sometimes there is no reconciling viewpoints. "Agreeing to disagree" is the only way to deal with irreconcilable viewpoints, and a lot of people today refuse to agree to disagree. That is the biggest "lose-lose" situation of our time.
