Tu no longer mi amigo

I un-friended a friend on Facebook the other night.

Oh, I didn't do it the sneaky way by quietly blocking him from my friends list and then turning the other way.

No, I posted a comment on his wall letting him know I was removing him from my friends list and telling him the reasons why. I felt I owed him at least that. 

I met this guy in my freshman year in college. I wouldn't say we hung out a lot (we ran in different crowds) but we were both "quirky" in our own way and whenever we bumped into each other we got a kick out of pushing each other's buttons. We realized early on that we passionately disagreed on football and politics (two out of the three main topics any self-respecting Mexican is interested in).

We both had very strong, unwavering and opposite opinions on these subjects and he and I used to go at it for hours. We each knew we were never going to really convince the other, but we still had a "fun" time trying to do it. And although we were both well informed on our respective arguments, our tactics on the other hand, reflected the immaturity of our age. We'd taunt, we'd bully, we'd blame, we'd insult, we'd tease.... anything to bring a point across. Childish stubbornness arguing for the sake of arguing. In a way, the fact that we were never going to agree was ok though because one thing we both accepted was that the other was genuinely arguing for what they truly believed in.

After college we lost track of each other for a while until a few years ago he found me again on Facebook and slowly the trend began again - though mainly concentrated around football this time (unsurprisingly, even though now we were talking about a totally different football league, we still didn't see eye to eye...)

But then, the Mexican elections happened. 

When he started taunting me again and posting things on his Facebook page that out right outraged and offended, I started getting genuinely pissed off. Some of his posts were point black mean-hearted and seeking to intentionally provoke and anger anyone with an opposite view. At first I took it with a grain of salt. I wasn't having these discussions face to face with him and I told myself that maybe a lot of the stuff he was posting was as a joke or in irony.

The fact that I wasn't necessarily finding them funny (nor most of his own friends as it seemed either!) bothered me though.

Living outside of Mexico for so long now I can no longer just shrug my shoulders and "laugh it off" when thousands of reports of fraud during the mexican elections are coming to light. Not when over the years I've witnessed an Orange Revolution, an Arab Spring, a Revolution of Roses, a Chilean Winter, several [insert noun here]-gates and many Caserolazos, change the course of a country, force corrupt rulers out of power, be at the heart of long needed change and basically bring a whole country together around the basic agreement that everyone wants a better future for their children.

Except that when I tried to explain this to him he only replied back with more bullshit. He wasn't even seeking to "defend" a point of view or try to "convince me to see his side" as we'd playfully done in the past... his were outright intentions to provoke, goat, mislead and spread ignorant and ill-gained information.

So one night I just got too fed up with his shit and wrote on his wall that we were no longer on the same intellectual levels so I was removing him from my friends list and for him to call me when he'd crawled out of the black hole of ignorance, stubbornness and intransigence he was drowning in.


I guess I have just been living in Europe for too long now and no longer have patience with people who aren't capable of turning off the 8o'clock novela to read a newspaper instead.

Or maybe my views of how you discuss politics have changed with time.



Or maybe I'm just as stubborn and immature as I was back then, except I no longer wish to engage on these topics with idiots.

 

Fned.