Pew: ‘Consistent Liberals Most Likely to Block Others’ ‘because they disagreed with a political post’
October 21, 2014
This is not news (see “Liberals More than Twice as Likely to De-friend You for Disagreeing with Them”, from two and a half years ago), but it’s still interesting. From the Pew Research Center (near the bottom of the page):
Hat tip to Hot Air, who also have a thoughtful exploration of the survey results and what they mean.
Consistent liberals are also the most likely faction to drop someone as a friend over politics, although their lead over consistent conservatives is more modest on that point (24 percent to 16 percent).
Update (October 21st, 2014): Edited title (still quoting Pew, different quote) to make clear why liberals are blocking people (not just vaguely “Based on Political Content”, but specifically “because they disagreed with a political post”).
Enjoyment and Contemplation 
October 21, 2014 at 3:02 PM
I’ve also noticed this tendency on Flickr, the photo-sharing application site, even though it isn’t social media in the way that Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, etc. are; people treat it that way.
And progs on their can be very cliquish – and they seem to predominate. If you disagree with them, it’s easy to get blocked by them, or if they don’t go that far, they’ll just stop visiting your photostream. Even if you just express some tradcon sentiments, or pro-freedom sentiments, the most partisan progs will have little to do with you, from there on out.
That has been my experience, at least.
October 21, 2014 at 3:24 PM
In my own experience on Facebook, liberals are both the most likely to tell everyone bluntly about their own political opinions, and by far the most likely to take it personally and get ugly in response to hearing about others’ political opinions.
October 21, 2014 at 3:39 PM
Indeed.
October 21, 2014 at 3:02 PM
I’ve noticed a trend among liberals–it’s becoming increasingly popular to explictly, openly state that one’s position on a particular issue is a bright-line litmus test for whether one is a decent human being. For example, I’ve seen Facebook friends lay it out: if you oppose gay marriage, you are a bad person. Not “mistaken,” not “misguided,” but a “bad person.” These manifestos are often accompanied by a flat declaration that the issue in question is settled, and no further debate is legitimate.
See Bishop John Shelby Spong’s manifesto here: http://walkingwithintegrity.blogspot.com/2009/10/manifesto-from-our-friend-bishop-john.html
Whatever happened to the Good Ol’ Days when liberals were all about open-mindedness and conservatives were stick-in-the-mud dogmatists?
October 21, 2014 at 3:20 PM
I agree. It is odd to be so proud of one’s unwillingness to have a conversation.
October 21, 2014 at 8:30 PM
The new moral certainty of the left is scary.
October 21, 2014 at 3:52 PM
Whew, glad for the explanation– otherwise I block a lot of people because of “political content.”
It’s not because they disagree, it’s because I get tired of being called a baby killing, anti-science hater who is a liar for linking an objective source, and humorless for pointing out an absolute lie that happens to be in graphic form…..
October 21, 2014 at 3:58 PM
Right. As I told a liberal friend one day when I was feeling especially tired, You don’t have to agree with me about enforcing existing immigration law; I’m just tired of being called a racist.
October 25, 2014 at 1:28 PM
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