This person wants to maintain distance from their friends who have views different from them on certain issues.

Hey!

Having been through a similar experience, I can understand how much you would get annoyed or disheartened by their lack of compassion for fellow human beings. All we can do is keep quiet and let them live their own life and believe in their own opinions.

If you would like to be associated with them and be friends further on, just avoid talking about such topics. If they ever bring up this topic and make fun of it or say something offensive, just make an excuse and get up and walk away.

However, if you don’t want to continue being friends, that doesn’t make you fake. It makes you normal because I can understand how bad it would feel that your own friends say offensive things to someone else’s community or struggles. In this case, try to busy yourself with club activities, helping the teacher, studying or making newer friends. You might be acquainted with some classmates—seniors or juniors—try talking to them and getting closer.

If your friends ever approach you and ask why you’re ignoring them, either make up an excuse that you’re just busy or if you want to be truthful, tell them your opinions and how their opinions seem offensive and disrespectful to yours. And it’s okay to have different opinions but not ones that diminish someone’s struggles or life worth.

Good luck with it all!

Thank you,

The Advice Column Team

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