I had the misfortune to endure living in Kansas during my adolescence. The abortion fight was really strong in the anti-choice regard. The state appears to be gently moving toward less religious bullshittery, but my adult niece lost friends in high school when she came out as an atheist.
TLDR: don’t be a free-thinking teenager in Kansas.
I wouldn’t say she lost any “friends” in high school.
I think the TLDR is a little misleading as well. Encourage EVERYONE to think for their selves, no matter the location.
I wouldn’t say she lost any “friends” in high school.
People you spent your teenage years doing kid-stuff with who suddenly get really weird around you, as though you’re some kind of alien, because you’ve been outed as a heretic… its jarring. For you and for them (typically this shit comes from their parents first and involves a lot of screaming and crying).
I watched my younger sister’s friend group crack in half their junior year, because it just kinda clicked in someone’s head that “Oh shit, I’ve been hanging out with Muslims this whole time and that’s why they won’t come to church with me”. Half the group tried to “save” the other half, tensions got really heated, and they fell apart.
My best friend from high school stopped talking to me before the pandemic, at ~32 years old. We always were different sides of the aisle but always reconciled at “the system is busted and corrupt.”
Lo and behold, he starts a real estate company piggy backing off his dads construction company money and connections, the system suddenly isn’t busted or corrupt anymore - and now I’m a commie for utilizing the VA health care promised to me in the contract I signed with the government.
