It seems these days that there's two ways you have to play the game of life when it comes to opinions: the ones you present to everyone else, and the ones you keep to yourself or anonymously spot on the internet, like we do here. This may be less of an issue in America, but here in Canada there's what I perceive to be a pervasive intolerance of opinions not commonly shared or deemed appropriate. If you're talking with people and any kind of matter of political opinion comes up, you are better off either keeping to yourself or tacitly agreeing with the prevailing, politically correct opinion. Because if you don't, and you state an opposing view, there is a very good chance the people you're talking to will never be as friendly to you as they were before. Rocking the boat, saying things others don't like, they all offend that stereotypical and not-unfounded Canadian "niceness" that tries to keep everyone pleasant and agreeable with each other. Differing opinions cause argument, and that's not very friendly or nice, so it's to be frowned upon. Granted, I should clarify I'm talking about the populated parts of Canada. Up in rural areas people are a lot more loose-lipped and opinionated, that's expected. Nevertheless, I'm always in a battle with myself over whether, if asked an opinion on something where I know for a fact my response will offend people simply by being the opinion I have no matter how I phrase it, I should lie or not. This is mainly an issue with people at work - other people I meet I'm usually straight up with, and they either agree with me, accept my opinions or we don't get along and, well, we don't see each other again. I'm thankful that up to this point no one seems overly interested in the nitty gritty of my political opinions, such that I can mostly side-step the issue or simply state opinions where I share the common sentiment. But what to do if asked. On principle I tell myself I should state what I think and if it's really such a problem for people then that's their problem and firing me is on them, (*)(*)(*)(*) the consequences, I'm not required to change what I think because other people don't like it. Course there's also the practical argument that it's not worth losing my income just because I refuse to temper my honesty, which may be prescient since I've been burned on it before. Didn't have to wait either, it became an issue on my very first summer job. Just a couple weeks before I went back to school, after work me and my usual gang of friendly co-workers went out drinking on Friday after work and for once, a couple of people who didn't usually partake in the bar scene joined us. One of them was a Pakistani woman. I really didn't have much to do with her at work, we were barely acquaintances but we spoke occasionally. I forget how the subject of religion came up but it did. Someone ended up asking me what I thought of Islam - I don't remember the context - and I said "Sanitized or unsanitized?" The people closest to me said "Unsanitized", the rest of the table wasn't listening, so I casually said "A pile of delusional garbage" and people got a kick out of that nonchalant remark. Anyway like a week later I get hauled into the manager's office and told that while it didn't appear the Pakistani woman was listening, she did in fact hear it and it apparently hurt her feelings so much (cuz people are emotionally attached to their religious beliefs, that's just a fact) it kept bothering her, and rather than confront me about it privately, since this is between us and off the clock, she used her seniority to get the manager to demand I apologize to her and retract my statement in front of him. Since I was only there another week and had no intention of coming back (I hated that job) I don't understand why she was so adamant about it, but I guess she just felt like she wouldn't be righted until she forced me to retract myself publicly and let everyone know I'd committed wrong-think. I told him I stood by what I said, it's my opinion and I didn't see why it was anyone's business what I think and do when I'm not working. He said he didn't care what I said but he did care about the woman's emotional comfort and my right to say what I want off the clock was secondary to her feelings about whatever I happen to say (that's not how he worded it of course but that is effectively what was said). She's been here a while, they want her to stick around, so it's her way or the highway. I wanted that last week's pay so I caved. Even after all this time I think about whether I should have - I mean, if I ever saw that woman again and she asked me if I meant that apology, I'd straight up tell her no I didn't. Money truly is the easiest way to corrupt one's principles.
