Where do you stand?

An old friend of mine told me yesterday they had recently ‘unfriended’ a mutual acquaintance on Facebook. An acquaintance whom I’ve known for a quarter of a century and first met at anti-fascist demonstrations attended over many years. Those chance meetings lead to drinks in the pub afterwards and from there to other social events in public places and at home. A quarter of a century grounded in our mutual concern for vulnerable minorities. Or so I thought. My friend had ‘unfriended’ the acquaintance due to a ‘large number of offensive posts’ on that person’s personal Facebook page. Out of curiosity I looked at the Facebook page and quickly found what offended my friend. There were multiple ‘gender critical feminist’ posts stretching back over considerably more than a year. So many posts that they probably outnumbered all the others combined by about 4:1 and with a majority ‘liked’ by others in Newcastle’s left wing political circles including many whom I have also known for many years. I checked if I was a ‘friend’ – I wasn’t but most probably as I rarely post on Facebook rather than any active decision by me not to be. If I had been I would have ‘unfriended’ the acquaintance and all those applauding her ‘gender critical’ posts.