Ask Lemmy

I'm not into other girls, but I've got lesbian friends who are great! 😃

I have always been a liberal leftist but I actually really enjoy being around old school, fiscally conservative Republicans, when they aren't talking about politics. They tend to be softies on the inside - they value strength and tradition and care deeply for their communities and families; often more directly demonstrating that care than liberals tend to. They also don't accept the victim mentality and tend to shoot straight with their words, and can be hilariously harsh. They are responsible and tend to follow through with their commitments.

The problem is, I can't really stand being around them because they can't help themselves bringing up the dumbest opinions of all time and they typically don't like digging into fact based thinking.

Same now as 20 years ago, when they would say shit like, "pretty cold out today - don't seem like global warming to me! Hahaha" etc etc

I am not a fan of the hardcore heavy/death metal music itself; but the metalheads are awesome people. The more unintelligible and scary/evil sounding the music, the nicer the crowd. It's weird and cool and funny.

Not particularly into guys, but I love women who are into them.

Rugby players.

I don't care for sports so much, but a ton of my friends play rugby. Several of my exes play rugby. I've got cousins who play rugby. I live in the States and, while rugby is popular, it's no where near the levels of enthusiasm where like 90% of the people a person hangs out with plays it (and you not also play or have any real interest in it). Mostly to support people I was dating, I've been to like ten games in my life and, while I understand how the game is played, I'm just completely uninterested in sports and following sports as a hobby or interest. I don't know why, but rugby people love me and I love them.

For me it's Metal music. It's just absolutely not my genre but an overwhelming amount of metalheads I met were just the nicest, most wholesome and fun people all around.

Furries are cool people ~~and the backbone of modern society~~

Lesbians. Hate that they aren't into me, but damnit I get it.

Books. I'm dyslexic as fuck but heavy readers are mostly chill people.

Grand strategy games aren't for me, but I love reading the insane stories from CKII and Dwarf Fortress.

Sex. Neurodivergent/nerd social circles often have a lot of kink/BDSM and otherwise sex positive people, so my friends group is pretty open about sex.

I’m on the asexual spectrum and would rather forget that sex is a thing, but I love my friends and as long as everyone is consenting and safe, I’m happy for them. I sometimes get awkward when sex convos happen around me, but hey, I get awkward with many other convos too.

Frida Kahlo's paintings.

One that’s less relevant now, but throughout my life has been relevant: Juggalos.

I was a big metalhead in school, and i had a bunch of juggalo friends. I liked a couple of their songs well enough, but I found the “culture” grating. Still, those mothafuckas were the most accepting and tolerant people I knew. Tolerant of anyone’s way of life, except they fucking hated bigots. In the 90s, being accepting of queer peeps really wasn’t in vogue (to put it lightly) but juggalos welcomed queer peeps as friends with open arms.

Boardgaming. I play an occasional boardgame with my friends, but I'm not searching youtube clips for strategies, importing first-print Euro games in the original German and printing English-language stickers for the boards, or watching Essen livestreams every year.

I FUCKING HATE ketchup. I can't tolerate the taste or the texture. But I recognize that people that love ketchup are not evil, just misguided.

Smokers. They have decades of being able to strike up an angry conversation in a street with an absolute stranger, whilst never letting it escalate, because, fuckit, brotherhood of smokers.

Plus a healthy appreciation of nature. Sure you can smoke and look at your phone, but you still have to be outside and that means glancing up from time to time to look at the scenery, the night sky, to wave at your neighbours, etc.

Good people smokers, filthy habit.

(Vapers dont count, cos you can't really share a vape concurrently. Also a lot of them take pride in their devices which I find weird. Real smokers have a decent sense of self-hatred at their habit)