I Blocked Someone Today

The reason? Islamophobic views.

I agonised over whether or not it was the right thing to do, and I’m still not sure, but it was done for the sake of my mental health — not to be malicious.

I started to engage is a civil debate (the other party was very civil, they weren’t rude or nasty to me at all), but it became apparent pretty quickly that it was going to be a situation where neither of us was going to change our minds. A stalemate.

The views expressed by the other party were Islamophobic — I even looked up the definition to make sure. They did a pretty good job of explaining themselves, they provided their rationalisations, so I can understand why they hold those views.

I just can’t condone those views. To me, it comes down to this: Islamophobia, no matter how you rationalise it, can only make things worse. That’s all it can do. Even if you say it’s not about hatred, these sorts of views will fan the flames of hatred.

So, in the end, I blocked the person because seeing their views, when I know there is virtually no chance they will change them, is just going to piss me off. And we seem to run in fairly similar circles on here so a simple unfollow probably wouldn’t do the trick. Also, if I’m really honest, knowing they hold Islamophobic views has kind of tainted the rest of their writing for me.

I’m really not sure if this was a reasonable way to deal with the situation, and I did not want to hurt the other person’s feelings, so if they do even notice that I’ve blocked them then I hope they take it for what it is: my (possibly rather extreme) way of agreeing to disagree.