You've asked an honest question, and here's one person's honest answer:
I think it's important to remain cognizant that in the US we have the right to an opinion and the right to disagree. In a healthy society, the disagreement between two parties should be civil and tolerated. As radical as it might sound, it should be possible to espouse different philosophies and still be friends, let alone do business together. Some would say the whole idea of opinion diversity is fundamental to democracy.
I personally think it is an indication of an
unhealthy society when:
- People cannot be friends or do business together if they hold different political views
- When someone's differing political view to your own represents an existential threat to you
- When people are pressured to choose a side, in other words neutrality is frowned upon. The failure to choose a side can result in differing levels of persecution.
- People feel pressure to keep their views secret for fear of retribution if they made them known, even accidentally (outside of safe quarters).
- It is difficult to find information (i.e. news) that is not presented in a way that overtly villianizes one side or the other. At a certain point of advanced dysfunction it becomes very difficult to know what to believe.
- You begin to see increasing amounts of paranoia on one or both sides. For example, the other side represents more than just your less preferred option, they represent the end of civilization, or life as we know it, or "they're" coming for you to threaten your personal safety
If these various symptoms do not describe the society in which you would want to live, then consciously do your best not to perpetuate them. In your case, so long as the bank executive is not trying to force you to listen to his opinion and join his political point of view, then just continue to separate business from politics. Permit him to voice his political opinion and retain your right to form your own. The two do not have to be mutually exclusive. If his opinions bother you then choose not to follow him on social media.
What if you never did so in the first place and hence had no idea what his political views are?
Then the question you're raising wouldn't even have occurred to you.
It is easy to blame political leaders for everything, but when a society becomes unhealthy in the way I have described above, it is because the populace has chosen to adopt the behavior. These choices may have been unconscious, but the fact remains that widespread polarization, intolerance, judgmentalism, and simple absence of civility are collectively corrosive to any society.
Simonjester wrote:well said !!