I (18M) am from Germany and pretty left-leaning politically, and most of my close friends from school lean conservative. In political discussions its often “all of them vs me”. Most of the time I don’t really care about that, and i get along very well with them, but sometimes they say some really weird stuff, and then it can get a little heated. Never really fighting, but heated. A few days ago my best friend said something that REALLY rubbed me the wrong way tho, and idk if im overreacting. Because lately, they get more and more disrespectful towards my views and it’s been getting to me. They constantly send stuff in our group chat mocking leftist views. This wouldn’t bother me too much if they could take jokes about the right too, but every time i make fun of conservatives, i have to explain in exhausting detail why i make fun of them, just to be called a commie or something. I wouldn’t even consider myself super leftist, just left-leaning. And the content they send isn’t just “haha woke”, but sometimes really racist and/ or anti- immigrant stuff, posted by far- right pages, sometimes even from AfD (extremist far right political party in Germany) supporters. I know that they aren’t even pro-Trump or AfD supporters and aren’t really serious, but it really starts pissing me off. Especially because my mom is and immigrant, and some of the stuff is actually hurtful. When i tell them it bothers me i get hit with “womp womp im just rage baiting you bro haha”. But sometimes they say really stupid stuff and are completely serious about it.

One example: when the clip of Elon Musk doing a Nazi salute went around, I was upset that no major outlets were calling it what it clearly was. One of my friends insisted it was a "Roman salute," and then started nitpicking the gesture as if we didn’t see it done by real nazis in our history class literal minutes earlier (im not kidding- i literally saw the clip while sitting in a history class about Nazi Germany - the irony). Stuff like that happens all the time-they'll dismiss or defend clearly problematic behavior, but if I talk about something like wealth inequality, suddenly I'm a "leftist tick" or a "commie."

But the moment that made me post this happened just a few days ago with my best friend and made me seriously consider my friendship with him, and also in extension the whole group. We were talking about immigration and immigration policy in Germany and at some point he just randomly said “Well, the majority of immigrants are criminals” and used that to justify police being more aggressive toward them. I was stunned. I asked if that meant he thought police should treat/ inspect me more harshly than him, since my mom is an immigrant. And he said, “Yeah, it is not a big deal if you have nothing to hide.”

I didn’t know what to say. He was once literally at a party with me, defending me from some racist fuck calling me slurs and trying to beat me up, he literally made fun about a racist teacher we once had who refused calling me by my real name (not “immigrant-sounding” enough for him ig) alongside me. Even when i explained how that kind of normalized discrimination is really dangerous, he did not care one bit and was still fully convinced.

I later asked another friend who was there what he thought about that. Thankfully, he agreed that it was a crazy thing to say, which helped calm me down.

I know he’s not racist deep down, but the fact that he didn’t even flinch saying that to my face really made me wonder if i want to be that close with someone thinking that way. I have been wondering that with a lot of the other things he and my other friends said, but that was the dumbest one yet by far. And it was also kinda hurtful. Like, am I overreacting? Idk but i kinda want to have at least some friends who don’t think i should be treated harsher by police because im “more likely to be a criminal”. I was ok with having different political views than my friends, but this is different. I just don’t feel like he would have my back in every situation possible after i heard him say that anymore.

I still like my best friend, but this just really hit different. We are going to go on a trip this summer with the whole friendgroup, but i seriously consider distancing myself from them, or at least my best friend, a bit after that.

So, AITA for wanting to take a step back from this friendship after that?