This week's poll was suggested by psirit. Is blood is thicker than water? Or maybe because you can choose your friends and not family, thus friends are better?

You can submit poll ideas here
http://www.mangaupdates.com/showtopic.php?tid=3903

Previous Poll Results
Question: How close are you to your dream job?
Choices:
No job, so still dreaming - votes: 1119 (33.8%)
Light years away - votes: 692 (20.9%)
Quite far - votes: 565 (17.1%)
Halfway there - votes: 331 (10%)
Getting close - votes: 308 (9.3%)
I'm living the dream - votes: 175 (5.3%)
I made it and then lost it - votes: 44 (1.3%)
Retired already - votes: 79 (2.4%)
There were 3313 total votes.
The poll ended: February 27th 2021

Now of those without a job, is that because you're a student or unemployed?

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A just ruler amongst tyrants

Currently I'm living far from my family, more than 560km from my hometown. I have my friends here, and they're important as part of my support system now. But I always missed my mom's home cooking, playing games with my older brother, or eating out with my dad.

This question is a bit hard, but I think I'll still choose my family. They don't always understand me and we sometimes fight, but they're always there when I didn't have anyone to rely on.

I mean, this is obviously gonna be extremely subjective based on each person's experiences (lots of horrible families out there, I know), but for me it will always be family.

Not because "Blood is thicker than water" or some BS philosophy made by society to belittle any relationship that isn't founded on the basis of marriage/a couple in a romantic and sexual relationship + their children, but because my family (immediate family, at least) are genuinely good people who love me - even though they get on my nerves 50% of the time - while my so-called "friends" are opportunistic back-stabbing jealous a-holes I keep around only because society would brand me a freak if I didn't have any friends 🙄

Friends.

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I also read EU/US comics and am a librarian.
Manga-Masters, My ANN-Lists + Imdb

These poll numbers show me that there's still hope for this world.

Family

Going by everything that I've seen and heard, you're only going to have two (Possibly three) real friends in your life, one of which you'll be married to; then you have the handful of people you can confide in, relate to, work with, and/or respect, but they're not people who you'd consider to be in close relations to in all circumstance; and everyone else outside of those two circles are just people who you can only tolerate for a certain amount of time, and need to eject once that time limit has been reached. Meanwhile, in comparison to family, I have heard nothing but regret from people who didn't attempt to at least have some regular communication with their family members (Despite whatever issue they had in the past).


Excuse me for my ignorance (Because I don't know the circumstances surrounding your life), but if they're that manipulative, self-centered, narcissistic, poisonous, and harmful, why not try to make friends elsewhere or make an attempt to leave that environment altogether?

Last edited by Transdude1996 at 2:07 pm, Feb 28 2021

________________

Obviously friends
You choose your friends.
Your family is forced on you …forced, in that it's forced that they are family. Not in that you have to actually have anything to do with them. (after you become an adult)

…and also, there is a problem in the question, in that it regards the two categories as mutually exclusive.
They most certainly are not.

…
That makes absolutely no sense, of any kind.
Why spend time with people you despise, and who have no regard for you?
Why be so concerned about being branded a freak? …and how would that be worse, than having to be with your "friends".
(who, BTW, are not friends. They are merely people you pretend, to society, are your friends. Actual friends, are people you genuinely like and like to be with and whom you care about, and who feel the same about/towards you)

Those are NOT the only two options!

family can fuck you over.... but so can friends. They both can be very good to you too.

How could I decide? They both take very important but different roles in my life! One cannot fully replace the other.

________________


Recruiting:
https://quicksandscans.wordpress.com/recruitment/

Family.

But only in the context that that can mean whatever. For me, it's my actual blood-relations. For many other people, a la the average sitcom, it's their friends. Or both. Or their (MC/) gang. Or their football team.

But the answer is always family. If you choose to look at the word through my lens.

This poll is shit, damnit. Polls need more nuance.

Family. Family's there, always, even if you had a seriously bad quarrel. The socalled best friend? Can turn out to be a very self-centered bitch who turns your back on you after helping her through a seriously bad phase of her life, for pretty much no reason at all, when you could have really, really needed her, when it's your turn to need help to get through a bad phase.
Not bitter at all. #familyforever #loveuSis

To be a tad bit more objective - it depends on your family. Mine is not perfect, but we hold together. If someone needs help, we help each other. That's what's important, be it family or friends.

best friends are worth their weight in gold

my kids are terrible people and I love them for it; they're just like me

everyone else can go pound rocks

My rankings:

1. Close family (parents, sister)
2. Friends
3. Most strangers
4. People who use the weather for small talk
5. Men who hover outside lingerie stores in malls and you're never certain whether they're being pervy or waiting for someone
6. Extended family
7. Social media influencers
8. People who let their guard dogs run unleashed onto public roads

I'm personally disgusted by the results of the poll, but then you have people like Jooles here who just choose to interpret it in a completely different way for seemingly no reason at all.

I love my immediate family. They're some of the actual best human beings I know. But that makes me also consider them my friends, which is why I spend time with them, talk to them, etc.

If my family were toxic, I'd cut them the fuck out. And they know that. I have no time for bullshit, especially nazi bullshit. So many people I see tolerate absolutely garbage parents into their 40s for no other reason than they feel some kind of obligation to them "because family". It's so backwards and gross to me. But if you were to use Jooles' nonsense interpretation of the world, those people would just no longer "be family", even though this poll is *obviously* referring to blood relatives when it says "family".

Anyway, in case people didn't figure it out, I chose Friends, of which my immediate blood relatives happen to be some of my closest as well.