Since I decided to get sober, I've found that I'm not half as close with most of my friends as I used to be. I'm 22 and a college student, so a lot of people that I once considered close friends are still drinking and popping pills every second night. There's about 3-4 of the original extended group of 30+ that I still consider friends, and in fairness, they're some of the best friends you could hope for. They supported me 100% when I said I had a problem with alcohol and had to quit, unlike others who tried to convince me that I don't have a problem, even though I knew better.
It seems that since I stopped drinking, they have no interest in hanging out with me anymore. I was a happy drunk and I was always generally too intoxicated to get lost in my thoughts. Since I've been sober, I've read up on a lot of different topics and expanded my knowledge of political and social issues. I'm quite strongly opinionated and I'm quite vocal and blunt with those opinions. I've tried to be quiet and shy like other people I know, because they tend to come across as "nicer", but I just can't. If I feel strongly about something, I have to speak up. I made a Facebook post the other day outlining a viewpoint that could offend some people (truthfully, I probably could have taken the time to exercise a little more tact in my wording) and I was bombarded with messages from a lot of my old friends telling me to "stop being such an *******" and "just shut up". Some of them went on Twitter and unfollowed me. I'll just say that my post related to my contempt for radical feminism, and I thought it was topical considering the misogyny debate following the Elliot Rogers thing. I don't think it was particularly over the top either. I didn't say anything that hadn't already been said by people with a much wider audience than me.
I don't want to censor myself or compromise my egalitarian principles for the sake of keeping a few people happy, but I'm pretty insecure (which is probably why I took to the drink so much initially) and I'm worried that the rest of the group will try to turn the 3-4 friends I have left against me. I've witnessed some of them do petty, vengeful things like that before.
I'm trying to repeat the Aristotle quote in my head to reinforce my belief that I'm not wrong: "To avoid criticism; do nothing, say nothing, be nothing" but it doesn't comfort me when I start convincing myself late at night that everyone hates me. Is it worth compromising yourself as a person to avoid offending some people? Any advice or similar stories would be appreciated. I'm in a pretty bad place right now.
I decided to ask for advice on this site because of the kind, mature community. Apologies if this is in the wrong section.
