Housemate trouble brewing - advice welcome

[luzula]

So tonight there was a discussion in my home where one of us (let's call him K) turned out to have some pretty disturbing opinions. We were talking about this guy who is wrong on the internet, named Jordan B. Peterson. Among (many) other things, he's against no-fault divorce, thinks a woman in high heels who does not want to be harrassed is a hypocrite, is against climate science, etc.

I was sitting with N (another person in the household) and we were rolling our eyes at this guy's opinions. Then K came into the conversation and it turned out that he actually thinks this Jordan B. Peterson is a great guy. He thinks that Peterson helps young frustrated men with his sage advice and that the things we're reacting against are just things that Peterson is saying to provoke and gain an audience and that they're not that bad. And that we're only reacting to them because we're not Peterson's audience. *eyeroll* We asked him didn't he think people like this were a danger? Wasn't Trump a danger either (another person who spouts stuff like this to get attention)? And he...equivocated.

N and I were upset by this, and before they went to bed, N sent me an email saying that they didn't feel comfortable living with K anymore and that this was just the last drop. It's true that there are other issues. K does do his share of the housework (at least when prompted), but he never takes initiatives for example to decide when we need to clean or fix things and is passive in the process of finding new housemates when needed (we have one fourth room which is small and there's a higher turnover of people there).

Actually N feels bad that K got into the household without going through an interview process. K was originally a friend/acquaintance of N who was in a spot of housing trouble and stayed temporarily with us. Then the person in the fourth room moved out and K got that room instead, and he later moved into one of the bigger rooms when the person who had that room moved.

It's possible that eventually N would leave because they don't want to live with K (they said so). And I really don't want that to happen, because I love living with them! And I would definitely prefer another housemate than K myself. OTOH I don't know how I feel about booting someone out of the shared apartment. I have been booted out once myself (IMO for ridiculous reasons on the face of it, but I guess really because some people just didn't like me--in that case I ended up in a far better place afterward).

Am I just being conflict-averse here? I mean, being housemates is a relationship, and it is reasonable that relationships can end when one or more people don't want to be in them anymore. Legally I have this covered--I hold the lease and have a secondary contract with him that I could end--but I am more concerned about the social aspects of it.

Or am I being intolerant? I do think that one should be able to discuss differences and not immediately cut people out once they express different opinions than me. If someone says something I disagree with at one point, that doesn't mean they're forever a bad person. OTOH it's not the same thing to say that one should be able to discuss with people in general, as to say that one needs to have a housemate relationship with such a person. And there are the other issues as well.

We have also just admitted a new fourth member who seems lovely, and I am sorry about involving them in the drama of this. They're moving in on the 1st of December.

Any advice, O internet friends? Have you ever been through something like this?

Comments

[luzula]

Thanks! Yeah, I'm leaning towards asking him to leave, and if we're doing it, it should be soon. Not looking forward to the awkwardness that will ensue during the months before he moves out, though. : / But I guess that's unavoidable, if we're doing this.