this is difficult to respond to because it's purposely vague, though in general i think it's always a good idea to be who you are/express how you really feel. of course, there are situations where we self-censor to keep the peace, but it's your journal! hm, i don't know. it's hard to say without knowing what you disagree about. for example, it probably won't work out so well for you if you, say, disagree that the world is an oblate spheroid or that bush is a twat. ;)

even if you did, though, it's still your mind/life/journal. healthy debate/difference of opinion is a good thing. it's the stupid things people *do* to force others to take on their point of view that causes problems...like bombing clinics, for example. that would be bad.

i believe that true friendship should be able to weather the truth.

and you don't eat those wonderful mushrooms, and you're still my friend! :)

LiveJournal gives you fine-grained control over who sees which of your posts.
You could start being more selective.

You could go the brass balls route, but based on your post I'd say you have some skin thickening to work on first.

Its always best to keep in mind the tactful thing just so you know what you should have said when you let people know what you really think. :)

Honestly, be tactful but truthful. Its possible to be both. Some people, however, do not subscribe to the belief that you can still like someone you don't agree with on everything. In fact, they'll assume that any disagreement is casus belli and will instantly stop talking to you if you dare say something they find wrong. Personally, I think these people suck and you are better off without them anyway.

This is why I develop private codes with my friends. I can then use the same words to say different things to different people simultaneously.

I have the same issue with my private paper journal as well. I often wonder how, if I don't burn all my journals in my old age, certain things I write will be received. I use euphemisms and codes there too. It's a huge issue, the balance between the benefits of recording exactly what you think and the limitations of audience. Online, I definitely think about my audience a lot more than I think about writing exactly what I think. But then, I have the paper journal if I need to go deeper.

my opinion is that anybody who isn't interested in knowing what you really think doesn't have any business reading your journal. isn't expressing your opinion about things what a journal is for? i think as long as you're not directly insulting people you know are reading (i mean, unless you want to), you should talk about whatever the hell you feel like. :)

Now I'm all curious about what you're not saying!

I can't speak for all of your audience, but I'm not going to be offended if we have a difference of opinion.

There are things to be tactful about, but I don't think tact means never telling people what you think. Plus, friendships come with the exchange of ideas.

...as the sort of person who'd form an opinion without at least a halfway good reason. You also seem like the sort of person who'd be happy to have an arguement, as long as actual give-and-take and dialogue was going on.

So...more opinion, please! Friends who can't take the presence of ideas contradictory to their own are bound to freak out about something and become Too Annoying to Drink Beer With eventually. It's a law of science. Or it would be, if the Mellon foundation would just give me money to prove it.

This is something that I think about as well. Sometimes I want to express an opinion and I just don't give a fuck about what other people think. I know that chocolate covered pretzels are amazingly tasty, and if you disagree, you can go soak your head in boiling oil for all I care.

On the other hand, I've wasted too much of my life tiptoeing around issues and self-censoring because I was afraid of offending people and not having any friends at all. It's taken me far too long to realize how much I'd internalized my fear of being alone and how that lead to my concealing my opinions and desires. I've finally grown enough that I'd rather be honest and have a couple of friends than dishonest and have lots of friends.

You and I aren't close friends, but we've known each other for more years than I can easily count. If you told me tomorrow that you were a closet furry or a log cabin republican I'd be quite surprised, but I'd probably still feel the same about you as a person as I do now but also be happy you'd opened up and told me how you really feel about something that was important to you.