Used to do seventeenth-century Swedish military re-enactments with current and ex-military types, got along just fine because I specifically went there not to talk politics, but to dress up, make things go boom, then get drunk and play the fiddle. Occasionally I’d respond to something I couldn’t swallow with “You guys are horrible” followed by a chuckle; one fellow I didn’t know very well launched into a brief anti-Bolshevik tirade but I stayed out of it. It was kind of nice to know the current military fellow I hung out most with was decidedly against the war in Iraq.
They did suspect I wasn’t exactly the patriotic type but we never really talked politics at any point. I didn’t really care and neither did they. We were having too much fun doing other stuff.
The last bumperstickers I put on a car were “the earth is my church, the body is my altar” and a darwin fish.
Probably slides me right on over to the left (well, that and the living on communes and stuff), but my two best friends in the world are actively pro-Bush repubs.
**How do you feel when talking or interacting with someone who has very different political views to yours? **
Bleah, every friend I have but one is diametrically opposed to me politically. If I put politics before conversation I’d have almost no friends. I avoid talking about politics with strangers because I feel it’s not my business to know their politics and it’s not their business to know mine. The only place it’s mostly safe to talk politics is at work, where it sometimes can’t be avoided; and with my parents, sister and her husband. Ever have a confrontation, negative or positive?
I have had both. Negative, when somebody who is opposed to me and wants to mess with me has pushed the issue and wouldn’t let me rest until I told them my position; and positive when I was among family and coworkers.
I’m pretty easy going when it comes to talking Politics and Religion. As long as the other person is willing to let me own my own opinion, I’m have no general problems listening to whatever wild shit they care to come up with.
With two caveats;
1> If they’re basing their belief on something factually wrong, I have no issue pointing out their error. (I’m not talking about metaphysical issues here, because either way, there is no definititive proof. I’m talking about “Obama is a Muslim” or “The (Group X) are doing such-and-such” that I can easily point them to facts on-line that will resolve the situation.
Sometimes that causes problems because the other person is so invested in their belief that they become angry at the proposition that it might be based on false information.
2> If they try to insist that I accept their beliefs, things will not end well.
Oh, and by the way, I call myself a Social Libertarian, meaning that I’m fairly Socialist in the management of the Common Good, but fairly Libertarian when it comes to the rights of the Individual.