What do you say to your friends that specifically don't want you to talk politics?

What do you say to people you know and respect who don't want to be informed?


Do you honor their requests? Or do you try anyway knowing it might upset them?





Or are people like these simply not allowed in your circle?




Im my life I have discovered 3 kinds of political people.
Us, Them, and those who don't want to know any of it!
Us, I can talk too.
Them, I can disagree with.
The deliberately apathetic, I don't know what to do!


What's your opinion?

I'm not usually around them anymore. Uniter not a divider has caused rifts.

I try anyway, at first. Then I don't see them again. I'm a political junkie. I've always talked about politics. If that makes them uncomfortable, too bad. I can't respect people who refuse to even hear the truth.


If they don't want to know any of it I don't want to know them.
Life is too short to waste on people who are willfully ignorant.

I have neither love nor respect for anyone who chooses to remain ignorant in such critical times. Ignorance of the truth will always be the enemy of freedom, and the willfully ignorant it's foot soldiers.

It's difficult to say the least. I always jump for joy when I'm in with like-minded people. The people who surround me at various times are for the most part....far from what I would like them to be - aware and eager to learn the facts. I can't dismiss everyone that disagrees with me or doesn't wanna hear my shit just because of a difference of opinions. I'm far too liberal to practice that. I've grown to be be fairly tolerant over the past 25 years. I've realized there are some you can convince and there are many who will forever, ever and ever prefer to live behind a wall of lies. They're only protecting themselves from what could be the opposite of the truth, or from the ugly, painful, jagged pill called truth. Only protecting themselves. I can't blame someone for protecting himself. All I can do is to blabber on about what I think, about what motivates me, my driving force and hope a few will catch on. I've become accustom to being in a minority. How many people do you think used to greet us with a victory sign as we marched (strolled, sorry : Zieg Heil !) through the streets in protest for worker's rights, against fascism and the ugliest forms of capitalism ? How many people do you think I stood with this past srping on a very cold and windy evening in the heart of Frankfurt, Germany to protest Bush coming to Germany and possibly asking for Germany's sons and daughters ? I'm not even German but I simply had to join that protest ! Well, okay, on second thought, my sons are German Citizens, as well as American. Yet, I was one of approximately 1500 outa a city of 650,000 not to mention the millions living outside the city limits - like me. I'm the only one in the office who rants and rages against the machine. Nuts for doing that....at the heart of the machine...I know. I have very few real friends.....but friendship is not only based on political affiliations. I say, if you wanna get close with me, be ready for some real ranting, political ranting. If you don't like what you hear, go away. If you can stand up against my arguments, do so. If you would like to further discuss matters, great, that's a beginning. I'm not out to force my medicine down anyones throat, but I will try to "poison" you with bits and pieces of the truth while we chat. After all, I feel I owe it to each person I meet. It's my duty to speak out. Even if it puts me in a minority....at a party, at work, at the pub (usually not), in church, on the street or wherever. Minorities have always been the key to progress.

Thanks Guys for replying, and I hear every word you say.

A number of years ago I got involved in Local Politics in Small town no where Montana.
I had become the political environmentalist and yes, over all I enjoyed it.

But there were times when fighting the machine made me feel helpless and completely alone. I wasn't asking for all that much. In fact and as I have stated in open city comission meetings, (still a part of public record too!) that I wasn't asking anyone the countu to do everything. I was only asking and I believed the people that voted for them agreed with me, I was only asking them to DO WHAT THEY COULD DO!

I learned first hand what it means to fight city hall!

One day in winter, I was feeling pretty blue when out of the blue I got a phone call from my mom. I don't know how you moms do it, but her timing was perfect. Anyway, after about an hour of explaining the istuation she said this to me....

Don't try so hard! Think of a brick wall. It's a pretty hard and solid wall too! Now, smack yer head against it. Kinda hurts eh? Do it again, then again, and again! At what point do you realize it hurts your head to keep doing that, and the wall hasn't been touched?

So try this. Lean on the wall. Find a weak spot and put pressure on it. Gradually, very slowly at first, the wall will crack and fall.

Think of a sidewalk. It's solid concrete. Nothing grows in concrete. But you go look and you'll see some have weeds growing in them. How they do that?

Some time ago I left small town no where Montana because 11k a year doing 3 jobs just wasn't gonna cut it. When I left my county had for the very first time ever, a municipal windrow compost, and a recycle collection site for just about anything that can be recycled. Every year I drive back to pick up my son for his summer visits and see what I accomplished by finding the weak spot and leaning on it.



The people around me who do not wish to discuss politics, have their reasons. A few of them are valuable enough to me that I forgive them, and will defend them their right to be ignorant. Still, they are a wall too! I have not given up!



An eMail I sent yesterday


Leaning on the wall requires patience and persistance.
and if you have no patience, at least be persistant!

OK, Today I went the round and round wth this woman.

I did not open this discussion with her, it just happened on it's own.
We stared talking about the price of gas and fuel economy in cars.
Without sharing the gorey details,
I wound up being accused of being a political extremist.
A political radical.

Because I have a blog,
and a my aol mail signature links to the soldier memorial on my blog.

And that my pushing this agenda on her, makes me an extremist.

I was asked if I expose my son to all this.
I said no, but if he asks questions, I provide him with the tools to find out himself.


Near the end, this woman who once told me that having an opinion based on ignorance was wrong,
the same women who has tald me over and over that she didn't want to know,
This same woman said we are all screwed,
that the devil is already in the east and he is coming!

Ive known this woman for a long time. At one time we were very close.
I'm afraid the lack of respect has me at a cross roads.


She prefers to be ignorant of the issues today,
and when the discussion came to it, and she realized it,
she became angry and hurtful.
(In more ways than I am willing to share here)

I guess being informed comes with a cost.
The great divider strikes again!