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I heard the advice to never talk to someone with conflicting ideas about politics or religion, but I never listened to it, because, well, I like intelligent debate, and I don't much care if we disagree as long as they have a good reason for their point of view. Well, I learned the lesson yesterday when I (stupidly) said that FDR may have had too much power. The statement wasn't as much of a problem as my audience: My father, who doesn't care, he'll have an intelligent debate, and my grandmother (his mother), who won't.

She proceeded to make him sound like a saint, and I just nodded, saying things like, yes, he did do a ton of good...

I thought it was over when we left a few minutes later, boy was I wrong. She called me and gave me a whole lecture on the good projects he started, asking me if I'd learned about them in school (Why, yes, I have) and then, when I pointed out that he had tried to pack the Supreme Court, she argued with me and said that all Presidents choose candidates for the Supreme Court (Well, not that way) and then, when she pointed out that he got us out of the Depression (actually, that may have been WWII, not Roosevelt, even though he did help restore a bit of confidence) I said the next stupid thing of the day "Yeah, well, Hitler got Germany out of their Depression too," *whimper* She was so shocked at the comparison, that I continued to agree that yes, it was different, and yes, Roosevelt was loved ( I think I did manage to throw in the 22nd amendment though)...

Then again, there are friends of mine, Writercxvii is one of them, who can talk to me about abortion, we disagree, and we can still talk about it...

And I, who am sort of Christian-y, used to talk to my agnostic/atheist/pagan (yes, I know these are not all the same, they are all the different religions of my ex's) ex's about religion.

But, anyway, ignoring my rant, do you think that you can, for the most part, talk politics and religion with others, or is it best not to open your mouth at all?

Cougar's right-it depends. I can discuss some things with my mother, but get onto the subject of abortions and she goes off on this whole rant about them. However, I've talked to my mother's priest with regards to whether or not God exists, and he'll admit that there's a possiblity that there is no god.

Point out to your grandmother that Hitler was loved, too. And, is this the Italian one? Ask her about our dear friend Benito.

Finally-you don't capitalize the 'w'. It's writercxvii.

Yes, the Italian one, she's my father's mother. And, am I okay with the whole abortion discussion?

Also, names are capitalized. On here, "writercxvii" is your name. So I make it "W" and not "w"

So there.

Then compare FDR to Benito. I'm sure she'll love that comparison.

I don't debate with people in real life. Unless they're philosophy professors. I used to debate with them. I never even debated with my English professors, because I learned fairly quickly that they were liberal arts drones. Not that I'm even remotely conservative, but I actually examine things for myself, rather than just taking something some feminist-theorist or liberal activist said as gospel.

I'm a little embittered by my liberal arts education, in case you can't tell. Almost as embittered as I am by my Deep South, conservative upbringing.

Heh. Glad to see I've impressed you with my life, oh Wanderer-of-the-streets. Honestly, I think you probably have it worse off than me.

That's awesome. heart

I don't so much feel that my life's never been bad, but that it's constantly getting better, so I really have nothing to complain about. Plus the fact that I don't regret anything I've ever done.

Out of sheer curiosity, why almost?