I used to work with a guy who was ideologically very dissimilar from me. He was (probably still is, I'd imagine) very conservative, christian, Pax-Americana neoconservative foreign policy, Glenn Beck, the whole nine-yards, and always eminently distrustful of anything liberal, left or democratic. We were on a two-person team, as product photographers for a small company, which meant that we often spent long periods of time in close proximity. I think some people probably would have loved a real life mute button for him, but to be honest I really didn't mind. Granted, sometimes when one of us wasn't really edging for a discussion, what the other person was saying would kind of go in one ear and out the other, but on the whole, I generally grew to enjoy talking with him. As the more issues we discussed, sometimes heatedly, we were able to identify points of common ground, albeit few and far between, and even times when we were unable to find agreement, sometimes his perspective would offer new ways of looking at things. It was difficult at times, because I would often find his ideas offensive at first blush, but being able to get past that is an important life skill. Having thin skin or a hard head can really hurt your ability to grow intellectually.