The other day I was at my boyfriend's dads house for a nice dinner. He's from Peru, quite happy socialist and his talks mostly revolve around "go to the gym, eat your fruits and veggies, love each other, etc." I've never talked politics with him.

His roommate - they've been friends for years - is a "holy-motherfuckering-shit-fox-news-is-fact." As in, I gasp a few times hearing his views. He's the most oldschool, badass guy I've ever met. Quite scary really, and I'm sure he has more than a few stories. Born and raised outside of Boston, drove trucks for 50 years, been to hell and back.

So we've finished dinner, drinking tea, talking, and somehow it gets political and in the next 10 minutes I floated between shocked, speechless, bewildered, and angry.

Some notable quotes:

-3 "true" stories about Reagan, one included the queen and farting and a joke or something. I'm not sure. But Reagan was THE most amazing guy.

-"Nuke em. Just nuke em. They deserve it." Me: "But don't you think there are better ways to solve issues that by killing everyone. Not every single person in the greater Middle East region is that horrible terrorist you see on TV...you know...there are kids too." Him: "....Hm...no...they're a lost cause...nuke Em. Kids can kill too."

-"Well wait until the gays get into our medicare and their AIDS raises the price to hell."

It was obvious that he had cherry picked and manipulated something he heard to fit into one glorious shocking sentence. There was no other side to the issue, nor was there more than the one sentence his side. None. But could I ignore him? Could I block him? No.

Would I have if it was possible? Probably not.

As much as it angered me, shocked me, and still makes my brain flip every time I think about it, there are real people out there that think like that. And those people are sitting across the table from me thinking "I can't believe there are people who think like that!"

So you can ignore them, block them, and stay away from them. That is perfectly acceptable. That is 100% your choice and I don't think anyone will hold it against you for doing so.

Another option would be to sit at the same table, listen to the crazy person on the other side, and have a great story out of it.

Or you can discuss further, get clarification on their points, try to really understand HOW they came to believe these things and see whether the media has brainwashed them or they just come from a different place and time than you. You don't have to agree with people to learn from them. And you don't have to like people to learn from them. An open mind is one thing the guy across from my table didn't have.

Who knows, maybe in 50 years you'll be that old school guy spewing the same one liners from the media (which will be embedded into your brain by then) at young kids across the table from you.