I have a friend who is a particular kind of conservative, and it's sometimes hard to deal with. He is a thinker, and I respect him for that, but his thinking is very selective and at least some of the time is used to support certain prejudices that he got, I think, from his family. He looks at police helping old ladies to their car in front of Synagogue, and sees favouritism. He looks at someone with Hebrew blood and assumes membership in a Zionist conspiracy. He sees people who marry people of other races, and thinks that it's best that races stick to their own kind. He sees Turks, and thinks of people who are out to destroy his homeland. This is hard for me to deal with sometimes. He, more than most people I know, has a wonderful mind that's given to philosophy. He's written complete material which at some point will likely become a book. He's cool to be around generally, and we share a number of common interests. I just wish I didn't need to be constantly dealing with his few ideas that are emotionally based and ill-founded that he's very vocal about. At some point, I might want to just sit down with him for a few hours and try to discuss these ideas with him -- I don't think I can necessarily undo the inherited (meaning instilled in upbringing, obviously) dislike of certain groups of people that exists in his mind, but I might be able to dispel the specific justifications that have popped up there and perhaps instill enough self-awareness as to their nature that he'll deal with things more rationally. Or, perhaps, I'll just make him angry or less willing to hang out with me. Sigh.