Problem I'm having with one of my friends

[PinkFloyd]

My friend (we'll call him Drew) has always been into debating about basically all the things that are debated on here; so you know, science, religion, gun laws, all that. but he always kept it to himself and other people that actually like those types of subjects. For about about 2 weeks now, he's been trying to engage the table in these annoying debates. Just today, he brought up abortion. That's what marked the line that I don't want to cross. I'm fine with debating once in a while, but I don't want to discuss the most recent economic downfall of the US government when I'm eating. Because of that, I've steered the conversations to more normal topics like cars, TV shows, movies, and more things that guys talk about regularly.

I'll be talking about cars and all of a sudden, Drew will fuck it all up by asking what our views on the Old Testament are completely out of the blue. Today and past days, I've asked him to stop talking about serious things like that but he just tosses what I say out the window and keeps blabbering about politics. I actually told him this yesterday: "Drew man, I know you like talking about your views on major world issues and what not, but please try to not talk about it at lunch. It's not in any of our interests. You like movies, right? Why don't we talk about that?" Even after that, he went back to debating the next day. There's literally no way of reaching him. I'm honestly worried because my other friends at the table want to kick him out of the table unless it stops.

Do any of you have ideas on what I can to to stop it from happening? I don't want to be mean and shun him like everyone else... Sorry about the lengthy post.

[Croconaw]

You could do the obvious thing and not be friends with him anymore, but that's kind of extreme. If he won't listen to you, tell him it's getting on your nerves. If he respected you as a friend, then he wouldn't do things that aggravate you. He needs to respect your opinion that you don't have an interest in politics. Next time he tries to interrupt the conversation with debates, ignore him. He might realize that you definitely don't want to participate in the debate. It should be easy enough, considering your friends are just as frustrated as you are.

[Plane And Simple]

I have a friend like that too. We just got to put up with it because he goes on saying he's got the right to speak about what he wants. Fuck it.

[AlexOnToast]

Annoying things like this are why I go outside and play soccer at lunch. When I used to sit in, there was this one guy who never shut up about how bad the government is, how anyone who is anti-choice should be executed, how execution is wrong, how awful gays are treated. I honestly couldnt fucking stand to hear his incessant shiteing on, and neither could anyone else. So he ended up being essentially told to shut the hell up because nobody cared and him pouring out his Holier-that-everyone-else attitude was not going to change the world.

He lives in Canada now tho, so the whole issue resolved itself.

Actually, I just realized how none of that is going to help your situation. Sorry :/

[Tarannosaurus]

My friend (we'll call him Drew) has always been into debating about basically all the things that are debated on here; so you know, science, religion, gun laws, all that. but he always kept it to himself and other people that actually like those types of subjects. For about about 2 weeks now, he's been trying to engage the table in these annoying debates. Just today, he brought up abortion. That's what marked the line that I don't want to cross. I'm fine with debating once in a while, but I don't want to discuss the most recent economic downfall of the US government when I'm eating. Because of that, I've steered the conversations to more normal topics like cars, TV shows, movies, and more things that guys talk about regularly.

I'll be talking about cars and all of a sudden, Drew will fuck it all up by asking what our views on the Old Testament are completely out of the blue. Today and past days, I've asked him to stop talking about serious things like that but he just tosses what I say out the window and keeps blabbering about politics. I actually told him this yesterday: "Drew man, I know you like talking about your views on major world issues and what not, but please try to not talk about it at lunch. It's not in any of our interests. You like movies, right? Why don't we talk about that?" Even after that, he went back to debating the next day. There's literally no way of reaching him. I'm honestly worried because my other friends at the table want to kick him out of the table unless it stops.

Do any of you have ideas on what I can to to stop it from happening? I don't want to be mean and shun him like everyone else... Sorry about the lengthy post.

Is there any way you could compromise with him? E.g. 'Fine we'll have this one debate, for a few minutes, but afterwards we are talking about movies'. Tell him that he can talk about politics sometimes, but not every lunch, and he has to respect the other people at the table. And maybe actually tell him that if he doesn't respect the rest of you, he can't sit at your table.

[frisbee25]

My friend (we'll call him Drew) has always been into debating about basically all the things that are debated on here; so you know, science, religion, gun laws, all that. but he always kept it to himself and other people that actually like those types of subjects. For about about 2 weeks now, he's been trying to engage the table in these annoying debates. Just today, he brought up abortion. That's what marked the line that I don't want to cross. I'm fine with debating once in a while, but I don't want to discuss the most recent economic downfall of the US government when I'm eating. Because of that, I've steered the conversations to more normal topics like cars, TV shows, movies, and more things that guys talk about regularly.

I'll be talking about cars and all of a sudden, Drew will fuck it all up by asking what our views on the Old Testament are completely out of the blue. Today and past days, I've asked him to stop talking about serious things like that but he just tosses what I say out the window and keeps blabbering about politics. I actually told him this yesterday: "Drew man, I know you like talking about your views on major world issues and what not, but please try to not talk about it at lunch. It's not in any of our interests. You like movies, right? Why don't we talk about that?" Even after that, he went back to debating the next day. There's literally no way of reaching him. I'm honestly worried because my other friends at the table want to kick him out of the table unless it stops.

Do any of you have ideas on what I can to to stop it from happening? I don't want to be mean and shun him like everyone else... Sorry about the lengthy post.

That a lot like my friend. Sit down and talk to him and say could we debate way less i'm tired of it. It gets on my nerves quite a bit maybe we could talk about something else please and thank you

[AlanPeanuts]

Well, if he doesn't stop doing it, and he does something that really annoys you, than I hate to say it but he isn't really your friend I guess. If you annoy eachother or he annoys you and you two don't share interests then what's the point? Maybe try to find something else in common I guess. Sorry I'm not much help on this.

[Ethe14]

I have a friend exactly how you describe yours. This is what I asked him to do, on the bus ride home him and I will talk about it as much as he wants because I'm interested in it but at our lunch table talk about Vanoss and other things. So far he's done an awesome job and he content with just talking to me about those things. If your interested in what he talks about just mention it later and in private.