One of the people I most like to talk to about the most things (especially serious shit) is one of these guys who went through the metamorphosis. When he was younger (before I knew him), he was a liberal and a fallen Catholic. Now he is very devout religiously and very conservative politically. He knows his shit and although he hedges in biased directions pretty noticeably at times, I find he often has a balanced perspective and when he doesn't, it really challenges me to define and defend my own opinion better.

My best friend from childhood is into all sorts of funky political shit, like he knows the ins and outs of libertarian-ism, he's identified himself as an anarchist, he knows all kinds of weird ass german economists, etc. Often our politics have clashed and we've gotten in deep ass arguments. I think we have both been forced to think critically during these disagreements.

I would never really let it affect an existing friendship, to be honest.

That said, I do dismiss the fuck out of people who have some cookie-cutter, bumper-sticker-ass political philosophy when I am getting to know them