in being disgusted with Oxford SU inviting Marine Lepen???

Provocative or naive?

Some of us have experience of meeting and working with people with all sorts of views, some of them extreme. Others may have lead a more insular sheltered existence. If your view are being challenged, possibly for the first time, then it can take some time to digest and internalise.

Free speech and all that.

Actually given some recent posts (on pensions) she may have a valid point!

Point taken, Anya. I must exercise patience - and trust!

You usually come across as if you alread do Ariadne

I have probably led quite a sheltered life. I havent thought of it like that, but it probably has been.
And thinking about it, I wont have met many people with extreme views. Or even talked to many with extreme views.

Soem of you have also met others on here[not that that necessarily means we know all about someone], but I havent.

Have you never met any UKIP supporters soontobe?

I knew one who has since moved. That is it I think, as far as I know.

Why do you ask?

I once considered joining the Communist party (UK) - I had a very good friend at work who was a member. But when I looked into their principles there were a few I couldn't support, so stayed with Labour. I left them eventually, when they became almost indistinguishable from the Tories.
The Communist Party in France has a lot of support in fact the small villages are called communes.
Then at the other extreme is the USA where they seem to be scared of socialists!

Many of my neighbours are UKIP supporters.
I'm not

My American DiL's father watches Fox News

I think I might be married to a 'closet' UKIP supporter, not sure if he'll come 'out' or not. Should make for a few interesting conversations as the election heats up.

Years ago we had a visitor, the step-father of DD's friend who came to pick up his daughter. He was from SA. Because the girls had not come back from shopping I offered him a cuppa while he waited for her.
He launched into extremist views that would make the BNP look moderate. I have never felt uncomfortable in my own home except on that day.

Are you all trying to shock me?
It is helping a bit, actually.

I don't think it is a valid excuse to plead a "sheltered upbringing"
Which century is this we are living in?
I don't think I am aware of meeting many or even any rabid extremists of either (Right or Left wing) inclination, anyway not so's you'd notice-nobody waving a red flag or wearing a UKIP badge but I almost certainly have encountered them in the course of my everyday life. Having an open mind is what matters, thinking my own thoughts and coming to my own conclusions and you can't do that with your fingers in your ears!

So you havent met any either.

Don't follow the gist of your post at all Soutra you seem to be firstly saying you haven't met any 'rabid extremists' then you have almost certainly encountered them

I said I wasn't aware of having met any but have presumably encountered them. What is unclear about that?
By the law of averages any of us will have come across people of all shades of political or religious opinion, but if they are not tub thumping or flag waving it may not be necessarily relevant to know their views and one may be unaware of them. My postman /the village shopkeeper/members of my Literature class/ all at GNHQ may be members of UKIP or possibly Vulcans vegans but unless it comes up in conversation how am I to know? They don't go around with stickers on their heads!
I should have thought that was simple enough to understand.

Except the vegans Vulcans as they have pointy ears.

I too am "Not aware" of meeting them but "almost certainly have". If they don"t have a badge saying "MEMBER OF RABID EXTREMIST PARTY" and are not actually ranting when our paths cross, they could be meek middle-of-the-roaders for all I know.

But I have met people who expressed far stronger opinions on certain subjects than I would, and some of them were terribly respectable little old ladies.

Xd posts. Oh my, one does have to look out for people who misread posts, doesn't one?

I could start an extremist party for that

Surely this is basically an argumentdiscussion about freedom of speech. Okay, it could be in the Oxford Union or Speaker's Corner - one of the last truly democratic spots in London. Our freedoms are being eroded day by day, month by month and to me this is one of the tragedies of the 21st century. There are many on this forum who beg to differ on all sorts of subjects … that, soontobe, is freedom of expression, and I mourn it's demise.

As I referred to previously I had a French colleague who was a card- carrying member of the FN. His politics were not in tune with mine, but we worked together for many years without falling out over our differing political stances.

I remember (with some nostalgia) his highly un-PC remarks regarding some of the English families I had recruited to host French students. I went entirely on what the family in question was like...ie could they offer a student a warm family environment.... a clean home, some good outings etc..? On a couple of occasions two of my families 'ruffled his feathers', much to my amusement. He had to visit each student during the course of a two week stay..... on the first occasion he returned in a high dudgeon to enquire if I knew that the mother of the family had 'pictures' on her arms(he meant tattoos). I told him I did and what difference did it make? They were an excellent family with. impeccable references. 'But only gipsies or prostitutes have tattoos', he replied. I put him straight on that one. Then he was shocked to find I had housed a student in a family where one of the children was..... he paused at this point to control his feelings(!!)...a dwarf. DD2, who was about 12 at the time, fell about laughing. I almost did, but managed to look severely disapproving and told him, a) the word dwarf was no longer used in polite company in the UK, and b) what difference did it make anyway?

I never had any applications from ethnic minorities unfortunately, as I would have loved to have really tested his prejudice. Despite this we never fell out on a personal level and some twenty years later are still 'Christmas card' friends. Why should I fall out with a charming guy, who in every other way was a delightful guest in my home?

I have gay friends, homophobic friends, friends who are so far to the left/right they almost meet themselves coming back, friends who are vehemently opposed to woman priests, woman friends who were some of the first to be ordained, hunting friends, anti hunting friends... I may think some of them are deluded, bonkers even but they have a right to be heard.... unless they resort to physical violence, then that's another matter.

I rejoice in my wide spectrum of friends as I think it makes me a more tolerant person. I have some sympathy with those who only feel safe in the company of like minded friends, but why not be a bit adventurous and widen your circle? You might actually make some new friends
.
Sorry for such a long posting..... I do tend to go on.

Misunderstood perhaps Elegran

I have lots of friends already. I dont really make enough time for those I already have. I am not hugely sociable really, so grunt a bit when I have to go out sometimes. Especially in the evernings.
I have recently taken on a volunteer job which will force me to meet new people. Though I suspect they wont, in the main, be largely different from those I already know.

[I do think that this thread has rather veered. But granjura did leave a while ago].

Rosequartz - white South Africans. Their views do raise my hackles. We had friends here who were white S.A.s, and I once told them I thought that whites should never have colonised S.A. and stolen their mineral riches.
Silence. No reply. We remained friends but they've returned now.
I always resent the success of the S.A. rugby teams for the same reasons.