Moral dilemma, good versus evil and right now evil winning.

[Shoeempress]

I have an acquaintance, you know how it is, in the same circle of friends. She is much younger than I and has approached me because she will be traveling to some European cities I am familiar with. I am always happy to assist people who have not been to these cities with info and I am happy to do the same with her. But here is the dilemma. She is a chimpy supporter. Now, I will be straight up with the info, BUT do I tell her that these lovely people in these lovely cities, HATE chimpy, or do I leave that out and let the chips fall where they may. Right now, several cocktails later, I am tempted to tell her that these folks LOVE chimpy and she should mention she feels the same. But I know if she does, she will be hassled mercilessly. It is her first trip to Europe and I could really ruin it for her. Worse, she may just think "them there Europeans is just rude". Tell her to hide her USA citizenship, tell her nothing or tell her they LOVE chimpy and have her trip ruined and get a rep as a ruthless Machiavellian, which I really have no problem with?

[Crunchy Frog]

1. I say just leave the subject completely alone

and let her have a constructive learning experience in Europe. At any rate, she's just as capable of researching these things as you are isn't she?

[LeftyMom]

2. Tell her what you'd tell any other tourist

One would hope she has the good manners to avoid discussing politics with strangers. If she doesn't, it's probably not your place to offer a remedial course in polite conversation.

[meganmonkey]

3. It's a tough call

My first instinct is that anyone who doesn't already know how much chimpy is hated deserves a rude awakening.

On the other hand, maybe talking to her about it would give you an opportunity to explain what we look like from the other side of the ocean. Maybe she'll learn something. If she goes over there clueless, she probably won't learn anything constructive about our relationship with the rest of the world.

:shrug:

[Igel]

4. I have to say, 4 months in various bits of Europe over the

years and not once has politics come up.

No, I take that back. Once I was harangued by a woman that hated the poll tax that was being discussed in London at the time.

I can see how Iraq could come up. But I doubt anybody's seriously hoping, or can seriously defend, vanilla statements like "I hope the US can withdraw soon from Iraq". If she tries to avoid giving offense--and that's not a hard thing to do--she'll be fine.

[FloridaPat]

5. Americans are horrible enough when they leave the country. I say

warn her and hopefully she has enough brains to keep her mouth shut.