You whisper your opinion to the person beside you.
Upon hearing your view their face transforms from eager engagement to utterly horrified.
‘You don’t like dogs!’ they shout.
All other conversations stop and everyone turns to face you.
There’s a moments silence before the questions start raining down upon you.
‘How could you not like dogs?’
‘What’s wrong with dogs?’
‘What’s the matter with you?’
At this point it’s easy to feel attacked or judged by the group. If you would like to come out of this precarious situation without resenting the interrogators I would recommend:
Outlining a few points to explain your reasoning and then reminding everyone that it’s just a point of view.
Like the Red Sox being the best team in the world is a point of view, like Ronaldo being better than Messi is just an opinion, like Spielberg is better than Tarantino is simply a perspective.
To hazard a guess at why the interrogators are behaving like they are, I think it’s just shock.
For a dog lover, who only hangs out with other dog lovers, to hear an anti dog loving opinion would be the equivalent of spotting a unicorn I’d say.
It’s just the initial shock, after hearing your reasoning they might even concede a few points and see your side of the argument.
But above all I would recommend reiterating that it’s just your point of view.
You do not want to get dragged into an argument defending your standpoint tooth and nail because those have the potential to never end.
Thomas Duggan 