General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: I've lost my best friend, and it's because of Trump [View all]Warpy
(111,237 posts)by putting religion and politics discussions away in polite company. There are things I really don't want to know about otherwise pleasant people and those two top the list.
I'm guessing that the glue that kept you together was made of a lot more subjects than those two.
My own first rule for living is "never argue with a crazy person." When someone I otherwise enjoy starts ranting, I wait until they come up for air and ask "Are you done?" and change the subject. There are a lot of ways to shut down political or religious rants and that's the one I've found most effective when you have no interest in encouraging or engaging them.
If you do want to engage them, "where did you hear/who told you a silly thing like that?" wrong foots them and they can't get defensive over it and often they're the ones who change the subject.
The alternative to going Emily Post on them is leaving them floating around in the right wing hellscape with no potential reality checks available since the only people who tolerate them are in the same disinformation bubble. I'm not sure that's wise.