Yea, I try to not go down that path if available, but just tonight for example we were talking about an athlete who I lost respect for due to their not getting the covid vaccine when it was mandatory. I expressed that given the timing, I can empathize to an extent, but at a certain point, this person just ignored any procedure and didn't work for an alternative, which there were paths for. In reality, it shouldn't be a political opinion, but vaccines have become political.

I generally try not to engage in political discussion in person otherwise, but if I get pulled into it, I'm not in the habit of letting bigots speak without pushback, regardless of my relationship (boss, subordinate for example) to that person or persons. Silence is complacency. I try not to stir the pot, I'm not going to keep quiet just to not insult someone's opinions, but I do try to speak in a respectful manner for the sake of conversation rather than debate.

90+% of the time it's a non issue because I try to take steps to not be belligerent, and often times that leads to some level of constructive conversation or it just pivots to something else and we all move on amicably.