He wants to know what happened to avoiding politics and religion in polite company.
I’ve come to realize this concept of avoiding politics and religion in polite company isn’t one that’s shared by many other countries. In many cultures it’s as expected as discussing sports. I’m beginning to think our complete inability to discuss religion and politics with those that share differing views has created the situation we are now in.
Yeah, I live in a political city. It's just a given that you talk politics here, and I've never been uncomfortable having a conversation with someone just because they hold differing political opinions. Certain political opinions? Yes, I will be uncomfortable, but not just differing opinions.
Religion here isn't nearly as politicized either, so differing religions is just kind of a non issue. "Oh you're a Muslim, and she's a Christian, and he's a Jew, and I'm Agnostic. Cool, no one cares, let's get started on this project."
That's not to say that certain political issues aren't a source of intense conflict, but even then, our issues aren't as clearly delineated along party lines. Largely because we don't just have two parties, so it's not unusual for two people who align on an issue to vote for different parties.
We also don't identify with parties the way Americans do. I'm not "a Liberal" if I vote for the Liberal party, not unless I register to be a member of that party, which only a minority of people bother doing. But for any given election, I vary in voting between 3 different parties.
So we really don't have that clear political identity that automatically implies where we stand on any given issue.
Suffice to say, yes, being accustom to having casual conversations about politics and religion, and not being automatically divided by political identity definitely makes for more cohesive communities.
The vast majority of my professional colleagues and friends are staunch fiscal conservatives, but I would never assume that that says anything about their social values or their religious affiliations. So those tensions just don't exist unless given a specific reason to.
ETA: that said, pp's specific scenario of being stuck in a home with those people sounds like torture to me