In my experience, it doesn't hurt to ask your date what their preference is. My experience is very limited, but I think my results were something like 75% pleased that I had asked, and 25% slightly confused. Considering this comes from someone who accidentally got 100% of his first dates to be confused at some point during the evening, I'd say that's good odds. (filed under autism spectrum) — Ed Grimm 8 secs ago

FWIW if someone is talking about suicide, don't brush it off as not serious. — bruglesco 34 secs ago

Is that friend aware of the feelings you have towards them? — dhein 10 secs ago

It should be displayed as " in the edit box and say "quote" when hovering over it with your mouse. ( yellow box ) Alternatively I would suggest that it may be a good idea to add some kind of "explanation" why you don't want to touch those subjects. They don't need to be fully fledged out but something along the lines of an one sentence explanation like "and I prefer not to think along those lines, because it makes me too sad" or "and I prefer not to think along those lines, since I think we can't really say how we will react without it happening." should make accepting easier for most people. — Nico 47 secs ago

@Kate Gregory: You are totally right that this in fact is an intellectual game I enjoy playing. I see your point, and this is a good answer. But I will have to digest first what you wrote and will later have a few questions for clarification. As a) I never was considering the point, that even if it is not my views, the other person might not enjoy hearing this. And b) I am not sure if your answer is applicable without adding side notes about my personal views. As that's something I usually try to avoid for reasons, irrelevant to my OP. But I totally like the idea of using "they" instead of "I" — dhein 1 min ago

Excellent answer! This isn't enough for a new one, but I wanted to suggest that the I can't see why [X] construction is usually not literally what the speaker means- it's often a statement about the strength of their disagreement. They generally can imagine conditions which might produce a given view, but what they are saying is that they don't find any of those imagined points at all convincing, to the point that they find it strange that someone would persist in that belief. Not every time, of course, but often it's mildly colorful phrasing mixed with some hyperbole. — Upper_Case 1 min ago

Yeah, I did not mean to sound like I was disagreeing with you. It was just your answer led me to thinking, at least when I considered my answer. Which is a good thing, usually. So thanks! There may or may not be a difference in perception, to me it... "feels" like there is. But being wrong is something I have experienced before, so it is not unlikely. And yes, this is not the place to discuss gender equality or difference, I have seen a few comment threads blow up already. Have a nice day! — Stian Yttervik 45 secs ago