Don't interfere *Caution, rant follows

I had done so well...weeks I think, with no ranting! Oh well, it was bound to happen.

Long story short, I've managed to make people mad at me again. As the result of a forward sent by one of my in-laws, a family pseudo-debate on Ben's side was happening through emails about a movie that's coming out. It's based on a series of books by a British author. I've never read the books and until the email forwarded to me about it, had never heard of the movie. So I don't have a specific opinion on either.

One family member belittled another for sending the forward when they had no personal experience with the books. He said something to the effect of "don't pass forwards on unless they're worthwile," which I think is a valid point, but he sent it to ALL the recipients of the original message. So I emailed him back (just him, not all the recipients of the forward) and defended the sender of the forward, saying that there's nothing wrong with making people aware of potential controversies.

I later sent on (to all the recipients) some comments from the author's website (do "find: religion) to try and smooth things over. The family member who I DEFENDED emailed me back and said "who cares? It's fiction!"

I just don't get it. My whole purpose was to try and say "look, it's literature and therefore powerful. Thanks for making us aware of the potential threat so that we can check it out before we expose our kids to it. Of course, there is the possibility that the threat is a fabrication by religious zealots (ie Harry Potter), and so we should keep the other side in mind."

Lesson learned: don't try to discuss ANYTHING. Just ignore the pink elephant in the living room. Even trying to fix things will just make things worse.