Friendship

Friendship for the sake of conversion?

It seems to me that being friendly with somebody just to bring them round to your way of thinking is a bad thing.

I can understand how being nice and polite can help convey a point, but if the person in question is reasonable then a logical sentence should easily be formed that can convince them. No heart-string pulling, friendly worming required. Surely having to resort to that undermines the validity of your point. If it can only be carried on the back on a friendly emotional appeal then it can't be that strong. The conversion itself is therefore carried out based on faulty reasoning as it comes loaded with this emotional baggage so is not really a conversion.

It also treats the person as a statistic. You aren't being friendly with them for who they are and....oh by the way X. The friendship is a means to an end, a tool in the hands of the convertor. They don't really care about them on a personal level otherwise they wouldn't be doing it this way. The conversion would be coincidental if they were truly friends.

Friendship for the sake of conversion is not a true friendship and not a true conversion

(this does not cover coincidental conversion whereby the friendship just happens to be)