politics

I'm still trying to have a relationship with my parents despite their love of Trump. My mother, she'll go out of her way to avoid politics with me and my husband, and I asked for a family photo with my nieces and nephews for Christmas, and she made sure all their Trump paraphernalia was removed. I still havent talked to her since the election as I'm still processing the fact that she voted for that fucker.

My dad on the other hand...the last time I spoke to him ended in a screaming match that he initiated, where he hung up on me because I called him racist due to him UNIRONICALLY believing that immigrants ate dogs and cats.

They want to homeschool my niece and nephew, and that terrifies me. That was ANOTHER huge argument that we had over the 2021-2022 Christmas period. I really didnt think Id ever go back after that. But Im so scared that if I dont try, those kids will never be exposed to ANYTHING other than my parents hateful views. I grew up in that environment. I had some views that Im not proud of today until I left home @ 19. I know how fucking convincing they are/how much they push the "fAmIlY oVeR eVeRyThInG" narrative.

That being said, I dont live anywhere near them, and I only see them once, maybe twice in a year, so Im not sure exactly how much affect I can even have on my niece and nephew. But I feel guilty not trying.

They are increasingly seen as moral judgements when people use their assumed morality as a platform from which to take rights away from people. Rights away from women and lgbtq at the forefront, but we’re also facing worker’s rights, your rights when encountering police as a minority, the law being more meaningless the more money someone has, your right to life in an increasingly gun-infested country where just standing in the wrong driveway will get you shot.

So it’s pretty easy to see why you don’t want to be around them.

This is what we're going through with my in laws right now.

I say this, as a parent, to people who worry about cutting off their parents if their parents are toxic people:

You owe your parents nothing. You did not ask to be born. They owe you everything. That's their duty.

Parents? My friend volunteered as a poll worker on the University campus here. At his location, 25% of the students voted for the orange fascist.

Dump your family. If this is how they’re gonna behave they don’t deserve you.

Also get them the shitty nursing home.

I'm not young anymore but I would say that I'll never forgive my parents for their blind support of this shit.

The same people who have the nerve to tell you (fakely) they're proud of you and think you're really smart. But somehow I'm wrong about every single thing I've told them about trump for 9 years now

According to everything I've read, Trump was voted in by every demographic in swing states and even non-swing states.

I know that it's a instinctive flex to dump on boomers (with good reason) but this calls for a bit more of a deeper analysis.

Don’t deal with them. Walk away. You’re allowed to be mad at your parents for electing a felon dictator. You’re allowed to hate them and not talk to them again. That’s their loss, and you don’t need such toxic people in your life.

"conspiracy theories" like White People are The Genetic Master Race , Black People Haven't Ever Invented Anything As Far As I know, Political Disagreements Of Any Kind Only Began After We Let Women Vote , Racial Equality is a Communist Plot Maybe, Lets Not Have It, If a Single Italian Is In Heaven, I'll Throw Myself Into Hell , and I Drove By a School and Saw a Mexican Kid, This Country Is Already Lost, And I Bet The Jews Did It

I’m late 50’s and so is my wife. My parents are gone but hers are all MAGA all the time. She hasn’t talked to them much in years. It’s not just younger adults but older ones as well. I still have trouble comprehending what has happened.

Why are they still claiming "fiscal conservatism" is anything more than racism and class warfare by a different name? Why are conservatives "stronger on economy?" Of course this is causing divides about morals; a vote for the GOP is a vote for oppression and hate.

This bullshit dog-whistling by the media has to stop or we're just letting 70+ million American voters off the hook by letting them claim "but I'm just worried about the economy."

edit: I can't find the source right now, but there's a quote about this. I'm paraphrasing, but it goes something like "historians have a term they use for a person who voted for Hitler because they liked his economic policies. That term is 'Nazi'"

Not too strange of a phenomenon if one considers what populism focuses on, the fabrication of divides in order to drive tribal responses from it's followers.Trump's rhetoric is only one variety of it that happens to be very effective at creating that divide, those that are swayed shouldn't really be seen as people that support all of his nastiest views, but as people that have been taken in by that sense of tribalism.

The loss of community is increasingly problematic for individuals in this day in age. There exists too many groups vying for our attention, many of which being communities that span across the globe. And with all these options, local communities may not always seem preferential to these global ones due to comparative size or accessibility. However, they still generally offer much more, and can prevent people from feeling isolated in their lives. Populist campaigns seek to take these people that are divorced from a community, often socially isolated people, and give them a group that seemingly supports them. So long as it's welcoming, it doesn't really matter who's at the head of it, nor it's beliefs.

I feel the fact that older people that aren't quite retirement age and younger men being the people that are most likely to vote for Trump kinda speaks to this theory. I feel like these groups are the most at risk when it comes to developing rewarding communities, so a group like MAGA could be appealing to them.

This headline is stupid.

Maga is the taliban, they're the feeling of disgust made into a group, and they're driving their friends and family away, and then dipshit news articles like this one pretend that it's the normal people's issue.

Studies suggest political divisions are increasingly seen as moral judgments, fostering a “mega-identity” where political views signify personal decency.

I think this is important information that doesn't get enough attention. The divisions that exist in the US today are often portrayed in the media as mostly superficial, as though we only disagree on the minor details of public policy choices, but generally agree on the core principles. I don't think that's true. I think there are significant ideological, philosophical, and moral disagreements among Americans. We have fundamentally different ideals, and we have differing visions of how America should be, and for how people should act and behave.

There are not only two different visions. I don't think it is a strict dichotomy. I think there are several different, visions for the US. Some left, some right; some that want to focus on religious, social, cultural, or ethnic issues, some that want to focus on economic or material issues. There are multiple different ideals competing for supremacy, since the US is a de facto two party system, the winners are which ever groups can form the largest coalition of voters.

I'm skipping Thanksgiving