So help me. I am apparently the "only liberal" in the family according to my mother. We barely made it out of the airport before we started talking about some irrelevant thing that led to my sister testing for certification to teach and I asked about the new Texas curriculum (my sister is conservative, religious and teaching in California in a somewhat conservative town in Central Cali.) And of course I had to engage when she responded with "You mean the Muslim ones?" "Fox News never changes their story and it's always been right and it's been validated and they had 31 pages about Muslims and almost nothing about Christianity!'
We have some leftover Jack Daniels (or some such) from MIL's last visit and wine that I'm more than willing to chug straight from the bottle as needed. For medicinal purposes, of course.
Aaaand I just opened Facebook a little bit ago and my niece posted the Planned Parenthood sells baby parts but people are outraged about a lion meme. I love my brother, love my nieces, but the conservative bias runs deep with those ones.
Are these conservative views or just stupid ones? Because we have conservatives here and they have good sense and don't seem to have any of the beliefs listed above.
In this case, stupid, narrow-minded, not willing to listen to opposing viewpoints, railing against Muslims of all stripes, Mexicans use all our resources (damn illegals!) and I'm not racist but Obama is the devil and Planned Parenthood is all about abortions to sell baby parts conservatism. The ladies here aren't ingrained, used to be liberal "but I've always been Republican!" (yeah, mom, even when you were on welfare and Medicaid?) but I'm old and really have no reason other than the above to vote Republican conservatives. If they are, they do a darn good job of hiding it under reasonable, educated arguments rather than "Fox News and Rush said so!"
I did get her to admit to "separation of church and state" when I mentioned the woman in prison who wanted an abortion but the state is stepping in to sever parental rights to deny her one. "But she's in prison and using tax payer dollars so she doesn't have those rights. She can put the baby up for adoption." "It's a slippery slope, Ma. They sever her rights and then it goes a step further with the next one, and the one after that. Roe v. Wade and she has a right to choose." "That's disingenuous. Oh, well, come to think of it, I believe in pro-choice. I know people who have had abortions, including some in our own family. I wouldn't have one but I can't tell others not to. Oh, well, at least that guy wasn't allowed to get his transgender operation with our tax dollars." lol.
Are these conservative views or just stupid ones? Because we have conservatives here and they have good sense and don't seem to have any of the beliefs listed above.
My extended family (on my side) are pretty conservative, they mostly discuss or post about fiscal stuff and how spending money on programs or entitlements is not a priority and that church/non-profits are better suited to deal with those, not government - especially not Feds, they would prefer that money be allocated to state or even county level for programs so the county can decide the best way to spend money to help in their own community.
I'm sure they are anti-abortion, but they are caring and do a lot of volunteer work and help with social ills through clubs and church groups. Basically, they are compassionate and social drivers aren't their reason to be conservative. Only once in awhile do I sort of "check" a cousin or two on FB, but mostly I just say things like, "same goals, different plans to get there."
WOT?* - at least if she's doing well, maybe you can focus on shopping and helping her spend money on you. It won't make fox news go away, but maybe you can both agree to boost the economy together.
I'm so sorry! I sympathize. At least my family doesn't engage with me directly. They send passive-aggressive, bigoted email forwards/attachments. I got two yesterday!
Post by heliocentric on Jul 31, 2015 11:40:36 GMT -5
I know how you feel. It's the same way with my family. I love a good debate, but most of the time they have no legit, fact or logic-based argument, so it's just an exercise in futility.
Are these conservative views or just stupid ones? Because we have conservatives here and they have good sense and don't seem to have any of the beliefs listed above.
In this case, stupid, narrow-minded, not willing to listen to opposing viewpoints, railing against Muslims of all stripes, Mexicans use all our resources (damn illegals!) and I'm not racist but Obama is the devil and Planned Parenthood is all about abortions to sell baby parts conservatism. The ladies here aren't ingrained, used to be liberal "but I've always been Republican!" (yeah, mom, even when you were on welfare and Medicaid?) but I'm old and really have no reason other than the above to vote Republican conservatives. If they are, they do a darn good job of hiding it under reasonable, educated arguments rather than "Fox News and Rush said so!"
I did get her to admit to "separation of church and state" when I mentioned the woman in prison who wanted an abortion but the state is stepping in to sever parental rights to deny her one. "But she's in prison and using tax payer dollars so she doesn't have those rights. She can put the baby up for adoption." "It's a slippery slope, Ma. They sever her rights and then it goes a step further with the next one, and the one after that. Roe v. Wade and she has a right to choose." "That's disingenuous. Oh, well, come to think of it, I believe in pro-choice. I know people who have had abortions, including some in our own family. I wouldn't have one but I can't tell others not to. Oh, well, at least that guy wasn't allowed to get his transgender operation with our tax dollars." lol.
I'm not so good at biting my tongue, am I?
It sounds like at least she is pro-choice? Focus on the positive!