Dealing with Politics and Family

How many family members have you quit speaking to family since 2014 due to politics?

  • 0

    Votes: 33 62.3%
  • 1

    Votes: 1 1.9%
  • 2

    Votes: 1 1.9%
  • 3+

    Votes: 18 34.0%

  • Total voters
    53

hanimmal

Well-Known Member
In 2017 after a couple years of dealing with my dad while trying to set up a farm on his land I couldn't take it anymore and decided it wasn't healthy for me to be there and had to walk away from my project. Since then we haven't spoken.

At the time I couldn't understand what was going on, he was constantly agitated, paranoid about the government dumping chemicals on him with contrails, dismissing the scientific methods i was using, the world was going to basically going to go nuts kind of stuff. Being a long time fan of this politic forum, I knew the gist of pretty much everything he was reading, and would try to get him to understand too, but I never took the time to show him how the propaganda posts work w half facts, and supposition and slanted blog style 'news' sites that are technically correct, but only show a small part of a story that doesn't counter their argument, etc. That is on me and I do feel bad I never took the time.

Anyways, I started seeing all the stuff coming out in late 2016 and in 2017 I realized that my dad's mindset is almost identical to Trump's, basically a full on internet troll. And as it turned out, he spent the couple years trolling me to the rest of my family (which is easy to do since we don't talk a lot, and when we do we try to keep it drama free as much as possible) to the point that by the time I figured it out, we had a full on family feud with me in the middle of it.

So this leaves me here now realizing that I have a family that each got sucked into the Russian(/Saudi/hate group/etc) internet propaganda trap, and no clue of how to combat it in order to bring my family back to a point we can talk about it. Since every time I do I hit a social landmine and they go full Mark Levin screaming at me for being a libtard and I lose my shit because you can only get yelled at for so long.

I wrote this post to get any ideas or experience anyone might have to give on getting past these kind of problems. I don't think the whole don't talk politics is going to work anymore since you can't touch a world topic without somehow getting troll goo on it (any side of the debate too). I personally don't care how people choose to vote, and while I don't like the white supremacist/evangelical agenda, at least they are Americans. Now we are dealing with outside countries trying to get us to vote for the most ignorant candidates and just want to sow discord in our country and I think meeting this head on is needed. But I can (and often am) wrong so figured I would ask you all for your 2 cents.
 
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Unclebaldrick

Well-Known Member
In 2017 after a couple years of dealing with my dad while trying to set up a farm on his land I couldn't take it anymore and decided it wasn't healthy for me to be there and had to walk away from my project. Since then we haven't spoken.

At the time I couldn't understand what was going on, he was constantly agitated, paranoid about the government dumping chemicals on him with contrails, dismissing the scientific methods i was using, the world was going to basically going to go nuts kind of stuff. Being a long time fan of this politic forum, I knew the gist of pretty much everything he was reading, and would try to get him to understand too, but I never took the time to show him how the propaganda posts work w half facts, and supposition and slanted blog style 'news' sites that are technically correct, but only show a small part of a story that doesn't counter their argument, etc. That is on me and I do feel bad I never took the time.

Anyways, I started seeing all the stuff coming out in late 2016 and in 2017 I realized that my dad's mindset is almost identical to Trump's, basically a full on internet troll. And as it turned out, he spent the couple years trolling me to the rest of my family (which is easy to do since we don't talk a lot, and when we do we try to keep it drama free as much as possible) to the point that by the time I figured it out, we had a full on family feud with me in the middle of it.

So this leaves me here now realizing that I have a family that each got sucked into the Russian(/Saudi/hate group/etc) internet propaganda trap, and no clue of how to combat it in order to bring my family back to a point we can talk about it. Since every time I do I hit a social landmine and they go full Mark Levin screaming at me for being a libtard and I lose my shit because you can only get yelled at for so long.

I wrote this post to get any ideas or experience anyone might have to give on getting past these kind of problems. I don't think the whole don't talk politics is going to work anymore since you can't touch a world topic without somehow getting troll goo on it (any side of the debate too). I personally don't care how people choose to vote, and while I don't like the white supremacist/evangelical agenda, at least they are Americans. Now we are dealing with outside countries trying to get us to vote for the most ignorant candidates and just want to sow discord in our country and I think meeting this head on is needed. But I can (and often am) wrong so figured I would ask you all for your 2 cents.
For what its worth, a whole lot of us are going through the same thing. Even the Baldwin brothers are fighting openly :razz:.

Do an internet search and you will find a bunch of articles about this topic. the advice most of them give is avoid talking politics but that doesn't go too far these days.

The way I see it is kind of like an incurable virus. A whole lot of people from both sides of the spectrum are having a hard time coping with the information age. You see it here every day. It isn't going to just go away. It may just get worse now that new technology allows people to easily take a picture of somebody and make them say or do pretty much anything. Older people are going to fall for this shit so easily. "I know you say that Obama was not a Muslim, but I saw a video of the man making a secret speech where he admitted he was and called for a holy war against white people."

Sorry, I don't have your answer. If I did, I would use it myself.

Good luck.

 

TacoMac

Well-Known Member
Best fringe benefit of a Masonic Lodge: Discussion of politics and religion are strictly forbidden.

Family doesn't have to be a blood relative. In my experience, family is who you decide to have in your life who happen to enjoy having you in theirs.

Anyone else is not worth dealing with.
 

topcat

Well-Known Member
I'm in a fairly unique position. My parents have passed and I have two siblings, a brother and a sister. I am the youngest at 64, My brother and I are of the same thinking, but he's married to a Republican. They now share the same e-mail address and she feels like she can respond to whatever I address my brother about. She seems to be of the "never Trump" section of old school Republicans, but I can't trust that. So, I will not respond to him in a public setting, either by the shared e-mail address, or his use of a fucking speaker phone, that anyone within listening distance can hear. My sister, it appears to me, runs her family and in exchange, votes the way her staunch Republican husband wants. She's non-political and never speaks of how she feels toward it, she's just been influenced by the Fux Nooz (TrumpTV) propaganda. It's hard to say, she won't talk about it. I have no wife, kids, or in-laws that I have to take into consideration, so I've bailed out of my family, because trying to reason with cult members is simply frustrating, so I don't even try. I've got many like-minded people that I now call family. Oh, all that, plus we were raised by the Golden Rule and that has vanished from the Republican Party. Treat others the way you would like to be treated. So simple, yet so difficult for some.
 

MidwestGorilla219

Well-Known Member
Both my mom and dad are very conservative, I still talk to them and love them we just can't talk politics. I imagine my kids will have a different political philosophy and we will be the same way when we get older.
 

too larry

Well-Known Member
My job is very public, and so was my wife's before she retired. We refuse to talk politics with anyone. No upside to it. I need customers or I don't work. I don't want to piss anyone off.

I have a cousin who will come by and try talking politics. When it doesn't work, he will say, "I sure miss your Mamma. At least she would argue with me." And argue is what most folks do. No one is getting their mind changed.

Sister doesn't have the restraint that I do, and her and a cousin have stopped speaking over her anti trump posts on Face Book. I haven't spoke to him in a long time either. Nothing to do with his politics, I'm just antisocial, so don't talk to any of my cousins.
 

Unclebaldrick

Well-Known Member
Hey @hanimmal, suggest to them that they do a youtube search on some of their favorite topics followed by the word "debunked".

The news yesterday was full of a story about a Facebook video that shows how to test your food for artificial ingredients. It is complete and utter horseshit claiming that "big business" is putting plastic in your rice. Yet it has been seen 93 million times. 93,000,000!

So they believe in chemtrails? Dare them to watch some videos after searching for "chemtrails debunked"

I am just posting this one because I like it so much. It shows the type of people involved in believing this shit.



Here's another. I love these people. "We never used to notice these ground level rainbows before." "This cannot be natural." "What the hell is going on?"

 
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too larry

Well-Known Member
Hey @hanimmal, suggest to them that they do a youtube search on some of their favorite topics followed by the word "debunked".

The news yesterday was full of a story about a Facebook video that shows how to test your food for artificial ingredients. It is complete and utter horseshit claiming that "big business" is putting plastic in your rice. Yet it has been seen 93 million times. 93,000,000!

So they believe in chemtrails? Dare them to watch some videos after searching for "chemtrails debunked"

I am just posting this one because I like it so much. It shows the type of people involved in believing this shit.

I have an old schoolmate who is married to a batshit crazy woman. She is around the bend with this stuff. He is into it a little, but she is just plain crazy. She is a sweet lady, and we go out to eat with them about once a year. And try to talk about hiking or Florida State Basketball.
 

zeddd

Well-Known Member
Hey @hanimmal, suggest to them that they do a youtube search on some of their favorite topics followed by the word "debunked".

The news yesterday was full of a story about a Facebook video that shows how to test your food for artificial ingredients. It is complete and utter horseshit claiming that "big business" is putting plastic in your rice. Yet it has been seen 93 million times. 93,000,000!

So they believe in chemtrails? Dare them to watch some videos after searching for "chemtrails debunked"

I am just posting this one because I like it so much. It shows the type of people involved in believing this shit.



Here's another. I love these people. "We never used to notice these ground level rainbows before." "This cannot be natural." "What the hell is going on?"

Too funny
 

TacoMac

Well-Known Member
I have an old schoolmate who is married to a batshit crazy woman. She is around the bend with this stuff. He is into it a little, but she is just plain crazy. She is a sweet lady, and we go out to eat with them about once a year. And try to talk about hiking or Florida State Basketball.
If his wife's initials are MB (maiden last name) and she's an RN that went to FSU and she's about 6 foot 1, I know exactly who she is. I went to high school with her.
 
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