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hyperhazard posted:One of the quickest ways to change people's toxic way of thinking is for them to personally know people their hatred is affecting. It doesn't work with everyone, but if someone has the ability to become a decent person, they'll begin to question their beliefs. https://www.zenpencils.com/comic/journey/
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Jan 21, 2021 19:38
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You only really hear about that when it works, not so much when a racist shithead travels to a new place and continues to be a racist shithead making life miserable for other people. There are some cases of bigotry that are borne more out of ignorance than anything, and then there's other time when it's just because someone is an awful person. The former can be cured with travel, the latter cannot.
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Jan 21, 2021 22:13
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PT6A posted:You only really hear about that when it works, not so much when a racist shithead travels to a new place and continues to be a racist shithead making life miserable for other people. There are some cases of bigotry that are borne more out of ignorance than anything, and then there's other time when it's just because someone is an awful person. The former can be cured with travel, the latter cannot. Well sure, although there is travel and there is flying to the same goddamn cheap flights beach every year being waited hand and foot by the natives who all speak your language. See: Brexiteers in particular being pissed off about their yearly Canaries flights being suddenly much more complicated (even before COVID)
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Jan 21, 2021 22:57
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OwlFancier posted:Politics is how people would treat you if they didn't know you. 
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Jan 21, 2021 22:58
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Travel definitely gives you the opportunity; my shift left started with experiencing how the rest of the world views us WEIRDos in the USA. On the other hand, I've known people who travel and just come back with a list of complaints of how the country was dirty, the locals were insufficiently deferential, the food tasted wrong, etc. The question is: how do you open people to new ideas? That's a trait well correlated with liberalism, and i believe it's innate to everyone; we certainly have it as kids. How do you maintain that throughout life? Especially when tribalist factors put pressure on declaring things Outside the Circle.
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Jan 22, 2021 02:13
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Cobalt-60 posted:All news programs have the same audience of Scared White Middle-Class People. They target a different cross-section of the demographic. Fox just raced to the bottom first. Rachel Maddow has an entirely difference audience than Sean Hannity The same goes for Anderson Cooper vs. Lou Dobbs. Or Good Morning America vs. Fox and Friends. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind overlap from a demographic perspective but the OPs original agreement that these media companies were the same just different perspectives - which is a flawed comparison.
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Jan 22, 2021 02:18
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This feels apt to post here, I’ll delete it if not. https://youtu.be/qud-CiuJTnI
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Jan 22, 2021 04:14
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PT6A posted:You only really hear about that when it works, not so much when a racist shithead travels to a new place and continues to be a racist shithead making life miserable for other people. There are some cases of bigotry that are borne more out of ignorance than anything, and then there's other time when it's just because someone is an awful person. The former can be cured with travel, the latter cannot. Yeah, don't get me wrong, there are plenty of asshats out there who will continue to be asshats until the day they die. I feel like American expats/TCNs/foreign nationals (whatever you want to call them) run in small circles, and you end up living next to the same couple in Jakarta that lived down the block from you in Lagos, especially if you're being sponsored by the same global conglomerate. You see the same people over and over for decades, and most people change over time, but some just...don't. You'll have one person who's never left their small town in Texas embracing the culture and learning the language and making friends all over the world. But then there'll be That Couple who hasn't lived in the US for two decades, but constantly talks about how much better things are in America, how inconsiderate the locals are, how horrible the food is, and then moves on to the next place to do it all again. Surprise surprise, we had "family friends" like that when I was young. They lived in Tokyo for something like five years, and when they talked about it, all they'd do is complain about how they couldn't find toothbrushes that they liked. (You'll be shocked that they currently love Trump and complain about liberals ruining the country.)
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Jan 22, 2021 05:36
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Now I’m someone who lives to kvetch, especially as an American leaver, but...toothbrushes? Moving to Sweden has opened my mind which I’ll never ever truly fully appreciate. Both to new experiences and ways of life and what have you...but also taught me the faults of Americans are faults found globally. Perhaps expressed differently, but we’re all cut from an incredibly dysfunctional cloth.
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Jan 22, 2021 06:06
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e.pilot posted:This feels apt to post here, I’ll delete it if not. This video and recent RL personal events just have me shaking my head and grinding my teeth. Because I feel utterly helpless in the face of the core issue. Your side are liars. Mine tell the truth. I was told that there were BLM people in the Capital half an hour before Trump began his speech. You get the implication. People say no, it was Trump people? They're lying. Picture proof? Lies. Video, audio, all of it misrepresented, selectively shown, wait no, it's all made up. Here's a doctor saying COVID isn't so bad, lockdowns are bad, and so on. What about all the other doctors who say otherwise? They're lying. The pharma companies want to make money, so they push lies. COVID is a man-made virus. No, studies show it was zoological. Nope, those are lies. And so on, and so on. And that's excluding religious issues. What is the point of trying to save X, when 300,000 babies are being killed every day? Where does that number come from? Let me check. Here's counter information. Nope, those are also lies. My side cannot be lying to me. Yours must be. Is. The worst part is, I get it. I recently had a minor spat with a friend, and for a few hours I was dwelling on it. I knew I was wrong, but that didn't stop me, hell it encouraged me, to keep trying to think up ways around it, or ways to undermine my wrongness. People don't like to be wrong. It feels bad. People don't like feeling bad. I accepted it, but that's the issue. Back in the day, if you were wrong, you either learned, or were isolated; at best you might have a tiny pocket of like minded people to try and assuage your ego. But now, if you feel bad, you can just go seek out some place that will take the bad feeling away. The world is at your fingertips and you can find many, many more than just a tiny pack in a tiny corner of the globe. A place to chase away the bad feeling, make you feel good. It's almost expected. What do YOU do when you feel bad? Don't you want it to stop? Truth just seems to have ceased to exist. Anything you present can be said to be lies. There's no drat argument you can make. In the end, we're facing a drug epidemic beyond anything crack cocaine or opiods caused, because it can be made within our own head, and our own brains and instincts are naturally compelled to do it. I feel like we're looking at a world of rats pressing a button that makes wires in their brain cause pleasure, just sitting there starving and completely oblivious to that fact.
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Jan 23, 2021 10:32
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There have always been two motives for belief, and the arbiter of these has always just been stark reality killing you/your tribe if you stray too far into the crazy. In a comfortable, satisfied society, these existential checks are weakened. These are the paradigms: 1. Wanting to have accurate beliefs that can be applied for the benefit of one's self and others. These beliefs are continuously challenged and modified to make them as close to reality, and therefore as profitable, as possible. Bob gets fired. He is surprised and alarmed by this unexpected event that conflicts with his world view. He reacts by analyzing what got him fired as honestly as possible, and decides he should stop taking 3 hours lunches and harassing co-workers. He gets a new job. This success encourages Bob to further improve his worldview and self image to further improve his life. 2. Wanting self-serving beliefs that make me feel good right now or medicate some kind of pain, fear or insecurity. These beliefs are fundamentally tenuous, as they clash with reality, and must be aggressively reinforced by cherry picked data, propaganda and groupthink. Ted gets fired. He is surprised and alarmed by this unexpected event that conflicts with his world view. He reacts by adopting pleasant lies from an internet forum. Brown people stole his job, and politicians are conspiring against his industry or demographic. Ted remains un/underemployed as his life gets materially and socially worse and he develops an ever more extreme and unhealthy worldview. Ted is destitute, but satisfied in being a good person in a good group, heroic as a martyr of imaginary evils. Bob can be reasoned with and Ted can't, so don't bother. Ted is immune to facts because his faith is just a coping drug. The only reason Ted will seek or assimilate any information at all is because, on some level, Ted does understand that he's lying to himself. He needs data and assent from others to keep the fantasy alive. Only corroborating information is even considered. Counter information is interpreted as either useless, or as a personal attack on feelings. The only escape from this trap is for things to get existentially bad for the deluded person, and reality to hold a gun to their face. If you want to help them, you can only accelerate their decline while non-confrontationally offering alternatives. Reasoning or persuading at them will only make them more intransigent. Preen Dog fucked around with this message at 18:11 on Jan 24, 2021 |
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Jan 24, 2021 18:08
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I nod along in general agreement until the last paragraph:Preen Dog posted:The only escape from this trap is for things to get existentially bad for the deluded person, and reality to hold a gun to their face. If you want to help them, you can only accelerate their decline while non-confrontationally offering alternatives. Reasoning or persuading at them will only make them more intransigent.
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Jan 24, 2021 20:20
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indiscriminately posted:"Accelerate their decline" may mean "make them suffer until they die from it", and if I believe that then it can't be a moral action. Point out their illusions, why they're wrong, what insecurity they're medicating, who they hurt, and make them feel that hurt in a poetic irony way if you can. The person will either smarten up, or reveal themselves as a genuinely malicious anti-social actor that deserves no pity or regard. If a person holds an attractive belief that hurts others, self-consciously or not, out of weakness or malice, they are a material threat that needs to be stopped, even if you can't directly see the harm they do. Granted you won't convince or even influence anyone that way but it's a fun and final way to sever (which seems to be the 1 Weird Trick to dealing with crazy family members). edit: For content, my mom was into aliens after watching the X-Files, and chemtrails more recently. For a while she was the reincarnated Marylin Munroe. Next month, downgraded to only being able to speak to the ghost of the singer. Then she could tell the future. Even became a fortune teller, but was poo poo at it because she didn't understand the grift (it was ironic that she didn't know to tell people what they wanted to hear, while she fed herself a constant diet of coping fantasy). My dad just went along with it, so she got worse. Helpless and self destructive, but perfectly able to get by manipulating weak willed people, a proto-Trump. Always wrong, self-contradicting at different times of day, yet so certain. If you disagreed with a notion or a request she would do a tantrum for hours, until she got her way. Not usually political, but completely the person who would be into Q and global conspiracies. The lizard people were out to get us, she just didn't get the memo they were also Jews. I am passionate about not enabling crazies. They will get more and more radical, and you will be personally responsible for what they become, and the messed up poo poo they do. My grandma was schizo too, but she was pretty cool. Preen Dog fucked around with this message at 01:40 on Jan 25, 2021 |
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Jan 25, 2021 01:08
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Yeah, fair enough. These people are ethically unsolvable, the trolley problem in human form except the outcomes are blurry. Sorry about your mom.
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Jan 25, 2021 02:16
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Preen Dog posted:Bob gets fired. He is surprised and alarmed by this unexpected event that conflicts with his world view. He reacts by analyzing what got him fired as honestly as possible, and decides he should stop taking 3 hours lunches and harassing co-workers. He gets a new job. This success encourages Bob to further improve his worldview and self image to further improve his life. Given these radically different starting points, both people are finding evidence that further supports their conclusions. Bob believes that his behaviour had negative consequences so he changes his behaviour and the consequences go away. Ted believes that forces beyond his control are causing him harm, and he continues to be harmed for reasons he can't understand, thus reinforcing his beliefs. Preen Dog posted:Bob can be reasoned with and Ted can't, so don't bother. Preen Dog posted:Ted is immune to facts because his faith is just a coping drug. Preen Dog posted:The only escape from this trap is for things to get existentially bad for the deluded person.
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Jan 25, 2021 09:58
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Tiggum posted:This is an important point. Why does Ted need a coping drug? Because he feels powerless. He feels that there is no action he can take that will improve his circumstances. Whereas Bob feels empowered by his ability to change himself and thereby improve his life. This is one of my favorite points. People don't need beliefs that make them feel better because they are just born awful, they need them because they're drowning, struggling, in pain. You can't make anyone believe anything, but the more Ted's life starts to rise up out of the shithole, the more there's at least some small chance he'll be able to like, notice that other people exist. Like we saw this a lot when we were doing door to door campaigning for Bernie in 15/16. I live in a massively majority hispanic city, and you might imagine we'd easily have won, but no! You still saw a massive amount of racism even from PoC voters, and it was almost always because they'd been driven by fear towards embracing respectability politics. Support the cops, the borders, prisons, everything that's hurting the spanish speaking community even if it hurts you because that makes you feel safe. It was still almost impossible to sit down with someone like this and talk things out with them, but if you were genuinely interested in where they were coming from, and really understood their needs and problems, it at least became possible. It definitely wasn't possible to make a dent if you just wrote them off as an awful person or an idiot. By actually talking to the opponents and hearing them out we ended up winning the district. Like, gently caress, "not being heard" is one the biggest basic human needs that drives people towards fear, and that's why it's better to just let Ted rant than to try to convince him.
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Feb 2, 2021 23:04
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DarkCrawler posted:I'm the exact opposite. I despise it. I'm privileged enough that I could do it if I wanted to, but I understand that to the less privileged ones politics is very personal. After COVID politics literally became a matter of life or death for me (risk group) and I could identify with them in this comparably short period. But I understood it a long ago. Yes this this this. My parents are vile, sexists, racists, homophobic, transphobic, psychopaths. And that's on top of being emotionally, mentally, and even physically abusive. I would have gone no contact years ago if I didn't rely on them. I know they will never accept me for being trans so once I finally find a job (job market is abysmal where I live) I'm going to leave and never look back. I will let them know that their disgusting views towards black people, women, gay people and trans people are part of the reason why they'll never see me again. The other reason will be that they're angry controlling narcissists. I'll be honest, I kinda give people the  look when they tell me their parents are awful bigots but they still talk to them even tho they're financially independent "because they're faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamily"gently caress that. Bigots and narcs are awful people and tolerating their hateful poo poo just tells them it's ok. If you're in a good place financially and you dont rely on your parents or any other circumstances are stopping you like you cant see your little siblings if you go NC, then tell them to gently caress off forever
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Feb 3, 2021 11:36
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Yeah, obviously financial dependence is something actual that forces people to stick with these failures. As well as access to non-failures (sometimes with the intention of preventing them from being poisoned). Don't have that though? Excuses for tolerance of horrific things. Including "I love them".
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Feb 3, 2021 15:08
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So I am aware that I am not going to change change mom mom's mind about the right wing BS. My wife and I have decided that, because of that, it is important not to expose our kid to those topics. When she brings stuff (from "the foreigners, jews and blacks...!" To "the sjws are banning classic fairy tales!") Well warn her we don't want to hear about it, and leave if she doesn't drop it. Any other suggestions? How do you friends deal with this?
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Jul 16, 2021 15:50
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Dawncloack posted:So I am aware that I am not going to change change mom mom's mind about the right wing BS. Part of me really worries that not talking about it at all with your children will mean that the first time they are exposed to it without you present to deflect it, it might sink in. I'd be more concerned with teaching critical thinking so that the child can at least know to question what is being presented (a useful life skill for far more than politics), but I also feel like my answer here is pretty 
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Jul 16, 2021 16:09
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Research shows that that kind of behavior is exacerbated by no-contact situations; in other words, it's brought about BECAUSE of alienation and lack of diverse counter-opinions. Reformed KKK members aren't logically argued to change their minds; it's first-hand and actual contact with real people that brings them around. I think you have the right idea in shutting that kinda crap down. Make sure you actually follow through with threats though. She may buck hard at first, especially since you have an existing child-parent dynamic that she probably doesn't want to give up. Successive encounters should be cordial and friendly, but make sure you adhere to boundaries when the hate starts to fly. Maybe start with a single warning, then leave. If it's all too much then maybe no-contact is the way.
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Jul 16, 2021 16:13
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XkyRauh posted:Part of me really worries that not talking about it at all with your children will mean that the first time they are exposed to it without you present to deflect it, it might sink in. I'd be more concerned with teaching critical thinking so that the child can at least know to question what is being presented (a useful life skill for far more than politics), but I also feel like my answer here is pretty Yeah if they don't hear it from her they will hear it from someone better they know it's bullshit ahead of time. socialsecurity fucked around with this message at 18:30 on Jul 16, 2021 |
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Jul 16, 2021 16:41
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We have gone lower contact with my parents because of their politics. I have asked them several times not to have Fox News blaring when my kid is around, and they just can't do it. They can't not bring up politics, either. So we see them maybe 3 times a year now. It does not help that the rest of my family is not supportive. All I ask is for there to be no political talk around me/my kid. I told my sister I was no longer going to go on overnight vacations with my parents and stay with them because literally my dad has Fox on 24/7 at 1000% volume. My niece even asked him "what's Benghazi" one Easter, and it made me sick. My sister's reply? "You shouldn't hate people for their political beliefs." Totally missing the point. I don't hate my parents, but their inability to let it go for a period of even a couple hours has pushed us farther and farther away. Even on Mother's Day my mom had to get a "well, actually Trump..." in. So I have kind of given up on them listening to my request and pulled back. It's really sad, but I feel we have no choice at this point. I do think you have to talk about some of the issues with your kid separate from the grandparent. As far as talking about political differences with my kid goes, we have always had pretty liberal friends and other family. Kid has gone to schools that are very diverse, so they kind of have come up pushing back against racism and anti-LGBTQ issues already in their classes and friendship circles. We try to be very open in general about our beliefs, and have had talks some of the tricky stuff separate from grandma and grandpa, so kid is aware of the differences when we visit, for sure. I think the only thing we can really say directly about grandma's (and grandpa for us) beliefs is that there are people who believe hurtful things and it is sad. That you can still love them but you don't have to validate their opinions and you can ask anyone to stop talking about any topic at any time. That if something makes you uncomfortable, it is OK to speak up even if it coming from someone with authority. And you can always walk away, and you can always talk to us about a situation that makes you uncomfortable and we will try to help. It sucks and is really hard, either way. I miss my pre-Trump parents and I know my kid does too.
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Jul 16, 2021 17:06
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I first heard the word "friend of the family" from my great grandfather when I was 10. I had no idea what it meant so naturally I asked my dad. He said he'd explain later then told me in the car on the way home. I still didn't get it, but I appreciated him trying to explain and even now I remember that very vividly. It's reassuring to be able to ask your parents a question and having them answer truthfully, even if the answer is "I really don't know, it makes no sense to me. What do you think?" For good or for ill, I first learned a LOT of racist slurs from shows like South Park, and having to figure that poo poo out pre-internet as a teenager is not easy. I think being multi-racial helps somewhat with inherent racism, but no one's immune. But man I'm glad things didn't go the other way. edit: ^^^ I think it helps to try to re-frame the situation if someone is initially not supportive. You can say something like "mom and dad would rather make me uncomfortable than turn off the TV/shut up about politics for 3 hours." Then a follow up: "If something made YOU uncomfortable, I'd try to do something about it." Trivia fucked around with this message at 17:10 on Jul 16, 2021 |
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Jul 16, 2021 17:08
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Lots of good answers itt. Thanks.
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Jul 16, 2021 17:30
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HungryMedusa posted:My sister's reply? "You shouldn't hate people for their political beliefs." Totally missing the point. And wrong, because what the hell else should you hate people for?
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Jul 16, 2021 18:21
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It'll be two years soon since I no-contacted my mom. She texted me last Christmas and I reiterated what it would take for us to begin to have communication again. That turned into her telling me she's sorry that I can't handle her being a Christian and she has no desire to talk to a family therapist because she's been in therapy before and it's a waste of time. Not too long ago she texted me out of the blue after not texting me since Christmas. Of course it was on one of the worst days I've had in a very long time. My toddler brought home (I think) a Norovirus which his brother caught. They were 100% better by the time my husband and I came down with it and that was the day she texted me. I didn't respond. She texted me once a week for about a month and I never responded. Looks like she's given up though! My advice is to take care of yourself and your family. That's not the easiest option sometimes.
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Jul 16, 2021 18:42
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DarkCrawler posted:And wrong, because what the hell else should you hate people for? She also told me “you meed to respect my opinion!” To which I replied I absolutely do not. I respect your right to have an opinion, but yours is poo poo! Guess who won’t get the vaccine They will not admit in any circumstance that their “political opinions” are actually super harmful to other people, and even themselves. Because guess what, my family are not the rich 99% republican types!
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Jul 16, 2021 20:32
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The increasing squishiness of the term 'politics' is a big problem. The word is a malignancy. It's come to encapsulate one's entire personal philosophy- my beliefs about the world and society, the particular people I admire and listen to and go to for insight, my ethics. Probably it should be that those are all informed by party affiliation (and vice versa), but it shouldn't be that they're determined by party affiliation. Years of 24/7 propaganda have fooled very many people into holding the conscious and unconscious presumption that if I'm a Republican there's only one bag of [bad] ideas, and those ideas are effectively me, and if you reject or criticize any of those ideas you are rejecting all of them, and you are rejecting me and all the people I respect. And to do that would be extreme and unreasonable. Therefore in criticizing my beliefs or restricting the things I can express you debase yourself and renounce your own dignity. I don't need to consider what you have to say.
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Jul 16, 2021 21:43
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e.pilot posted:This feels apt to post here, I’ll delete it if not. I just gotta say Nelson Mandela 100% was a terrorist but was still 100% right.
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Jul 16, 2021 22:15
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I found out that not only is my brother not vaccinated, he's unsure if he even wants it. He's got this wishy washy centrist "I'm not saying I'm anti Vax, I'm just trying to look at it from both sides and don't want to be pressured into a decision". Which is more infuriating than if he had just expressed a fear of microchip laden Bill Gates Potions. Because it means he can try to sidestep a lot of the arguments against anti vaxers. He doesn't want the vaccine but he's too chickenshit to defend his selfish decision. I've seen this a lot from active duty/veterans. They'll say "well the military forced me to get all these shots but didn't force us to get the covid vaccine" (which is a whole other kettle of fish ; why NOT force it on servicemembers since they force them to get anthrax and other vaccines anyway?). So they feel they are exercising a free choice by refusing it. Yet they volunteered to be in the goddamn military in the first place.
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Jul 17, 2021 02:10
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We've been getting some pretty catastrophic storms lately here in Central Europe - to the point that the military has had to intervene in flooded areas. My friend lost a family member to the flooding. By total coincidence, the worst of it has avoided the quiet suburb my house is in and yesterday I overheard my mother angrily ranting to my grandmother (at a family gettogether) about how climate change is a myth "because remember how cold last winter was?!". She's also recently become a Eurosceptic though, when pressed on the matter, her biggest grievance seems to be some kind of regulations the EU put on yoghurts or bananas or something. I'm also pretty sure she thinks there was election fraud last year in the US, though to be honest I'm afraid to ask and find out.. This is the woman that pushed me to academic excellence and raised me alone for half of my childhood, the woman I saw save a skiers life by performing emergency surgery to get the guy breathing before the paramedics could arrive, who knows 6 languages. The woman that never hesitated to give me hers and go without. Every time I try to discuss the truth with her, including unbiased sources, she shouts me down about how I'm wrong and just parroting liberal media talking points  I'm sure as poo poo not going to sever with her but like, there's no reason for her having become this way that I can see 
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Jul 17, 2021 06:36
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Rational is not a thing you are, it is a thing you do, it is entirely possible for people who are able to apply rationality, or at least something that achieves a similar effect to it, to simply not apply it when not doing so is appealing to them in some way. Humans have emotional needs and for many people they need an emotionally appealing explanation for why the world isn't great and are perfectly capable of suspending any skepticism they might apply because believing that thing emotionally validates them. Belieiving that the very structure of our society causes severe harm to people and that it could be different, but isn't, because a great many people are perfectly willing to see other people suffer and die as long as they are doing well enough, and that as a person who is doing well enough you are in some way complicit with that, that you brought children into a world where they will have to suffere the consequences of the trajectory that has given you the life you want, all of that is much harder than simply believing that it's all made up and if you just ignore it that's rebelling against the media who want you to be afraid. And you can't argue them out of this with facts and logic because that isn't how they got themselves there, though they may wave the notion of facts and logic around like a magic charm to ward off criticism of course. But really they believe it because when you get right down to it, belieiving it is more important to them than anything else, certainly much more important than you could ever be. OwlFancier fucked around with this message at 15:12 on Jul 17, 2021 |
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Jul 17, 2021 15:04
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Yeah. Ugh I keep wanting there to be some perfectly worded, perfectly aimed barb that will cut right to the quick with the person I have to deal with daily. He's a supremely self-confident, 150% competent operator-type who turbocharges Ferraris and flies military jets and builds million-dollar bespoke AV systems and can set his mind to some goal like "I will become a gymnast from total scratch at age 42 and 6'5" and within a year take home dance competition trophies just to show everybody how superhuman I am and how much everyone except me sucks at everything". And of course he's rabidly Trumpist and will go on a rant about how covid is fake and a plot to ruin the economy to sabotage Trump and masks are a communist scam at the drop of a hat. So while it would be great to be able to argue him out of it with facts and logic, a) I can't even get a word in edgewise with this guy when he starts shouting, he can keep a tirade going for literal hours; and b) I feel like the only possible angle of attack might be something like: "I know you're way too smart to fall for this poo poo, it's aimed at duping literally the stupidest people on earth, I'm really disappointed in you" Something to both stroke and skewer an overinflated ego. I hate having to play mind games like this but I guess it's better than playing on the wrong board because it's the only one I know the rules of.
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Jul 18, 2021 12:53
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"It must be exhausting being so angry all the time."
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Jul 18, 2021 14:46
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Yeah, exactly. Also I keep wanting to frame something like “why you gotta be so afraid of everything” Because holy gently caress would that set him off e: "Masks are bullshit, viruses are way smaller than the mesh of the fabric  " ffs dude, you got into MIT and Caltech and your whole career is around science and engineering and I know you know plenty about microbiology, yet all that takes a backseat to The NarrativeData Graham fucked around with this message at 15:31 on Jul 18, 2021 |
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Jul 18, 2021 15:22
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my mom has informed me that my uncle has COVID. He is over 65 and has some high risk factors. He most likely didn’t get himself vaccinated. I have a strong inkling as to why and I am so very, very mad as it is a hideously selfish, dumb and boneheaded move that not only affects himself but others. he may be family but Jesus loving Christ, for fucks sake. my mom who is taking care of my elderly grandfather, my dying childhood pet who she adores, and her closest friend, who was recently diagnosed with incurable, intense cancer, and is very much dying. my mom does not need this right now, goddamnit. she has done so much. I am so MAD.
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Jul 18, 2021 16:04
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Interesting thread. I read the whole thing and one thing i noticed over and over again was that a lot of people's parents seem to have nose-dived hard in the last 5 years or so, why is this? Just the increasing prevalence of social media and the ever increasing craziness of Fox News?
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Jul 21, 2021 15:53
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Alctel posted:I read the whole thing and one thing i noticed over and over again was that a lot of people's parents seem to have nose-dived hard in the last 5 years or so, why is this? Black president Rise of Trumpism and Q, republican party and conservative media going mask off Pandemic where they were sitting inside doing nothing but social media Absolutely no bullshit detector on social media Offended that people claim racism wasn't solved in the 70s Big fans of the police Brains broken by the existence of trans people Some combination of the above
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Jul 21, 2021 16:06
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Alctel posted:Interesting thread. Honestly, I think it's because you can only go for so long coasting on privilege and luck before it catches up with you. The ongoing collapse of everything because late stage capitalism, climate crisis, pandemic, and whatnot means that people formally privileged enough to avoid the worst brunt of the system are now feeling it. Likewise privilege protects them from their own self destructive tendencies. But after a lifetime of things working out they can't say that "maybe the system was always like this even when I benefited" instead they latch onto "those liberal leftist communists are breaking society and taking away the status and wealth I'm supposed to have". That's certainly how I think it played out with some of the older generations in my family at least.
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Jul 21, 2021 16:11
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