CountryGuyMike
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At this point I just nod and simle, So when this all hits a head. I can say I told you so!
They're all old and stuck in their ways there really isn't any point trying to sway them away from the ledge anymore. I avoid talking politics as much as possible, because in the past I'd litterally link them information on a topic that conterdicted what the MAGA Machine feeder new network Fox keeps telling them and it's scary how fast they instantly reject the facts or start spewing " Well the Democrates did this" line Every single Fucking time..
Just recently, I had mentioned that with the flood in Texas recenlty " Prays to all the lost and hurt in that tragic event! * that there was talk about how since DOGE and the Trump Admin have fired so many people in many Weather related fields in an attempt to combat the Green Engery movement. "Can't Show us facts if there's no Programs or Scientists to do the work" That people that should of been at work monitoring things like this and other natural disaster prevention progams. Just aren't there now.
OMG, the whiplash I got for even mentioning that it was DOGE and Trump that might have caused this sent them into a litteral knee jerk denial moment of shaking their head and saying They had nothing to do with it and so on and so on..
It's werid, my family aren't dumb people but I have no idea what the appeal or drug they are using that make them see this as "Normal" or "Okay" by any means.
I didn't grew up with my father, and just recently in my 30s have spent any amount of time with this side of the family. Sometimes in moments like this I think its a good thing I didn't lol, I wonder if I'd be so easily brainwashed if I was raised with them.. Scary thought!
Anyways just wanted to vent a little and post into the void, its been a rough few days, fell on the stairs ( that hurt like hell ), car is acting up now. starter is dying. Battery too, It can't keep a charge for long which is a side effect of a bad or failing starter.. and a bunch of other things as well! lol Life just could you please stop being a BITCH!
Hope y'all had a great 4th weekend and noone lost fingers! :D
SneakyGaryTheSerialHorseDrowner
Why would you love a bunch of fascist scumbags?
3nergy
The ego's job is to protect the mind from uncomfortable truths. The responses you are seeing is the ego in action. 99.9% of people's ego's are like 2 y/o kids that plug fingers in their ears and yell "LA LA LA" so they don't have to hear uncomfortable things. Gotta take the route where you help them figure things out for themselves piecemeal at a time. This bypasses the ego: if their own internal logic takes them from A to B to C. Ask them, hey who did this? What happened when they did that?
lostforever
So what do you do?
You stay human.
You refuse to become what you despise — even when it’s easy to hate.
And when you speak — if you speak — you do it not to win.
You do it because truth doesn’t need permission to be named.
PolitiCat
By not calling them out and cutting contact to let them experience the consequences of their actions, you are complicit. They are not nice, they are cruel.
invadeboiss
You say "It's werid, my family aren't dumb people", then describe how they're dumb and in an actual cult.
It's ok to criticize your 'blood' family, you didn't choose them.
hyperchondriac
I have been avoiding talking to my father lately because as much as he denies it I know he's a Trump supporter ( saw a picture of Trump and some fucking Trump money on his bookshelf). He's also become more openly racist. I'm not going to confront him about it because I have to assume he's just as crazy and possibly violent at this point as other Trumpers.
peppymints
This reads like a lot of abuse victim posts:
“They’re a great person but (insert a bunch of awful things)”
“When it’s good it’s good (as long as if we never talk about it not being good)”
“They’re really smart and kind but (insert list of atrocities)”
Op, are you sure?
fbutaric
I take a different approach and just say they are nazis to their faces. This puts them on the defensive and then I move in and destroy them with facts. Take no prisoners
nelllybellly1
I was with a friend from out of town in 2016 when we were approached for a man-on-the-street interview about that year's presidential election and I was shocked to hear him say that he supported Trump. My shock must have been evident because I was then asked if that would affect our friendship. I said I'd like to maintain it but we'd likely need to avoid political discussion, which is what we agreed to do (and kept to it). We lost contact by 2024 so Idk if he eventually came to his senses.
TheMomaw
I don't know why nobody ever told you this, but apparently you need to hear it: It's okay to remove bad people from your life.
super3dcow
The fox coolaid. It's a cult and very hard to break people off of it once they are taken by it. My uncle is like this. I basically never speak or visit him anymore. Overall not a bad person but his beliefs and voting shows he's got a black heart
WhattaMattahYou
Your father's side of the family are tryig to get me and others like me killed.
Also, you don't owe them your time or attention. Walk the fuck away.
MadamPuddifoot
@op.
This. You just smiling and nodding is condoning what they're saying, and is akin to the Germans who just smiled and nodded as the Nazis exterminated their neighbors. Just because they're your family doesn't mean you need to stand by them while they are perpetuating fascism. In fact, it's kind of pathetic that you haven't told them to f*** off. And I'm not just saying this to say it, I walked away from my entire family for doing the same fucking thing fuck them fascists.
MAN9000
My brother has been gas lighting me- he doesn't believe the ICE raids are real. Ice cut of communication for now. I need to reconnect because otherwise he doesn't get any push back. Fascism fascism thrives on separating families and villianizing neighbors.
Remmon1
No amount of pushback will work on Nazis. He will continue to be a Nazi until it stops being convenient, which will be either when the Nazis come for him or when Americans finally start shooting Nazis again.
Retrikaethan
that all sounds like a really good reason not to love that side of the family.
lapus
It's my mother's side and half my father's.
billy3890
A good place to start is to talk policies like you are doing, don't bring up the parties. Don't feed into conspiracies, stick to policies that would actually help people. They will shut down if you talk Red vs Blue, It's not really that tho, the haves vs the have-nots - it's always has beens, and we can admit, lot's of Dems are corrupt too, but most of the good policies are being presented by certain Dems.
bourbonandbaddecisions
I cut ties with the southern maga branch.
barcley
How you gonna say I told you so when youre just nodding and smiling?
bambinod
For some, it's a political group. For others, it's a cult, complete with a cult leader.
CitrusyGarlic
I've had some luck with this line on my MAGA family, feel free to try it out yourself. When they give you the excuses about Democrats being bad as well you tell them "You don't fix someone's craziness by acting insane." That either forces them to defend insanity, or to try to explain how Trump & Co actions aren't insane, which is an effort in futility because to all the decent people in the world, they are.
Emiloo74
My dad's side of the family is nice if you are one of them. They believe every damned dog whistle the current administration spews. I have cut them out of my life, regardless of age. I cannot condone how they see others as less than if they are not cis, white, and Christian. Not saying you must or should do the same, @op.
3nergy
Then tie all the loops together for them A to B to C.
parabolic000
I'm done with those people. I am done being neutral when unaccountable goon squads are kidnapping citizens for transport to foreign death camps. I don't care how much I may have loved these family members: they are dead to me. I'm biracial, queer, and mentally ill and they vote to make me not exist, so why shouldn't I just do the same? Show up to events and just pretend they're not there. If they put hands on you, react accordingly. But let it be known you exist and they should be ashamed.
whitecheddarismyrappername
i feel you. the mental programming is a bitch to deal with, especially when they are unwilling to try to understand another perspective, which is a consequence of the news media they consume and social pressure from friends
CrisprCAS
Your father's side of the family are open fascists and are, or will be, supportive of your murder by the state.
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CrisprCAS
They support sending minorities to concentration camps without due process. That's pretty fascist.
DaveSamsonite
OP - they are brainwashed and in a cult, so it is ok to say they are ignorant & clueless. Perhaps otherwise they are intelligent, but being in complete denial of facts and scienxe, they are very dangerous. No one would blame you for quiet quitting your family. I have an Aunt who is essentially a Nazi now, and she literslly sees Trump as christ figure. I didnt see her much but i flushed her crazy right out of my life and social media circle. I have abandoned quite a few "friendships" too.
RaymondChoppard
It's just blind ignorance and lack of empathy towards anybody they don't know personnaly : they could probably give half their belongings to their hispanic neighbor who is in need, but they are still convinced that, globally, hispanics are thieves and rapists.
It's always the same "I'm not a racist, I have a black friend". Sure, buddy...
irrationaldesign
Completely cutting off my MAGA family back during Trump's first presidency did so many good things for my mental health. You know what you call someone who associates with fascists? A fascist.
iChase79
Just out Trump them. Go so far into Democrat blaming and support Trump on not just everything but way past insanity. Long ago i noticed people, groups of people, have a tendency to either rile each other up or when one goes too far, one often become the voice of reason to calm things down. Ex. John flips out screams at cashier on Monday, his friend Billy Bob, calms him down he realize it too much. Tuesday Billy Bob flips out at another cashier and John calm him down. [1/2]
iChase79
[2/2] Just go completely insane in your "views" and rethoric. They blame dems and antifa... you blame Dems kindergarteners who drink mind control juice at school and when they get home their hairs emit mind control fumes that infect everyone and then at night when their parent are sleeping they whisper to them that they now hate Trump. And thats why all Democrats now hate Trumps, because before they all loved him. Like i said... insane. If you fight fire w/ fire, you fight insanity w/ insanity
Luorric
Damn, sounds like you've had a chaotic week. Hope you get some chance to watch for your health
If for any reason you find yourself in a political discussion with them, the only luck I've had talking with people with strong opinions like that is by going "Oh I heard ____ from fox news" to counter whatever they're saying. Usually regional fox news sources can have articles that directly counter whatever they're eating up, weirdly enough. Though main fox is a cesspool. But it's harder if (1/2)
Luorric
(2/2) their source is from mass repost ragebait off social media, it can be harder to get them to think critically about stuff their friend group believes. Might be able to look up whatever they're saying, and help point out other crazier stuff that "news" source posts that is clearly more unbelievable, and ask if they think that the source is trustworthy? Easier to dismiss a view if they think it's a direct confrontation, but if they have to back something up it might change their tune a bit?
Luorric
^ that has only been my own experience though, someone can be immediately dismissive if they think something is coming across as oppositional to them, but going "Oh I didn't hear about that, I'll look it up" it can come across as trying to understand their side, if that makes sense? Usually crazy sources have crazier articles that can get them to think critically on it, and you can help them 'save face' by making excuses like "oh a news source must have repeated click bait info without checking"
NaughtButOne
> It's werid, my family aren't dumb people
Yes they are. Next question.
CitrusyGarlic
Ugh god dammit everyone.....the easiest way to lose to your enemy is to underestimate them! I'm not a dumb person, but twenty+ years ago I voted down-the-line GOP because I had been indoctrinated by the very insular, very conservative family and religious community I grew up in to only listen to ring-wing talk media as my only source of news and information. It took many years of COURAGEOUS and PATIENT liberals arguing with me and hitting me with facts about how wrong I was to break me free,
NaughtButOne
I didn't say anything about underestimating them. Stupid people are very dangerous. But trying to convert them is a waste of time. For every one you'll convince, there's a hundred who will shoot you in the back for trying.
It's not our responsibility to save you or convince you. They can either crawl out of the mud on their own, or drown. I'm unbothered and the world is better off either way.
CitrusyGarlic
and I am thankful EVERY DAY that those patient liberals didn't just assume I was too dumb to understand and give up on me.
PiercedViking
It's too late for that. Nazis are going door to door and rounding up people and shipping them off to camps. Democracy is dead in the US. I'm happy that people talked you down but it is NOT our responsibility to politely ask the people that have guns to our heads to maybe not be evil assholes.
CitrusyGarlic
I didn't say that I was changed because of their responsibilities, I said I was changed due to their patience and courage. If circumstances keep you from being patient and courageous that's understandable, but fortunately you don't speak for everyone. Hearts and minds are changed every day. The person you help tomorrow could be the person that saves your life years from now.
zagibu
Sure, talk to them. And watch their face while you do so. If you still see some hesitation, it might be worth trying to save them. But in most of their faces, you will only see their grim resolve strengthen and their hatred towards you ignite. Then it's best to just completely avoid them in the future, because they are very dangerous.