They were pretty apolitical till coronavirus hit. Now my dad thinks it’s way overblown and they’ve bought into the media narrative that Antifa is literally committing terror attacks. I called my mom today and told her I went to the Breonna Taylor protest in LA and she said that if she hadn’t have been hanging out with drug dealers that wouldn’t have happened to her. It really makes me not even want to come and visit them anymore.
You say 'apolitical,' but it comes across more like 'latent conservative'
Boomers are roped easily into the fox news vortex. I'm fighting tooth and nail the keep my mom out of that shit. My mom's values are really in line with communist ones. But she is getting tricked by grifters into believing bullshit and propagranda. Heck, my whole family from here side were commies. It all started when she went online.
I remember growing up my Dad said the democrats were "the party of working people" and now him and my mom seem to be conservative-leaning centrists.
I was raised in a liberal household but I’ve also noticed my parents have moved to the right a bit. I just chalk it up to them getting older.
I always tell them that the news is make believe and they shouldn’t stress out about the NYC murder rate or anything like that. I tell them when they hear things, their first thought should be “who is getting paid.”
Don’t give up.
I don't think getting older is an excuse. Plenty of bitter old lefties around hunkering down into Communism like a Russian Soldier into a winter trench line.
Hmm, I accept this. My parents were never left, just hippies.
I imagine you surmise that they’ve always been like this, deep down. Something is happening that is making them worse or pulling their latent bad tendencies to the surface.
I don't think they've always been like this, at least not any more than most people have a little voice inside that says "Wouldn't you like for everyone like you to loot the world, run anyone else before you, and sit on a throne of golden skulls, secure in your riches?"
What the chuds have done is make it easier for people to mistake that tiny Genghis Khan part of themselves for their actual opinions (expressed ironically or in veiled terms, of course.) And then further to link that to people that, quite frankly, they have neither cultural nor economic common cause with. False Consciousness is a bitch and it's really easy to drink the kool aid and pretend you'll be the leopard eating the people's face.
Are they "worse" people for having not completely overcome it? Maybe, others did. But it hardly matters, they're human beings and workers (I assume) and what matters is the material causes and effects and how we dispel it.
Tell them of your own stories of police harassment. If you remember being in the car with them when they were harassed by cops, remind them of those. Have they ever raised their voices or fought with you or each other? Remind them that they were one wellness check from a concerned neighbor away from the same situation that killed Breonna. Remind them that the FBI reports regularly show that the police are completely infiltrated by white supremacists.
Did your mother or anyone she know go to the gigantic women's march? Insist that the BLM protest marches are no more violent than that was, and that antifa defends those marches from literal Nazis like the Proud Boys, the KKK and TWP. Maybe link Cornell West's interview where he mentions his life was saved by antifa during the Charlottesville "Unite the Right". If it helps, mention he was holed up in a church that antifa defended.
I have been trying but they’ve definitely always been pro cop. When I argue for defunding the police they’re convinced that it means getting rid of police entirely, which is something I’d like but I know they’ll have a harder time agreeing with. I’m definitely not done trying to steer them in a better direction.
A good line of attack for pro-cop folks, I've found, is to talk about how much of what they do is a waste of their precious time. "Why are we training people to handle violence, gangs, murderers and rapists, riot control, and so on, and then getting them to hand out speeding fines or hassle folks over a gram of weed? They have important work to be doing. We're basically taking soldiers and making them act like babysitters, instead of hiring a bunch of babysitters to do that part of the work."
(They're not actually being trained for that sort of thing, but pro-police folks refuse to believe that)
When I argue for defunding the police they’re convinced that it means getting rid of police entirely
Try something along the lines of "someone giving out traffic tickets and breaking up noisy parties doesn't need a gun."
Keep visiting them. I know it can be frustrating, but their politics is just not that important. Your mental health and happiness will probably be better off if you keep seeing them. Politics is extremely important, but unless it gets quite extreme, it shouln't be a reason to cut someone off. Maybe consider just not talking about politics with them.
Don’t!!!! That’s the only way these boomers learn to stop watching Fox News/doing Facebook 24/7.
"Shut up you stupid bitch, if you ever mention that bullshit again forget about me"
I cyber bullied a racist kid last night and still feel bad about it.
Do not shirk your duty, comrade. Someone must deradicalize the fascists and kill fascism, and you are literally the best suited to work on your parents
Tell your mother that you're going to send her to the nursing home in Northern Nevada
Would you rather that, or my liberal mother who loves Obama and thought the personal trainer doing pushups at RBG's funeral was #awesome and recently told me that Bernie should shut up when he criticized Biden for being a soft-brained idiot?
