While I've certainly seen a lot of posts and cases about the other side of the coin. And not to dismiss this. I've seen plenty of stories and accounts of people who have lost family members to the cult of the "cheeto man" himself.
But my mom has gone complete bonkers since 2016 for an entirely different reason. Shes obsessed with hating Trump. From 2016-2021 it was like 99% of what she would talk about. Hell, its gotten a tiny bit better but its still like 50% on a good day of what she talks about at any given time still. During the Mueller era, she had CNN practically 24/7. So much so that one of the headlines literally burned into her TV. She would post and show anyone she talked to anti Trump memes, songs, etc. People started disconnecting from her and she just had this "Well I guess they dont like what I havr to say! They're Trumpers anyways." Pretty much lacking any self awareness into how unhinged the election made her and fully leaning into it.
This is a woman who went from not voting and not really caring for either side of the political aisle to running for and becoming a school board member. She was so insufferable in this position that she took a 4 year break because no one liked her, ran again, and resigned because no one on the board or at the school likes her.
Fortunately, I havent lived with her for the most part since COVID, aside from like 3 months when I was in between apartments due to a breakup at the time. But I do still love her and miss the old her from before Trump became president so I keep in semi touch with her.
But I had a conversation with her recently about this election that makes me question the sanity of most of these boomer libs. Despite knowing Im not voting for kamala or Trump, she keeps pushing me. Texting "your vote counts. Theres only 2 candidates" over and over. Even though I literally live halfway across the country from her in California. Shes running short of harassing me to vote for Kamala. And then out of the blue she calls me literally just to talk about this. Spews the same old zionist bullshit that "we should fund Israel, its just Bibi whos bad!" And that "Israel-Palestine is just ONE issue anyways". And so on the usual crap about J6 and shit.
I said something like "kamala and trump are both evil, Trump is just honest about it".
And she literally goes off "YOU THINK TRUMP IS HONEST! YOU MUST BE DRINKING THE KOOL AID SON! DONALD TRUMP IS ANYTHING BUT HONEST."
Basically calling me a Trumper for the mere suggestion of Trump being honest about something. Much less, honest about him being evil. Before hanging up and saying I have nothing better to do. Despite her bothering me about the subject, her calling me to argue, and her lack of being able to talk about much of anything else.
Does anyone else have any stories of crazy lib relatives post 2016? I feel like I cant be the only one.
I've often found the quickest way is just to be honest about being a Communist. Start with open support for China against the USA and scale up to full DPRK support if they don't shut up.
For instance.
"Don't you see that Trump hates America"
"I am a proletarian internationalist and want the US to collapse and be occupied, he can't possibly hate it more than me"
In my experience people in real life don't process this information. You can be super explicit and they'll just forget you said that, they can't internalize that you're more not a lib or a republican. I've had Q- brained people pivot to defending Brandon because I'm "being unfair to him" and then just forget that happened.
Sometimes yeah, but in my experience eventually if you escalate to their level of edgelordism and stay consistent they lose the ability to respond. You've just gotta get out of their context window and stay there no matter what.
Nowhere near as bad as your mom as far as the level of obsession, but as I see it, my dad fell much further from having relatively good politics (for a lib boomer) to a flat, simplistic "Trump bad" position without much concern beyond it and with a seeming sudden lack of curiosity (let alone understanding) about world events and geopolitics that he used to follow.
When I was a kid in the 90's he would tell me about US imperialism (though I don't think he used that word with me) in South America, how terrible it was, and how much the US lied about all of it. He fucking hated Reagan and Bush 1 (for all the right reasons) and strongly opposed both Iraq wars, attending protests against them, even the second one when most of America was deep in the throes of Islamophobic 9/11 derangement. He got really into learning about the life of Che Guevara for a while, reading several biographies on him, though to my disappointment now, I don't think he ever actually understood the politics, just recognized Che as someone who was genuinely fighting for the oppressed people of the world and respected him for that. I hate to say it, but I'm sure there was also just some glamorization of the revolutionary aesthetic in there too, which is fine so long as you also have an understanding from a materialist perspective and engage with the theory, which is where I suspect he fell short.
He's old enough now that I think actual age-related cognitive decline is playing at least some role in this, but the much bigger factor is that since he has no energy, he just lays around watching CNN and MSNBC all the time, and it is really sad to see. He thinks he's not being affected by the propaganda and still considers himself "on the left" because he also watches and likes the far left radical Amy Goodman on Democracy Now! (I know). I was shocked back in 2022 how easily and fully he bought into the narrative for how terrible it was that the big evil Russia invaded poor, innocent little Ukraine just out of the blue. I'm not surprised by it anymore, but now with election season, his politics are centered entirely around Trump. And it's an odd, almost gossipy kind of talk about Trump's latest shenanigans that I know is inspired by CNN talking points. It's not odd in itself, it's actually very typical, it's just odd for him, as he was never like that. He often now refers to the news anchors by first name as if he knows them sometimes, which is so uncharacteristic of the way he used to be that I couldn't have imagined it 15 years ago, or even 5. A few weeks back he was telling me about how he is now boycotting the brand of wine he used to enjoy because the owner of the company is a Trump supporter and how he just couldn't in good conscience keep giving business to a Trumper. I think he was hoping this would impress me. I asked him if he really thought that any of the other multi-millionaire or even billionaire winery owners were any better, and started to ask if he was fine buying from Biden supporters, seeing as Biden was (is) the one currently committing genocide. But I didn't say that because we were getting along well and I didn't feel like it would do any good at this point.
But yeah, it has been sad to see not just someone I care about but someone who was even formative for me on my own path to leftism become so hooked in to the same kind of thing he used to be critical of, and with so little awareness of it.
My boomer parents aren't registered to vote because they think they can dodge jury duty if you aren't registered to vote.
dodging jury duty is as easy as showing up and saying you can't be impartial
We as communists should definitely not dodge jury duty though.
I feel like Boomers in general are just getting more unhinged.
My parents don’t have Trump derangement in either direction, they are barely political, but the politics they do have and express seems to have gotten more and more reactionary over the last decade or so.
Oh god. I really hope he loses. I dont want to relive these cringey moments.
Spews the same old zionist bullshit that "we should fund Israel, it’s just Bibi whos bad!" And that "Israel-Palestine is just ONE issue anyways".
One you can query the libs with:
If it’s just one issue for some people, but one of many for others, maybe see how many voters you’d get and lose for changing on that one single issue. They can’t really give an answer to it. Be relentless on getting one.
i thought my mom was a lib, but if she was like yours, i would honestly consider going no-contact. the constant hectoring after you've made your position clear must be insufferable.
Maybe you should grow up. Before my mom died she got extremely transphobic and directed a lot of it at me due to being trans. If I listen to you, I wouldn't have any right to get upset at her for anything she said. And I made it very clear a few times to her that I wasn't going to tolerate her transphobic shit.
I legitimately don't care. It seems like the creator of the thread expressed boundaries and his mom can't respect that. Or what, just because his mom is his mom gives his mom excuse to walk all over that?
I havent disconnected with my mom over politics ever. I have taken breaks from speaking with her for entirely unrelated reasons. Granted, she has a tendency to be overwhelming and self centered and this might reflect in her politics but Id never go no contact with anyonr over politics alone unless they were outright nazis.
that definitely makes sense. sorry if i was over the line there.
Sorry it just seem liked from reading into your post it seemed like a boundary of sorts.
What boundaries? And how is OP being walked over? OP can literally just not reply to texts that have to do.with Trump. Just don't engage on that subject. An adult who.doesnt live either their parents will see them.sge and decline mentally which this seems like a symptom of, I would try to be around for my mother more if she took such a sudden turn. Abandoning her would only leave her more isolated. Literally all she is doing is being annoying.
The boundary seemed to be to just stop talking so much about Trump. But Vernon_Tennessee clarified and that doesn't seem to be it. Besides you don't need to tell me that an adult will see their parent decline. Since I'm seeing my dad drink himself to death and I saw my mom decline before she died. But I kind of got upset because again, my mom was starting to take a lot of shit out on me, especially by getting very transphobic towards me before she died.
What a weird question. No I didn't! I even stuck to her to the very end on the day she died. But I can't forget some of the hurtful things she said.
Excuse me? Are you seriously trying to use what I went through to justify your point? Especially when OP and his relationship with his mom is a lot different than mine? And it's up to OP to decide what he wants to do with his relationship, not any of us?
I'm saying my point remains justified BECAUSE your situation is so different
the level of cognition she seems to be on is hearing the word "honest" and going "EMOTIONAL RESPONSE TO WORD: GOOD. THIS WORD INDICATES GOOD." like she's not even processing what it means in terms of openness or directness at all, she thinks you used a 'positive' word and her knee jerk reaction kicks in immediately
I feel like baby boomers just cant process things that might challenge or conflict with their worldview. Which is usually morally black and white and reflective of 80s sitcoms where theres some stupid lesson at the end.
"are you suggesting I could have been wrong my entire life and wasted my time on earth being a shithead?"
If you just ignore all the stuff around the world....
Our bullshit else where is why we don't have good things here!I asked her why we can fund documented genocide when we cant even provide our own people with healthcare. She just told me that was a "soundbite" and otherwise didnt process what I said.
She just told me that was a "soundbite" and otherwise didnt process what I said.
24 hour liberal news media is domestic psychological warfare. turns people into redditors
"What about Jan 6?"
Uhh what about it? A couple trumpers and some cops died. Who cares. We're literally funding the deaths of thousands of palestinians. J6 was nothing more than a slight temporary inconvenience.
Who's soundbite? When was this broadcast? Literally who other than us is saying this?
yeah my dad is going down the same path. not to the same extent but he was a republican before trump whos now voting for kamala bc trump isnt respectable and he just never gets tired of making fun of trump. which yeah to be fair trump is a dipshit whos easy to make fun of but it still gets annoying to listen to
Death to America
Yeah my dad has become a lib. Which is honestly an improvement over defending Kavanaugh and stuff, but it does get old.
pay someone to steal her television and internet router
My dad was sooo convinced Trump was going to prison and I said he had a better chance at being the president again than going to prison.
Whenever he starts talking about him I ask if he's going to prison yet lol
He also says everything Trump says is a lie but also will tell me about whatever evil thing Trump plans on doing if reelected and I say I thought everything he said is a lie?
He also says everything Trump says is a lie but also will tell me about whatever evil thing Trump plans on doing if reelected and I say I thought everything he said is a lie
This has to be some sort of boomer thing. They must think that if someone is bad, that theyre a liar and that if someone lies theyre automatically bad.
It is so infuriating needing to explain to people that Republicans can opportunistically tell the truth. They aren't just magical beings bound to only speak in lies like one of the twins from that riddle.
I think it makes sense when you realize that boomers LOVE TV. And most boomer shows are simple narratives with "good guys" and "bad guys". Cop shows, court dramas, fake judge shows, soap operas, MSNBC, etc.
As much as they shit on "kids these days". ALOT of boomers were the original ipad kids. Raised by TV due to neglectful parents.
Only one of them is. Brings him up all the god damn time and coddles the Democrats as if they’re people who care for the working class and only want what’s best. This same person is also very nationalistic and has an obsessive fear of anything Chinese.
I think Trump winning again will completely break their brain. So far they’re able to be quiet about it around their friends, but that won’t last long if he wins again.
I really hope Trump loses for this reason. I really want these people to stop pretending they care about politics because they think Trump is mean.
Weird, that's a big part of the reasoning I have for wanting the Democrats to lose. (It shouldn't need saying, but just in case: I don't want either of the two fascist parties to "win," and it probably wouldn't be wise to say what I do want to happen to both the candidates
, but since one of them unfortunately will be winning the election...) I think a Trump win will make it harder for these people to pretend they care, because they actually have to, you know, pretend. Which is the hard part. They can't just go back to brunch again (as they did when Biden won), simply ignoring everything the profess to care about (like children in cages) and saying that all is right in the country, or at least on the right path, since one of their good guys is in office. Their brains are in dire need of breaking imo, and that won't happen if Trump loses.
That fucking sucks. I have a friend who got sucked into the anti-trans youtube/substack rabbithole but nothing so all-consuming as your situation.
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