here we go again
So I need to write about the supplies I’m putting away for winter, the first time we’ve been walked in on by a child during a ‘tender moment’ and the assorted stuff of life and what I’m *going* to write about right now is my idiot aunt.
I’ve written about her previously: this is the one who loves to send inflammatory, right wing propaganda peppered with invective and insult and then, for variety’s sake, “Christian” email forwards.
I’ve taken the time to address these emails with (usually) calm and rational debate, footnoted and end-noted and clearly spelling out that I, who am a grown woman now, am a dyed in the wool liberal who fully intends to vote for Obama this year and would have voted for Dennis if I’d had the opportunity to do so.
She responded that she didn’t vote for Bush, but that she thought Obama was “too young, too inexperienced and not good enough”. Okay. Her opinion. She said Kerry was too soft on terrorism, and look where that’s gotten us.
And then she sends another email, which was forwarded to her from my great aunt, who apparently gets all her news from the feed on Fox and has zero concept of what the hell is actually going on in the world. The email went more or less to blaming the democratic congress for the state of the nation: “the senate runs things, the president can only work with what he’s got”. Clearly she’s not heard of a signing statement, a veto and is unaware of the fact that the “democrat run congress” is not.
And the war: the email bitched about money spent on illegal aliens healthcare and environmental protections and welfare, but they seem to thing that the money spent on the war is a good deal because it “makes us safer”? Are you fucking kidding? what about those poor bastards over in Iraq and Afghanistan who are DYING in an illegal and unjust war? What about the fact that the returning people are getting substandard care BECAUSE of the republicans?!? All to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars A DAY with no end in sight!
Do I continue to address them? To attempt to reach the seemingly decent people that I am related to? Or give them up as the Wall-Mart shopping, Fox news consuming, ostriches that they are?
I try to go through the day reminding myself these things:
-Refuse to assume the worst of people.
-Realize everyone is a reflection of some aspect of yourself.
-Hope that the very best in humanity will shine through in every person you meet/know.
I dont know if this helps…largely you should take care of yourself first and foremost…but if you view the world as filled with “Wall-Mart shopping, Fox news consuming, ostriches” then that is really what you’ll have to work with.
August 1st, 2008 at 3:50 pmI personally have GOT to believe in the innate goodness withing the human race as a whole.
But that’s just my little trip this go round.
Anyone, regardless of what political angle they come from, should be capable of knowing there is more than one perspective and source for news. No one is right. I say decide what you can and can’t change. The idiot aunt is sending inflammatory e-mails to get her point of view across (or someone else’s if she hasn’t figured out her own and is only following) to get your goat. You know what? It’s working.
August 1st, 2008 at 4:48 pmIf you want to stereoptype her and others with your colorful (and appropos) statement about where they shop and what kind of bird they are, that’s fine. You can send back a reply with said comment. It’s doing the same thing back, it’s inflammatory and made to see only one side. Your own.
So either you decide to 1) ignore them because you can’t change them or 2) inflame them with your opinion, which won’t change them, but piss them off.
It’s a matter of where you want your precious energy to go. IMHO
Russ, that’s actually what I’ve been trying to do by reaching out in a calm way, but it’s clearly not getting through. Thankfully, most of the people I am in contact with are reasonably like minded.
Moonspun: you’d think so, wouldn’t you? I’d like to be able to speak rationally to them, to use the oh-so-enviable way that RP has to engage others, and if not change their mind, at least get them to respect *mine*. FWIW, I deleted the email without reading the whole thing.
August 1st, 2008 at 6:59 pmAh, this is a tough one. I’ve got right-wing, fox-news watching relatives too, and the only way to really deal with them at all is to not talk politics. (After 9/11, there were a few heated exchanges after I asked, politely, for people to stop sending me “joke” emails where the punchlines were rascist invectives equating all muslims with terrorists.) It’s even closer for me, since my mom has already informed me that she can’t vote for obama because of his involvement with an “anti-white” preacher, and besides universal health-care doesn’t work, since she knows a friend who has a friend who lives in canada and has to wait a really long time for doctor’s visits. (Never mind that she and my dad are two steps away from bankruptcy trying to pay for their prescription drug costs.) Watching someone vote against their own interests is like watching someone bang their head against a wall and then blaming someone else for making the wall too hard! I agree with the other posters that name-calling doesn’t work, but it’s tempting when you realize that some people don’t want to engage in an honest discussion, but really just want to have their position (in this case, one based on fear and ignorance) validated. My advice: delete the emails and don’t respond.
August 3rd, 2008 at 3:47 pm