How do you deal with radical and politically extreme friends and family members?
- Thread starter BrianNole777
- Start date
The left wing is also extreme. Don’t sell yourself short. The divide in this country is mutual.
Seemingly lost in all of this is a huge number of real people who just want leaders to lead, systems to work, kids to go to school, jobs to happen, and the zealots to go take a hike.
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If your biggest concern in life is family members that you only agree with 90% of the time....good life.
My radical and politically extreme friend, whom I have cut out of my life. You know….. like the thread title?
I can chat with anyone. But when people say the far right is the only problem, the person I’m chatting with is only seeing half the picture.
Pretend like I never heard what they said and talk about something else. Most catch on quick.
Did you think my post # 43 only referred to right side zealots? You have me categorized?
Good post, but you missed out on a prime opportunity to use either of the following.
Karing Koats for Kids
Koats for Kold Kids
As for the OP, we have neighbors that we‘re good friends with, but my wife is convinced they’re reading all of the QAnon stuff. There’s a lot of smiling and nodding from us.
On the flip side we have friends that are very liberal living in a liberal city, and there’s occasional smiling and nodding towards them too. Not nearly as much as the neighbors though. But they are now dealing with the fruits of that as their elementary aged daughter has told them she thinks she’s a lesbian. Why? No particular reason as she doesn’t even really know what that means yet. Not something a kid at that age should be thinking about. However she’s been exposed to the language so much that she has latched onto it. She also has a few “trans” classmates, once again in elementary school.
I haven’t dealt with the true extreme stuff yet though.
I think most would agree the folks throwing paint on famous works of art or gluing themselves in place for various protests are nuts. Many of us feel the folks who don’t recognize the difference between the fact of sex versus the identity of gender are nuts. Or the Pennsylvania teachers’ union leader who said they should never return to in-person school until they were certain not one single student or teacher would contract COVID. Not to mention the teacher my wife worked with who spent a year in full hazmat gear. Or the guy in my neighborhood who still wears a mask at all times; never with his nose covered, and always pulling it down when he speaks.
It’s not as if every idea seized upon by “the left” is rational. His point was a good one - there are nuts on the left, but the percentage is lower than those on the right. By a lot.
In answer to the OP, I moved away from all family members, so that’s not an issue. And I’ve never had enough in common with a political nut to be friends with them. So that’s not an issue.
My immediate family knows not to bring up politics with me as I can defend my point of view reasonably well. I also can ask rhetorical questions that are hard for MAGA to reply to honestly.
Larger family gatherings are always interesting, we all grew up in an area that voted more than 70% for Trump. The MAGA folks are loud and proud. The reasonable folks just sit quietly and don't engage.
Larger family gatherings are always interesting, we all grew up in an area that voted more than 70% for Trump. The MAGA folks are loud and proud. The reasonable folks just sit quietly and don't engage.
Ignore their extreme statements and move the conversation to topics on which you can agree. Like, killing hookers, for instance.
Do you keep in touch with your family via text/email/phone calls or have you cut off all contact 100%?
Go call a white supremacist a Democrat and see how that goes for you scrud
I rarely discuss politics with friends and family. There are more important things to discuss that actually matter.
Lol so because one crazy black guy says democrats are the KKK its true?
I mean, history says the dems founded it too?
History also says the parties flipped. Go educate yourself scrud
Interesting timing of this thread. Back in my Alaska days stationed at Elmendorf, I had a great Flight Chief. I haven't talked to him in decades and I just received a FB message and friend request. However, one quick scroll of his profile revealed this (and this is just for the month of August):
History also says that Republicans were once fiscally responsible.
No. I didn’t have a relationship as a child, and I moved away from Iowa at age 21, so I never established any relationships later. My only sibling is a sister who moved out when I was 13, so we have never really had much of a connection, either.
Interesting timing of this thread. Back in my Alaska days stationed at Elmendorf, I had a great Flight Chief. I haven't talked to him in decades and I just received a FB message and friend request. However, one quick scroll of his profile revealed this (and this is just for the month of August):
It is scary how many millions of people post this kind of stuff, and believe it.
While I share your dislike of some of those positions, is that really what passes for far left these days? Those strike me minor issues, important to small demographics. They certainly don't represent the far left in my view.
In fact, most are topics of conversation mainly because the right has blown them out of proportion to deflect from serious issues and needed progressive policies.
What's your #1 issue and solution today?
Sounds like you are the same just on the other side. Here's a tip both sides are controlled by the same corps and intelligence agencies. It's a 1 party system. I have relatives that are crazy too and tell them the same thing but they are hell bent that only their side is the good side. I just blow off whatever they say. Only God knows the truth!
@NorthernHawkeye is right on this one, I hate to admit. But us libs all know that we too would wear our Obama and Clinton hats and/or shirts to our Holiday gatherings just to trigger the cons. And we also all know we are all flying our Biden flags on our house and/or cars, just like the cons we’re doing on their riding mowers and/or doublewide trailer, to trigger the cons. And of course we all know we too supported our own insurrectionists and made them heroes when they stormed the Capitol to try to kill the vice president so Trump could not be officially named president. And don’t get me started on how we still defend Hillary as a victim of political attacks despite her 90 plus indictments.
