Does Fascist Grandpa Just Need A Hug?

[Tamsin_Bailey]

Would it help if we were gentle with the old racist?
No.

Is he just ill-educated?
No.

Is he just behind the times?
No.

Does he just not understand queer folk?
No.

Grandpa is an asshole by choice.

If your “defence” or JAQ-ing about fascism, racism and all those other well-trodden paths to being a dick, sounds like the above, don’t be surprised if it ends up here.

[Melizmatic]

My uncles on my mom’s side were Goldwater Republicans who both swore MLK Jr was a communist and that her unforgivable miscegenation (in having us kids) was going to be her downfall.

(She’s outlived them both.)

‘Just being nicer’ to fasscholes doesn’t work; it’s why we had two world wars.

[gracchus]

@Tamsin_Bailey

If your “defence” or JAQ-ing about fascism, racism and all those other well-trodden paths to being a dick, sounds like the above, don’t be surprised if it ends up here.

A couple of examples. First, the one from user @Manko_E_Ponymous that I assume inspired this topic:

@Manko_E_Ponymous

Having acquired a Rural Racist Grampa-in-Law by marriage, I’d like to encourage y’all to try to dig a little deeper with this than just sneering mockery. If you have values you cherish, and which represent the consensus in your community, and you see the handful of loved ones your family sends to higher education come back rejecting those values, your first thought is NOT going to be “Well, some stranger must have proven our values invalid,” it’s going to be, “People I don’t know or understand are opposed to my values and corrupting my kids.” The prevailing liberal idea that “All educated people know and agree on better, smarted things than uneducated people do, so if your beliefs clash with our institution’s dogma, they must be wrong” is just as myopic and irrational.

Contempt is not persuasive, and it will heal none of what this nation needs to heal. If you’re not even trying to empathize with or understand rural Americans, you’re not part of any solution - you’re just embodying and reinforcing their stereotype of high-falutin’, snobbish, overeducated liberals.

Second, a classic from now-banned user @slide:

@Slide

There is very little room for changing people’s minds about abortion morality. But ruling that out leaves brute political power as the only lever to get justice. Liberals end up mirroring the corrupt GOP as hating, winning and pwning take priority over liberal values like compassion and belief in redemption.

I guess I am unique in that I grew up seeing both sides of this; I had a parent who worked as a social worker for Catholic Charities despite being pro-choice and not Christian. Our heathen family’s livelihood came from the salary that the Catholic church paid to take care of unloved children. There are many mainstream Christians who actually do walk their talk in terms of valuing lives of kids as much as fetuses. Of course there are many who don’t walk their talk as well, and just want to take the easy route of supporting coercion.

I also come from a background informed by Nonviolent Communication (NVC): the idea that behind the good/bad and right/evil dichotomies we are all the same: simply trying to meet our needs. The main need that uterus-coercives are trying to meet is that of caring for others. Of course the strategies they use don’t actually meet that need. So the goal from an NVC perspective is to help them develop better strategies for meeting that need for caring for others.

Even if it doesn’t feel like it in this moment, this is actually happening as we speak among those who are persuadable. Every day the base of the religious right decreases as more and more people leave, realizing that their church doesn’t deliver the caring that was promised.

Reinforcing the reality that the left is about warm caring not shrill coercion, and that there is a place where we can ALL come together, is the way.

Notice the common threads of false equivalency and victim-blaming progressives and liberals for criticising and mocking those who are calling for their elimination.

[ClutchLinkey]

Oh, ffs, here’s the NYT morning briefing yesterday:

Could also fit in the “both sides” topic, but I’m putting it here because it so blatantly includes only examples of “the left” refusing to engage. Like refusing to engage with racists or fascists is at all on par with refusing to engage with a human being trying to save their life.

[Tamsin_Bailey]

Stereotypes help nobody.

@peladofe

Each piece of news I read from USA makes me think the country is doomed. Day after day I see evidence of more hatred, stupidity and a “culture of oversimplification” where everything is the same as everything, and everything at the same time.

@peladofe

Of course you matter, but what I see from abroad is by far a predominance of Boeberts, Kanyes, Kardashians, Musks, Trumps and friends. How the situation got as ugly?, something was given for granted???. One way of the other, it is what it is. The regular citizen is comfortable drinking Big Gulps, watching the game and ignoring the obvious. When those folks go to vote, they vote what is also more comfortable, what is more spectacular, what is simpler, and what he/she sees on the news. Happened in USA, happened in Brazil, happened in Argentina, happened in my country. BUUUUUT the difference is USA influences all over the world. Please do something to avoid “Idiocracy”, please.

@AverageLiberalSlatie

@Mindysan33

Once again, you’re going off stereotypes about Americans, and not really engaging with the reality.

Midwesterner here and what they’ve said sums up the average Midwest resident pretty much to a T.

[Tamsin_Bailey]

They just can’t help themselves

@peladofe

Actually not only two. I mentioned these two from Missouri as example.

I lived in Ohio and Texas back in 2014/25 for a year in each place, and I met all kinds of people (executives at work, inmigrants, CEOs from small companies, blue collars in a bar I used to go, a GF for like 6 months, etc). In total I may say I met 200 persons, and I had meaningul conversations with like 10/12/15.

Some of them sincerelly asked “Why USA is hated in other parts of the world?, what did we do?”. That means a total lack of knowledge of foreign USA policies or what is happening elsewhere. I remember at least 3 of those conversations, and were maybe 2 with college educated guys, an 1 with a vicepresident of a small company, that means, they were not rednecks / MAGAs / QAnons or anything. Also, they told me 95% of high school history is about USA history. And geography is like 80% based on USA geography. And 90% of Americans do not have a passport, so they are not interested or ever traveled outside USA.

I mean, I really know not all Americans are Homer Simpson!, of course not, but Trump got there for a reason, Boebert won again for a reason, Fox News is still in the air for someone, Hannity, MTG, Cruz, and dozens more are there for a reason.

I like your country guys, I really like the people, but you it is very sad the country being destroyed as it is now.

[docosc]

Classics, but still needed apparetnly:

These are usually applicable to most “but if we were nicer” arguments.

[ClutchLinkey]

Please not in the blender…

[j9c]

Thanks for re-opening this thread.

We shall never forget:

Dallas lives with JFK legacy – but hate that spawned assassination simmers

In Dallas, the buckle on the Bible belt, the hostility was a toxic mix of racism, anti-communism and religious bigotry aimed at America’s first Catholic president – some feared that Kennedy was being controlled by the pope. Extremist groups such as the John Birch Society and the Minutemen were small but vociferous.

Mike Rawlings, a Democrat who was mayor of Dallas from 2011 to 2019, said: “There was definitely a very conservative bent. The John Birchers were the worst of it but still there was a lot of folks that were that way. It was the Tea Party and Maga [Make America great again] before the Tea Party and Maga.”
…
And on the day of the president’s arrival, the Dallas Morning News newspaper contained a full-page, black-bordered advertisement that included 12 rhetorical questions that accused Kennedy of being soft on communism and betraying US allies. Kennedy reportedly read the ad and remarked to his wife Jacqueline, “we’re headed into nut country”.

But oligarchs in Dallas, aware of the dangers, had called for a dignified reception for Kennedy and tried to tighten security. About 200,000 people came out to watch the motorcade and give the first couple an effusive welcome, waving signs and flags including the Confederate flag. As they neared Dealey Plaza, Governor John Connally’s wife, Nellie, told Kennedy: “Mr President, you can’t say Dallas doesn’t love you.”

The presidential limousine turned off Main Street at Dealey Plaza at around 12.30pm. As it passed below the Texas School Book Depository, gunfire suddenly erupted from a window on the sixth floor, sending onlookers diving and running. Bullets struck the president’s neck and head and he slumped over toward Jacqueline. Governor Connally was shot in the back but survived.

No, fascist Grandpa doesn’t need a hug.
All fascist Grandpas and everyone enabling them need to be held accountable.

[RickMycroft]

This Thanksgiving, Call Your Racist Uncle a “Racist”

[Mangochin]

Betteridge’s law (of headlines) is an adage that states

“Any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered by the word no .”

[Mangochin]

Two theories which don’t get enough attention:

1. Jackie did it
2. It was a suicide.

[nosaj]

Awesome.

every Hispanic family I know appreciates the value of a good fight.

I grew up in a house that valued avoiding conflict. When I was in my early 20s I had Greek friends, and going to their homes was an eye-opener. After I got over the shock, I noticed that I was more relaxed with them yelling at each other than at some relatives’ homes where nobody raised their voice. There was a distinct vibe of “I’m shouting because I care about you and me”, and I grew to like it very much.

[j9c]