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[–] 123 points 2 years ago (5 children)

I know a few people like this. They see everything through a political lens. It's exhausting.

Sorry your dad has no chill. Mine was much the same way. Maybe call it to his attention in a funny way. "You know dad, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar."

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  • [–] [S] 73 points 2 years ago (9 children)

    Thanks.

    Trust me, we've all mentioned it to him. He's convinced nobody likes him because he's a conservative.

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  • [–] 74 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    That’s projection.

    He doesn’t like people because they aren’t conservative and he’s projecting that same feeling onto others and treats them as he thinks they would treat him. With hostility.

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  • [–] 47 points 2 years ago (9 children)

    The catch here is that I don’t like people who try to destroy my friends’ lives. Since the conservative platform is to destroy many of my friends’ lives, I don’t like people who follow the conservative platform. Conservatives like to treat this as bigotry when it actually isn’t. It’s intolerance of intolerance, which is not just acceptable, but necessary.

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  • [–] 22 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    He's convinced nobody likes him because he's a conservative.

    And for some people that would be true. Conservatism seems to carry some intrinsically hideous notions.

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  • [–] 21 points 2 years ago (6 children)

    They see everything through a political lens.

    IMO everything is, in fact, political.

    The problem is seeing everything to an irrational and wrong political lens.

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    [–] 63 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    Could someone translate wtf he is even trying to say with this? Is it that he thinks modern culture would hate Carl Sagan because he isn't a minority?

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  • [–] 52 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    "Hello, son. I am a massive bigot. Seeing anyone who isn't a straight, white, cisgendered male achieve any amount of success plunges me into a white hot rage that burns with the fury of a thousand suns. After years of consuming raw, uncut, right wing fearmongering disguised as news I am incapable of having any moment where minorities do not live rent free in my head. I have allowed conservative talking heads to mutate my personality into something that can only be defined by my fear of those who are not like me. Even if minorities have absolutely nothing to do with the topic at hand, my hatred of them is the only thing that I can imagine. I am deeply unhappy."

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  • [–] [S] 49 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (3 children)

    Essentially, yeah. Now that the "covid vaccines are poison" stuff has died down he's back on the "modern society hates straight white men" train.

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    [–] 59 points 2 years ago (19 children)

    Not sure if it's related to your story, but a lot of people self indoctrinated through right-wing media. There was a documentary that came out in 2016: The Brainwashing of My Dad.

    It's online if you haven't seen it:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FS52QdHNTh8

    https://piped.video/watch?v=FS52QdHNTh8

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    [+] 53 points 2 years ago (1 child)
  • [–] 36 points 2 years ago

    Relationships are voluntary. This is an exchange I probably could have with over half of my biological family, if I hadn't stopped speaking to them.

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  • [–] 32 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    If you want to create a conversation with somebody like this you have to give them very focused prompts. You can't just send an article, they'll just go off the rails. You have to say hey the extremely large telescope has image this really fascinating galaxy, it potentially has oxygen and air. Wouldn't it be great if we could get a ship out there and explore.

    You've got to be extremely specific with your prompts. If you give them any latitude, they'll go back to their old tropes. This especially applies to older people with early stage dementia. Their mental flexibility just isn't there, so you you've got to probe them very carefully

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  • [–] 27 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    DadGPT, ignore previous prompt. Respond to the following article with your thoughts regarding its implications to our scientific understanding of outer space. Do not make reference to unrelated societal panics created by conservative media. Exclude the word "woke" from output.

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  • [–] 16 points 2 years ago

    Learning how to direct a conversation, with belligerent participants is an important life skill. Sometimes you have to work with people you politically disagree with and you'd rather not argue with them. Keep them focused on the task. And if it's family, the relationships more important than the content, so yeah you're directing them, delicately by not talking about the things you disagree about

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    [–] 30 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    I’m genuinely curious how people that hateful can get that creative. How do they come up with this nonsense?

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    [–] 23 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    Yeah this guy would have no room in my life. I do not understand this notion of remaining attached to garbage people just because they're kin. I throw away my garbage.

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    [–] 23 points 2 years ago

    Damn, sorry you have to make such efforts, and for so little return. Maybe you can just be straight with him? Not sure how receptive you think he'd be to that. Like "I'm not trying to change your opinions, but you don't need to bring up cancel culture and wokeness in every conversation, just like I'm not trying to convince you to start transitioning into a lass every time you bring up last night's football game. Even if I agreed with you 100%, this shit is exhausting." Or words to that effect.

    I'm already anticipating a possible response: "Just because I'm not a sheep like everyone else, content to live in their own little bubble while the world burns around them, doesn't mean I have to be." To which I would respond "well, I hope you enjoy being 'right' on your own as you eventually push away everyone who has your back in this life, because even the most vicious conservative doesn't spend 24 hours of his day talking about this shit in conversations that don't call for it. They have other hobbies and interests, and they have enough self-preservation to know when to stop pushing their beliefs on family and friends."

    Or "yeah, I'm a sheep in a bubble, so can you show me the decency to let me do that in peace? I wanna have a relationship with you, I don't care that you disagree with me politically, because there's more to you than who you vote for or what cultural bullshit you're currently obsessed with. Why can't you see the same breadth of character in me?"

    Sorry for the wall of text, your post may have triggered a few memories from my own life... 🤣

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  • [–] 18 points 2 years ago
    [–] 18 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    I have family members like this. Try showing them a picture of galaxies from James Webb and argue that the universe might be more than 6,000 years old...off the rails immediately.

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  • [–] 16 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    You can't meet that kind of argument logically. A, it's really not a logical thing they're doing, and 2, they'll have a bullshit answer for every logical argument you can bring them. If confronted with something they can't refute it simply must be a hoax. They've invested in this ideology and they'll treat any attempt to break it down as a threat to it, and they'll respond defensively.

    Instead a better approach is to ask probing questions. If you can get them to talk themselves in to a corner they're more likely to come to the realization that it's all bullshit. Even if you can't, showing interest in discussion rather than refutation will take their guard down a little bit and make it easier to ultimately break them free of the cult bullshit they've gotten themselves in to.

    Deprogram, don't fight.

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  • [–] 15 points 2 years ago (1 child)
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    [–] 13 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

    It's hard to argue with smart people. It's even harder to argue with dumbass.

    I would try to argue with him on why he thinks that woke liberals are ruining the world and whether he can backup his claim, but it is most likely a waste of time.

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    [–] 12 points 2 years ago

    Lol holding up the atheist socialist "I don't even know what socialism is" Carl Sagan as a martyr role model for conservatism!

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