My mom is…I’ve talked about her before, and she’s not the brightest person…or best person…its a long story
But anyway recently she asked me if I was forced to talk about racism in my stem classes. Beyond a bit in the syllabi basically saying they try to be equitable or whatever its literally never come up. And then somehow she started getting pissy at me about it not being true. Like idk what to say to you.
Another bit, she read this book that i guess said there were like…social justice warriors or something trying to manipulate students…I think…idk my head started to hurt.
Like i try with her but she’s always convinced she’s the smartest person in the world when she’s very much not. I understand I inherited that too [at least to a certain extent] but its really hard to know where to start with her on stuff like that.
Edit: its “social justice fundamentalism,” from time urbans “what’s out problem?”
And I know I know i should be educating her but we dont exactly have the best relationship, especially around politics
How old are your parents? Most boomers are pushing 80 now so it seems like a waste of energy to try to convert them now.
I’m young so she’s in her 40s
God man, I hope your mom can turn around on it. It got my dad, and by proxy my mom, some time ago. Their Twitter addiction has turned them into some of the most hateful, poisonous people I know. It’s really incredible. Years ago, my dad was completely in favor of the BLM protests, wore shirts publicly showing his support in the deep guts of multiple red states. Said things like “Black people should be allowed to burn down cities they were forced to build” and “reparations are the only way to make us truly equal.” He was always hardline anticommunist, but there was at least real potential for him to become an anti-imperialist type. Once he installed Twitter it was over and he became mecha-hitler.
People that are so willing to grab on to that type of hate are a waste of revolutionary energy. I know she is your mom but you probably can have better effects with other people in your life.
The older, I got the more I realized that all the people know for a long time all turn crazy every time they mention their political opinions.
If your parents are Gen X, as are mine, and they grew up in either a poor urban environment (or just anywhere in the third world), odds are, that they are (through no fault of their own) very likely LITERALLY not as intelligent as you, purely down to childhood lead exposure. From all the research that’s been done, it results in people who are generally less intelligent, irritable, arrogant and argumentative, and I personally have dealt with this in likely some of it’s most extreme in the case of my family. My parents generation are all abhorrent, whereas my grandparents, and my siblings/cousins are all remarkably level headed and empathetic people. Maybe I am reading too much into it, but I’d rather it be out of my control than for me to waste my energy getting 50+ year old racists, transphobes, and zionists in my family to come around.
Some unordered and loose thoughts and maybe even advice:
As a transwoman I have experience of helping your parents getting along with belives and identity of a child. I cut them of lowkey temporarily and made it pretty clear why. Then in the small moments we see each other the acceptance shifted. Now I have contact again. This only works if you don’t rely on them.
I don’t generally don’t think it is productive to try to sway people that actively block any revolutionary points with arguments.
However, it might be worth trying to walk the thin line and use the distain conservatives have with the government to build class councessnes which could given a good time improve the propagandized and scapegoat shit.
