Young people are struggling to deal with their MAGA parents — again
Young people are struggling to deal with their MAGA parents — again
"It’s very hard to view the world fundamentally differently from the person that raised you.”
Summary
With Donald Trump’s 2024 election win, young Gen Z voters like Kate, Holly, and Rachel are grappling with deepening divides with their Trump-supporting parents.
For many, these conflicts go beyond policy disagreements, touching on core values and morality. Parents once focused on fiscal conservatism have, in some cases, embraced conspiracy theories, creating painful rifts.
Studies suggest political divisions are increasingly seen as moral judgments, fostering a “mega-identity” where political views signify personal decency.
For these young adults, maintaining family connections amidst such ideological fractures has become challenging.
Don’t deal with them. Walk away. You’re allowed to be mad at your parents for electing a felon dictator. You’re allowed to hate them and not talk to them again. That’s their loss, and you don’t need such toxic people in your life.
Here is where I am at and why. I believe that the next administration is a significant risk for the country, the envionment, and will likely have global geopolitical implications on what happens to Ukraine, Taiwan, and Gaza. The immigration policy and rehetoric is unbelievably hateful, not based on reality, and will likely be an unmitigated disaster. The promises to eliminate the ACA and governmental regulatory bodies/oversight in the EPA, FDA, and NOAA make all our our lives more risky and worse. Specifically though, they my MY KIDS LIVES MORE RISKY. If you are going to actively vote against MY KIDS, YOUR GRANDKIDS lives/futures in such a fundamental way, you don't get to be a part of my life.
I'm in hard agreement with you, EuroTrip Yoda (had to).
My in-laws definitely voted Harris, my dad passed 4 years ago (Vietnam vet - not a trump fan), and my mom went down an idiotic rabbit hole. I haven't talked to my mom in weeks, and I'm sure she knows why.
She also doesn't know that we are planning to leave the country. I can't stay in a place that will reduce my daughter to a second class citizen without bodily autonomy. Yet that's what the nitwit I called "Mom" voted for.
Yup. I haven't spoken to my father since the election, but I know he voted Trump.
The next time he calls, the conversation will go like this:
Me: Before we go act further, I need to know who you voted for.
Him: will probably say Trump
Me: Alright, then this is the last time we will ever speak, and here is why...
I'll start with the fact that the party that he voted for wants to make my wife not a person, then keep going for as long as I'm able.
So ur encouraging people to hate and never speak to the people who literally raised them over an idea? For what having an opinion you dont like? I cant possibly see why politics is so polarised nowdays.
I didn't choose to be born. I didn't choose to be adopted into a dysfunctional family. I didn't choose to be raised as a little bigot. I did choose to walk away when I grew up and started seeing how people like me and my family were hurting others. This goes far beyond mere opinion, and perhaps you ought to spend some time reasoning about why these things aren't that important to you.
Edit to add a word.
I think people's values and actions are perfectly fine things to judge them on.
We're not talking about favorite colors here. We're talking about people actively enabling terrorists to attack minorities without fear of consequence and voting fascists who have openly expressed their intentions to destroy our democracy into power.
If you voted for Trump, then your "idea" is that there shouldn't be any work or medical safety standards, no food safety laws, no environmental protection to keep companies from dumping waste wherever they want, no national parks, and no schools. And that's just the government departments that are planned to be axed. We can talk about Operation Wetback 3 next, if you want.
My mom and dad literally raised me to recognize that the people they have become are shit that would hurt their own children and grandchildren in the name of their hate. So maybe they should try to get back to being decent human beings before they whine about their kids not recognizing them as such.
Believing that women and other marginalized people aren't people isn't a difference of opinion. Dismantling all regulatory protections isn't an opinion. Supporting a person who is blatantly trying to dismantle our democracy isn't an opinion.
It's a cult ideology, and no one has to tolerate intolerance.
No one has any onus to maintain contact with a person who only believes in hate, regardless of their relation to you.
These people made the choice to support a monster, and they deserve consequences for their actions.
I'm not young anymore but I would say that I'll never forgive my parents for their blind support of this shit.
The same people who have the nerve to tell you (fakely) they're proud of you and think you're really smart. But somehow I'm wrong about every single thing I've told them about trump for 9 years now
Same. It's like you give them a situation, a fact, and how it applies. You ask for understanding and it's " maaaa maaaa MAGA! SHE TURNED BLACK SHE SLEPT HER WAY TO THE TOP"
But yeah, MY sources are wrong, and biased.
Right. I think my dad especially has the attitude that it's a) not really important enough to talk about and b) he gave up on the concept of him being wrong decades ago. He just couldn't be, so yes my sources are obviously all wrong. Any implication that he is wrong is unacceptable to his fragile ego. So fucking weak.
Wait, your shitty, morally decrepit parents told you they were proud of you?
I only got the shitty, morally decrepit part and didn’t get the supportive part. Mine just wanted me to be their clone.
I’m late 50’s and so is my wife. My parents are gone but hers are all MAGA all the time. She hasn’t talked to them much in years. It’s not just younger adults but older ones as well. I still have trouble comprehending what has happened.
I'm in my 40s and I always wonder "am I still young people?" When these articles come up. Middle age and modern society be weird.
42 here. I don't feel old yet, that's all that matters. I'm still doing the same shit I did in my twenties more or less. Except for needing a bit more caffeine nowadays to get going.
The people 20 years younger than me do seem to be getting weirder and weirder though. I also noticed the old cliques are gone (skaters, emos, 'gangstas', jocks, etc.) and everyone just kinda does their own thing now.
Same. What made me feel old as fuck in this article was one of the young women mentioning voting for Obama in her elementary school mock election.
It's not the only reason (they're just truly terrible people across the board), but no one in my family has talked with my grandparents on my dad's side in many, many years because of this. Rightwing nutjobs with no grip on reality and no idea how shitty they are. I'm pretty sure they don't even know that they are great grandparents now (technically, anyway).
Rightwing nutjobs with no grip on reality and no idea how shitty they are.
I was trying to explain to someone in a forum once - this was someone that was always trying to normalize everything the wingers did. I was trying to explain to him just how often maga people are left out of gatherings and so on. I mean, this is even sometimes other Republicans. It's like one wife whispers to another wife - "well, we should not invite so and so because their husband is nuts for Trump", or, "so and so is a complete Karen that's all in for the conspiracy theory stuff and has Faux on all the time".
People just don't want to be around this stuff as a general rule. Maybe a handful of other magas do, but normal Americans do not.
Anyway, this guy thought I was just making this up and asked how do you know you aren't being cut out of social things for being an "extremist" (everyone not for donvict is an "extremist" in their view), etc...what can you do with these people?
My wife and I are not going to her side of family's Thanksgiving this year since they are full Trumpers. Not worth seeing them since we don't like them that much anyhow and they will be insufferable this year. We are in our mid 30s.
Studies suggest political divisions are increasingly seen as moral judgments, fostering a “mega-identity” where political views signify personal decency.
I think this is important information that doesn't get enough attention. The divisions that exist in the US today are often portrayed in the media as mostly superficial, as though we only disagree on the minor details of public policy choices, but generally agree on the core principles. I don't think that's true. I think there are significant ideological, philosophical, and moral disagreements among Americans. We have fundamentally different ideals, and we have differing visions of how America should be, and for how people should act and behave.
There are not only two different visions. I don't think it is a strict dichotomy. I think there are several different, visions for the US. Some left, some right; some that want to focus on religious, social, cultural, or ethnic issues, some that want to focus on economic or material issues. There are multiple different ideals competing for supremacy, since the US is a de facto two party system, the winners are which ever groups can form the largest coalition of voters.
There is only 2 basic core values.
The right: some people are better than others, and the betters should rule. They differ on what makes someone "better", but that's about it. The left: Everyone is equal, some people need more help than others. They differ on who needs the help.
The thing that really gets me about that quote is that of course your politics are a reflection of your morals. If you're willing to vote for the bigots, it's because, at best, you're ignorant of what they've been saying that they're going to do for a decade now, none of their bigotry is a bridge too far for you, or you actually agree with the bigotry. There are no other possibilities.
Aren't tons of young adults also MAGA now
Yeah, the generational divisions aren't clean any longer. Young men voted for Trump, thanks to social media "alpha" male influencers and recommendation algorithms.
Boomers were drawn in to MAGA to protect their wealth. Gen Z kids were attracted by the promise of lifting them out of poverty and change of the status quo on this. Fascists are really good at convincing people on all parts of the economic spectrum.
Yes. I wonder if they might turn out worse than boomers, Gen X and Gen Y.
I doubt critical thinking and media literacy education has gotten any better and certainly not enough to match the vast increase of propaganda combined with algorithms...
People - typically the usual cloistered beltway media and those that parrot them - tell me that, somehow, Gen Z and Gen alpha are somehow so much smarter, possibly even in some way magical, compared to prior generations.
Not buying it.
Now? I didn't see a single person over 40 carrying one of those fucking tiki torches in 2016
Why are they still claiming "fiscal conservatism" is anything more than racism and class warfare by a different name? Why are conservatives "stronger on economy?" Of course this is causing divides about morals; a vote for the GOP is a vote for oppression and hate.
This bullshit dog-whistling by the media has to stop or we're just letting 70+ million American voters off the hook by letting them claim "but I'm just worried about the economy."
edit: I can't find the source right now, but there's a quote about this. I'm paraphrasing, but it goes something like "historians have a term they use for a person who voted for Hitler because they liked his economic policies. That term is 'Nazi'"
Trumps "platform" was by any measure or definition less fiscally conservative than kamala. Pretty sure the reps left fiscal conservatism in the wasteland with Romney.
The new bullshit dogma for the right wing is "growth". But I don't think the Trump parade really even tried to explain that was the goal, or really any coherent economic policy.
"conspiracy theories" like White People are The Genetic Master Race , Black People Haven't Ever Invented Anything As Far As I know, Political Disagreements Of Any Kind Only Began After We Let Women Vote , Racial Equality is a Communist Plot Maybe, Lets Not Have It, If a Single Italian Is In Heaven, I'll Throw Myself Into Hell , and I Drove By a School and Saw a Mexican Kid, This Country Is Already Lost, And I Bet The Jews Did It
Top 10 bangers
Damn, that's one hell of a long name for a book
What about parents dealing with their maga kids?
That's an uncomfortable yet valid question. A significant portion of Gen Z kids were exposed to the MAGA shit through Rogan or Tate. I'm not a parent, but I'd put some serious thought into limiting their inheritance on the down low.
I'm a parent. To me it's the same either way. Open dialogue and understanding. You can't shake hands with a closed fist.
Luckily my parents and kids are not insane so haven't had to deal much with this but as an example when Andrew Tate came up in discussion with my kids I explained how he's a disgusting human being and how to judge people through a multitude of criteria such as who is promoting them, what are their interests, who are associated with them, what do they represent, etc.
As a general rule assholes tend to support asshole ideas and surround themselves with other assholes.
Well, whatever's left after the landlords and care homes take their cut.
Just in time for the holidays.
Write them off.
And if they need care in later life, put them in the shittiest home you can find.
Shit, if they need care later in life, they can ask Daddy Trump. I sure as shit can't and won't help.
Maybe they should have voted
But but but genocide Joe?! 🤪
What is the point of a news article that could be tailored for either political party with 3 people's subjective experience? You are putting all of your trust in the author/publisher.
It begs to draw conclusions about the masses based on 3 people. Talk about data-driven issues, or notable events, not narratives. This is circlejerk. Just sayin.