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.
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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.
You didn't get to choose your parents. And there's no reason to force anyone to continue associating with toxic shitheads with no capacity for critical thought.
If you want to change the world, you can't escape the confrontation.
No one has any responsibility to change the world.
Agreed. But there's a lot of blame going around that says otherwise.
What confrontation? The confrontation was deciding to cut them out of their lives. The only other confrontation to deal with there may or may not involve a baseball bat.
Why would I want to continue associating with someone that voted to endanger people I care about?
Because the alternative to communication is violence.
Not communicating is violence now?
Apparently it is. Otherwise we wouldn't have popular comments such as "if you didn't vote, you're complicit" or "silence is acquiescence of fascism". So no communication = violence, because if you run away from them, then you're giving them free reign to implement their views.
...
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.
Damn. As someone who also was adopted by psycho evangelicals and has spent thousands upon thousands of dollars on therapy to unpack all the shit they left me with, I get it. ❤️
Narrator: They didn't.
Eh, I get the cynicism, because it's hard not to feel it myself. But if I can change, so can they 🤟
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.
And you're encouraging people to expose themselves to toxicity that is very unhealthy for them.
The toxicity won't disappear on its own. It has to be cleaned up.
Time has a way of dealing with that
Yes, we're seeing it live. Most people here don't seem very much pleased with how time decided to deal with it though.
I'm referring to people with horrible views dying.
Death doesn't care about one's political views.
And?
And either you're expecting the people you hate to die first or for yourself to die before them. Neither of those cases actually solves the problem, so your choice is quite pointless. All you're doing is passing on the torch to the next generation and thus maintaining the cycle of ruination.
Socially ostracizing them is dealing with it. People aren't sticking their heads in the sand here. They're telling these people that their actions have consequences, and one of those consequences is exile. Cutting people out of your life is just one part of dealing with these people.
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.