I’ve been thinking about your third bullet point a lot lately. I genuinely think that the lack of irl social interaction these days is far more pernicious than anyone wants to acknowledge. I don’t think it’s social media and technology that are the problem, rather, the LACK of third places and irl social interaction is the problem, if that makes sense.

Exactly. I suspect whenever I talk about the reality of the USSR or other AES she just tunes it out because I was born after the cold war ended, though. I’ll keep trying.

Right, it’s not about evidence.

It probably is some kind of bigotry. Racism (the myth of the welfare queen), ableism (the myth that people en masse lie about being disabled to get benefits), protestant work ethic, etc. No clue how to combat those things, though, other than explaining how these myths came to be, which I have. I’m just at a loss and would like to have at least one family member who isn’t a total reactionary POS.

You’re right, there are easier people out there. Problem is that I don’t have much of a social life irl, partially by choice, and partially due to being autistic. I have tried to explain unions and their benefits to her once before, and she just came at me with “UnIoN dUeS bAd.”

The thing is that she’s from WV and her dad was a coal miner for a union mine that had showers for the miners to use at the end of the workday. She’s told me a story about how in the 80s, the union went on strike, and her dad went to work for the scab mine with no showers and how heartbreaking it was to see him come home covered in coal dust. Again, it’s like the elevator just doesn’t go all the way up. She has the pieces but refuses to put them together. Part of me thinks she’s just a lost cause.

Right. I think I’ve sort of gestured towards that, but may not have explained it fully to her. I’ll go more in-depth next time I get the chance to have this type of conversation with her.

My intent isn’t to defend social democracy or the capitalist welfare state…I believe my post may not have fully gotten that across, sorry. The myth of people living it up on various benefits and them being easy to get is what dissuades her from going any further left. One root of that idea is that “lazy” people deserve to suffer, but goodness knows there are several more.

I’m just at a loss for what to do. I can be more open with her than my dad and she does have some decent social beliefs (such as that gay and trans people aren’t freaks of nature that are doomed to burn in hell. very low bar, right?), which is what makes this all the more frustrating.

Yeah, my goal isn’t to convince her that the dems are good. I don’t think they’re good. I just wish she’d quit pretending to be ok with gay and trans ppl, lending milquetoast support to BLM, etc. while also being like “dems give handouts, I’m going to vote R” while also being on unemployment and being on the hook with PLUS loans until 2048! I’d honestly rather her be a straight up queerphobe (like my dad) than the way she is now. I wish she wouldn’t vote Republican, since the hateful rhetoric is just unbelieveable now. I’m a white, cis, feminine lesbian and I feel unsafe…I can’t imagine how it is for people with more marginalized identities.

I’m sure that in her mind she chalks it up to her (an honest, hardworking American™) being persecuted by dems who hate big business (if only that were true!). She’s only ever worked factory jobs and retail, and I’ve tried to explain deindustrialization to her, and it’s like she agrees but as soon as I quit talking she goes back to “handouts bad. jobs good. work ethic good. complaining bad. millenials and gen z bad. gen x and boomers good.” Etc.

Thanks for your response. This is just a supremely frustrating situation all around.

I’ll go in order.

1. Don’t know enough to comment on.

2. Don’t know enough to comment on.

3. I have a healthy skepticism of this idea. I have a friend who very strongly believes the Fort Detrick theory on Covid’s origins to be real, and he’s almost convinced me. It’s more likely than the Wuhan Lab theory, though that’s a very low bar, to be fair. People were making the same claim about Monkeypox this past summer, even though there’s been an ongoing outbreak in Africa, especially Nigeria (iirc), since 2017, which is where patient 0 of last summer’s outbreak had recently traveled to. It’s a small world, never doubt that.

4. I don’t doubt that ventilators are difficult to operate, and that many people who were put on them died. But a medical intervention/treatment doesn’t have to be effective for the vast majority to be effective for some – and therefore a worthwhile investment. The medical industry in the U.S. has been privatized to hell and is therefore driven by profits. But people working in the medical field are by and large decent people who want to help their fellow humans.

5. Highly, highly doubt.

6. Highly doubt as well.

7. Unfortunately, VERS is known to be infested with anti-vaxx shitheads falsely claiming bad side effects. It is not a reliable source.

8. Total nonsense.

9. Highly doubt. The way I understand it is that because it’s more common to encounter Covid than, idk, tetanus, it’s necessary to get boosters more often.

10. This a known, albeit rare, side effect that occurs within a pretty short time frame of having gotten the vaccine – about 2 weeks, iirc.

I think it’s a good idea to bear in mind that just because something or someone calls themselves a Marxist doesn’t mean they’re based, intelligent, or have good takes. Nazbols exist, after all.

It’ll likely never come to pass, but my choice would be either China or Cuba.

Thank you, comrade!