My right-wing convert sister from Florida

Is up for a week. So we all converge at Mom's house and as I pull up I see her car decked out in "Bush/Cheney 04," "Freedom isn't free," and American flag stickers.

This is my sister who used to be a rabid vegetarian environmentalist and desperately wanted to vote for Nader in 2000 but voted for Gore instead because she didn't want to risk Bush winning. So what happened, I ask? 9/11 and a health dose of Hannity, Rush, et al. and living in a confederate-flag waving right-wing region of Florida. She blames the Medicare confusion on "liberals" (and basically every other problem).

Under strict orders from my mom, however, I witheld comment and politics has not come up yet (with me in the room). I know I shouldn't feel this way about family, but I want to go off on her. I'm not strong enough to block it out of my mind and even when I'm not saying anything about politics, all I can think of is "Don't say anything about politics'.

It is very difficult and it makes me sad, frustrated, and a little angry. That's not how family gatherings should be.

Therefore, it's probably impossible to alter her brainwashing.

Just look at her with ridicule and avoid her. She'll in time wonder why and perhaps ask you. If not, forget it.

If she brings it up, don't debate with her, just reminder her that dissent is patriotic.

me for my bday. i put it on often when going out knowing i am going to be talking to people. had to go talk to teachers at fundie christian school my niece goes to and put on the necklace. no one says a thing, but it is loud and clear. i leave it on my rearview mirror for when i want to wear it.

When she stabilizes, get her help for the long term. My sympathy is with you a death in the family is difficult, I've lost a sister too.

First time I've ever seen anyone come up with a price tag that didn't involve invoking someone Else's blood sacrifice. I've always wanted to ask one of those folk about the actual cost but I figured they'd just invoke those kids in Iraq whom I wish to be closer to home the better to support them.Got into trouble once when hit with that statement by asking if it's not free how do you sell it-by the yard, the pound, the minute or what?

As in: "I am terribly sorry that you have lost your mind, and I will think positive thoughts for you so that you may find it again. And that is all I will say." That ought to end any discussion.

it's really a pretty effective way to deal with this kind of situation.

and your post is still funny...:rofl:

that would let the sister know where the speaker stood, but would deflect further discussion. In cases like this, pity may be the healthy sentiment; it is much more effective than hate.

/Buddhist mode off

"What a terrible thing it must be to lose one's mind. Or not have one at all . . ."

From one of their favorite conservative icons . . .

I refuse to go in that nut cases room. But hang in there it's not easy being blue in a red family.

into my oasis of blueness. I should tell her that us folks up in these here parts don't take too kindly to "her kind" but that would trigger a mom-upsetting argument.

I might wear my peace button, though. I wanted to suggest that they hand out a "freedom isn't free" sticker to each family member of a soldier killed in Iraq and to the families of innocent victims in Iraq, as a way to "win hearts and minds." But I can't risk it.

Most of the people I grew up with here in Mississippi are rabid fundamentalist right-wingers. I actually don't much enjoy their company anymore but one and I were discussing the Medicare Drug plans. She immediately blamed the AARP and other such liberal groups for it all. I was so dumbfounded I couldn't respond. It wouldn't have done any good anyway. So many of these people are basically red-necks, who belong to the DAR and brag about their ancestry. At the risk of sounding elitist, I have to say none of them has an education beyond high school and are basically incapable of thinking logically. I don't know what it will take to get through to any of them and I don't even try anymore. When we were without power for a week after Hurricane Katrina, they said no one could have seen it coming and it was nobody's fault. I did point out then that it had been known for years that the levees in NO were insufficient. They said nothing, didn't have a clue what I was talking about. I just hope there are enough intelligent people in this country who can think more clearly.

On the Bush/Cheney 04 sticker, can you change the 0 to an 8?

the "true believer"; considering that she went from being "a rabid vegetarian enviromentalist" to the bushbot with the bumper sticker festooned car.
Did she display this trait while growing up?

but I never noticed any real extremism shifts--it was a gradual build-up to Green Party thinking. I truly blame her listening to RW Hate Radio (first as amusement, then she started liking it, then she drank the cool-aid) and the general red-necky nature of her town. What I'm surprised at is how easily and relatively quickly she caved in on her principles. If I were suddenly dropped into the Taliban region of Florida, there's no way in hell I'd change my opinion about Bush. I might be oppressed into hiding, but I'd still secretly hate him.

I really can't get a grasp on it. She's not college-educated (I am) but did better than me in high school and I always thought she was smarter than me. She has adopted a weird southern accent and spouts goofy Hate Radio lines ("Kerry shot himself in Viet Nam," etc.) and seems anti-intellectual all of a sudden. I've never seen anything like it.

because of the hate generated by the political situation. Interestingly enough, I have a born again rw brother and we get along great. We yell at each other, make fun of each others beliefs, etc. We get along great.

Wierd huh?

I like talking politics with family and kinda like getting on peoples nerves.

But in the end it would be terrible to lose a family member to politics.

I try to remember Politicians are slobbering media whores who will say anything to get power. None worth a family feud.

Not judging you, it is a sad story.

You're doing a good job, so keep it up a few more days.
If she was THAT easily led astray, it's a good chance she'll come back to the light. But that won't ever happen if you interfere with her psychosis of the moment......

I was thinking all day "I need to get on DU and talk about this." It was either that or a lot of alcohol.:-)

<snip>
For Thanksgiving, I went to my Aunt-In-law's in the East Texas, hard-core
Republican country. While there, my brother-in-law and his wife from Waco,
the religious center of Baptist theology and even more reactionary religious
beliefs (of which they are) visited as well. There in the piney woods some
of the major impediments to changing the world became obvious. Everyone
expresses familial affection for each other as long as the more intimate
challenges of free thought go unspoken. The internal dissonance that one
feels of towards loved ones who have superstitions that shock the
sensibilities, makes the idea of bringing about change in the world daunting
at best. It is clear that these superstitions effectively stand in the way
of changing the politics of a nation. Even more disturbing is not only the
fact that they are superstitious, but that they believe they must impose
these beliefs on the rest of us. That is where they move from the quaint to
the downright dangerous.

Even talk about the weather is not exempt, with rainfall 16 inches below
normal, talk of global climate change is dismissed as God's will. Attempted
discussions of loss of civil rights and invasions of the government and
business into personal privacy are acknowledged as disturbing, and then
written off as the sign of the beast. This was followed by a curious
conversation that this is surely the end times and the rapture can't be far
away intermingled with discussion of their children's college plans. Even
there the discussion is about how to prevent them from coming into contact
with contradictory information from the rest of the world. The father wants
the daughter to live at home and go the confines of Baylor. A brilliant
girl, they think teaching or nursing would be good. They feel they are being
tolerant by allowing their son to pursue a music career, something they hope
he will grow out of. They are encouraged by the fact that he will go to the
local junior college but live in a house for young men run by the church
where they start each day with a bible study.



more here...http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_john_kel_051201_lions_and_tigers_and.htm

if not put Air America or Randi Rhodes on the radio. That way you get the pleasure of watching her squirm or break the no politics agreement.

'Don't say anything about politics'."

LOL, yes! This is how I live my life. I live in a red area and have a red family, so I'm doing the "hiding" thing you spoke of in another post. I came to the conclusion that * was batshit crazy just before he started the war in Iraq. I'd been "apolitcal" for years, but * radicalized me. :shrug:

If we think for ourselves, we are all in a constant state of change as we take new information and adapt to it, but someone who changes so quickly might be too easily swayed (too adaptable?). Maybe psychologically it was just easier to blend in with the other right-wingers in Florida.