My family is mostly left-leaning with a few hard right aunts and uncles. Constructive political discussion with them has been really hard, because everyone in the liberal side of my family tries to more politely make our points and open the other up to other viewpoints, while the conservative side tries to shut down our opinions hard.
Just today I replied to a post my aunt made that was just a collage of ugly-looking pictures of Nancy Pelosi asking her to more constructively debate politics instead of making ad hominem attacks. She deleted my comment and sent me a paragraphs-long angry text about her being my "55 year old aunt not needing your 21 year old opinion." It's been a while since I'd actually engaged with the conservative side of my family in political discussions, so it was a shock to me to see her so quickly get aggressive over one comment. It got me thinking about how other families engage in discussions about politics.
my family is mostly right wing (by norwegian standards) so all I can describe it as is "hell I'm avoiding"
My brother's a loner /pol/ browsing literal Nazi who has fucked up views and said once that "the scumbag fucking white niggers of england should be gassed" but apart from him political discussion is usually constructive. My family is generally centre left and my father's always been very pro-union. My mother's a socdem as well and generally except for my brother we're very moderate politically. Hell, even my grandmother and grandfather are very liberal and they go to church every Sunday and are the god fearing type.
I'm lucky to live in a liberal country wherein the populace has been bred into reasonable political discourse.
bad, mostly them either not wanting to have anything to do about politics or going off on slightly racist tirades because of something they saw in the news.
Same here, I don't bring up politics even when it's obvious stuff that's very clearly impacting us negatively, like climate change or taxes or healthcare. I just take the 'that's just the way it is' approach instead of attacking the Conservative and Neoliberal policy that got us here.
my immediate family is lefty as hell, extended is 50/50
Every family member I know is a strong Brexiteer, and they fall into the category of 'I refuse to see the indisputable negatives of Brexit, and I consider it a good a thing that we ignored experts'. They're also all Tories, but my Dad & Mum occasionally suddenly swing super-left on one particular matter, before swinging back. Then there's my youngest sister, whom I recently discovered supports UKIP and is in favour of companies being able to racially discriminate. She regularly comes out with unproven claims that black men regularly beat their children and wives, and such behaviour is standard in black communities. Unsurprisingly, all these people, except my Dad, are Trump fanatics and will find excuses for everything - my mother argues there is nothing wrong with Trump's "locker room talk" and believes that sexual harassment is an inevitably, not an exhibition of scummy behaviour. My family proudly call themselves nationalists.
Consider all that information, and I think you can imagine what political discussions are like. I point out an issue with Trump, I get smacked with Whataboutism. Point out a flaw with Brexit, I get smacked with "that's just fearmonging, and these economists are a disgrace to their country". I point out how Trump / old hats like Rees-Mogg threaten LGBT rights, I get ridiculed and told that "You only care about gay people, but most normal human beings don't think about gay rights, probably because it's now trendy to be gay". Political discussion on Facepunch can be absolutely toxic and can certainly feel like an echo-chamber at times, but I'll take anything, because it's still better than trying to argue with my family.
I have some family that are born again christians and are near fanatical right leaning voters, believing Trump is gods chosen and all of that BS.
Most of the normal folk are left leaning in my family though.
My dad and siblings are pretty much mutual in beliefs and if there are any disagreements, it's usually very civil. Not with my mom though. Usually turns into a mess where we all just shut up and move onto another topic whenever anything sort of political comes up somehow. It's not a matter of left-wing vs. right-wing even, but guess closer to authoritarian vs. libertarian philosophies. My mom is a strong admirer of Ferdinand Marcos, who was a president-turned-dictator for 20 years during the 60s to 80s. I understand she grew up in that era and thankfully never got into the short end of the stick, but basically that era was composed of Martial Law and total censorship, control and torture of the people, with a surface facade of a growing economy and "disciplined" society.
She voted for Duterte on the last election, and voted for the dictator's son as Vice-President (whom thankfully didn't win by a hairline). Duterte is already becoming sort of a Marcos-lite with declaring Martial Law on one of our main regions (granted it wasn't unwarranted, ISIS attacked the region, but it got prolonged for unnecessary reasons). There's a huge vice-tax along with lowering taxes for people who earn high-income, which caused one of the biggest inflation here since decades ago. (Low-class workers already don't get taxed, so less taxes really only benefited those are already well off.) And we're also already feeling the bad effects of the inflation ourselves.
My mom has a bit of a temper issue too so no matter how much I try to calmly explain why the people she look up to on leading the country are actually the very same people causing most of everyone's griefs, she'd resort to a tantrum and just tell me to shut up straight up. It's frustrating but I try to not pursue it much.
I love my mom though so no matter what we won't let some silly political discourse sour any casual conversation.
Brother is bit of an ameri-boo conservative but he doesn't hate stuff like gay people or some socialized services like healthcare
Mum is clueless af with politics though I think she's more center-left leaning, mixed in with some minor racism
It's pretty chill when it comes to politics and thank fuck for that. I could not imagine living with someone who's one of those full on conservatives that follow trump like a cult and such.
My folks are fairly Right-Wing, so I'm (relatively-speaking) a Lefty when I'm home the same way I'm a Righty when I'm at school (in the way that anyone right of Marx is a Conservative on a Liberal Arts campus). We argue and debate about politics a lot, but even when things get heated we end our discussions in a respectful manner and go back to messing with each other like usual. I'm actually really grateful for it, since it's taught me that people can love and respect one another while still fundamentally disagreeing about a good number of things. More often than not conversations that start in a really volatile place will end with both of us realizing our stances aren't all that different.
If we had a worse relationship, I'd probably believe that everyone on the Right is a racist, fascist bumpkin and they'd believe that every college kid is a Liberal, authoritarian snowflake, so I like to think we make each other better with our disagreements and discussions.
My father was a 1st Waver in the Militia Movement, along with my uncle. I gained most of my conservative views from him, and most of my libertarian views from my British mother.
Politics has always been discussed to some degree in the house, but it never gets heated. It's more my dad rambling about how, "these fuckers are destroying our country" and what not, and my mum will usually be talking to her sisters in the UK about Brexit and all.
It’s a very healthy discourse in my family. My mum and her partner are hippies whereas I am a Business School graduate, but we do agree on many things and have productive dialogue on others. None of us are loyal to any political party nor ideology; we debate specific policies. And if we aren’t sufficiently knowledgeable on any point, we openly concede rather than dig in, and move on.
And eg they know that I always vote Nationals for lower house elections, but they also know that’s because I live in a very safe Labor seat, and I despise safe seats (as they also do), even if the seat is held by a party which I’m inclined to support.
Story in the OP is the exact same thing that happened to me when I tried to respectfully discuss a topic with my aunt, she told me I needed to respect her because she was my elder and I simply wouldn't underatand...I'm 27
My parents are pretty fucking religious and conservative, and my Dad spends a lot of time watching videos from PragerU and individual people like Jordan Peterson, Ben Shapiro, and Scott Adams. In fact, he would constantly bring up Scott Adams as if he was this super fucking interesting man that gets quoted in those inspirational images. He used to email me articles from websites that are usually considered extreme right and propaganda according to MBFC. When I brought that up to him, he basically flipped that on me and called center-left sites like The New York Times and The Washington Post extremist. On the times where I did bother to respond to these emails to explain to them why they're ass-backwards, he'd send me paragraphs of shit about either globalists, muslims or some other shit in response. Apparently my older sister blocked him on Gmail because all those batshit insane articles were mostly what he would send her and everyone else. There was one point where my parents were wanting to move to Minnesota, but then they changed their minds when Keith Ellison became the Representative over there just because he happened to be Muslim.
My mom was even worse in the religious sense. She's superstitious about shit like Pokemon and Legend of Zelda (she's convinced that the Triforce is a satanic symbol). She made my two younger siblings watch a two hour long video about why Pokemon is evil. When she found out that Animal Crossing had fortune telling on it, she made my older brother take the game and break it with a hammer. I might not be remembering this correctly, but I think there was a point where my mom wouldn't let us watch the Arthur Christmas special anymore, just because it had other holidays in it besides Christmas. I was told that she and Dad made my younger brother watch some homophobic lectures after they found out he was gay, and they were pressuring him so hard on that shit that he just got fed up with them and decided to move the fuck out of there.
My siblings are pretty sane in comparison, though I noticed that some of them hold some beliefs that are a different flavor of batshit insane. I remember having an argument with my younger brother about the definition of racism, and he was hellbent on thinking that racism meant "power + prejudice" and that white people "had to be made uncomfortable". He also seems to hold that "stay in your lane" mindset in regards to white people based off of some of the stuff he reblogged on Tumblr (e.g. having a problem with white parents adopting minority kids and white guys having dreads). My older sister is pretty sane for the most part and is a good counter to Mom and Dad, but she also seems to buy into some of the same white guilt shit my younger brother does. When I was talking to her about that sort of racism, she said that it was fine and straight up said "white people suck". From what I understand, though, white guilt is basically one of the few batshit insane things these two believe in, and they're otherwise reasonable enough.
I imagine that because my parents are so fucking conservative to the point of being fucking delusional, some of my siblings probably wanted to stay as far away from that shit as possible, which is probably why they ended up having some views that are considered extreme left.
My dad is slightly conservative leaning, I'm surprised he's not a nutter butter as his main news sources are Facebook and the drudge report.
My mom has only what I can consider political stockholm syndrome, as she worked in the mental health field and now for the schools for nearly 20 years, two things the republican party have tried to dismantle and destroy in my state yet she's as republican as they come.
No racism or bible thumping from either of my folks though. I'd describe them more as libertarians that fly under the republican wing.
Mildly agreeable, they're more right-leaning then me and do find a few of my libertarian leanings strange but they are understandable about em.
Mother is a progressive who is too busy just trying to survive to actively care about politics.
My father is a conservative jackass who swears up and down he is open minded but refuses to listen to what anyone else tells him unless you repeat it constantly at him until it absorbs subconsciously.
Grandfather on my father's side is a stubborn old former marine in the midst of alzheimer who is conservative but will listen to you, then within a week has regressed back to the point he was at before.
Grandmother on my father's side may or may not have legitimately believed Obama was the anti-christ. There is no arguing with her because she seems to simply go glossy-eyed and zone out if you begin to make any points counter to hers.
My aunt on my mother's side refused to let my cousin bring her boyfriend over for years because he was black, so until about four months ago he was never let in her house. It wasn't until my cousin said, "We've been engaged for six months, we're getting married in two weeks, either you accept him now or you'll never see me again." that she finally started tolerate his presence.
My grandmother on my mother's side was a centrist but also a racist who was very upset that she was racist. She grew up in Birmingham, Alabama before and during the civil rights era, so she was raised with a racist upbringing and it was an accepted part of daily life for her developmental years. In her later years she still had those thoughts but knew they were wrong so she was in a constant internal struggle to suppress those thoughts and habits. This became especially difficult when my cousin started to date a black guy, so after a few weeks of initial shock she made a more concentrated effort to be around him to help break herself of that racism. Funny enough when she found out I was in an ostensibly gay relationship, she thought that as perfectly fine and loved my boyfriend and welcomed him in to the family immediately.
Aunt on my father's side doesn't like black people and is scared to be around them.
Both aunts are trumpsters.
My great-grandmother on my father's side is like parody levels of racist conservative. She once found a black funeral in the obituaries, pretended she knew the man and had other people in the family take her there. It was a poor black family and she showed up in her finest furs and pearls and shit just to show off how wealthy and white she is.
My sister is a progressive rebel-wannabe who is more, "Fuck anyone saying I should be taking care of my four kids instead of out drinking and shooting pool at bars."
A whole bunch of moderate liberals, political apathisits, and the occasional Red by default extended family member from some mostly rural area. Things really don't get heated in debate, it's always just comes off as different shades of the same colour.
My brother is very left leaning (for Canada at least) and we share much of the same political opinions. My dad was pretty left-leaning as well but also held a few misguided beliefs before his death. I'm sure he would have changed with time was he still alive. My mom usually doesn't have any strong opinions on politics but she usually deffers to us. My eldest brother is much more centrist, bordering on slightly-right leaning. In the last mayoral elections, he voted for the at the time the demonstrably corrupt mayor because of the age-old "the evil you know" garbage. He lost to relatively new female candidate, thankfully. Extended family is unknown, I'm guessing centrists since they're all Christians.
Man I Don’t bring up politics anymore due to me being the only left leaning member in a family of die hard right wings who insist trump is doing a great job. They won’t face facts, believe the left is all propaganda and lies, and won’t even give anyone else a chance to argue their point.
so I gave up talking politics with my awful family long ago.
Many of my family members, despite being good, well-meaning people, have bought the propaganda hook, line, and sinker. I avoid political subjects and when they come up usually just nod and smile to avoid conflict.
95% of my family is like, the southeast flavor of right-wing, and I'm pretty far left, so naturally I avoid that sort of discussion because I enjoy having a head on my shoulders.
My dad spent most of his life as a leftie. Pro unions, pro massive taxes for businesses and the rich, pro gay marriage, pro all sorts of social services. But in the last 5 or so years he's made a pretty strong about turn. It started off as him not liking political correctness (mostly driven by a hatred of Anita Sarkesian which I can understand) and morphed into lunacy.
He "doesn't like Trump" but still thinks he's better than Clinton could have been, hates immigrants (particularly Muslims) which he describes as being pro-union and pro-working class position, he goes on about all of the MRA talking points but at the same time will talk about how transgendered people shouldn't use different bathrooms because they might molest a little girl. He said to me he almost decided to vote against gay marriage (despite supporting it for as long as I can remmeber) because he thought the campaign run by Yes was offensive and too politically correct.
He still thinks he's left wing.
Mum is a pretty standard centre-left fare.
Everyone I know the political leanings of go from center to far left, don't think there's a single ml of rightwing blood here.
My dad is a gun-loving, NRA-supporting, Harley Davidson-buying, god-fearing conservative. He loves listening to Michael Savage for the “entertainment”, and despite pointing out “yes David Duke is a horrible racist”, he’s still ‘“a brilliant speaker”. He’s also red-pilled hard to believe Nancy Pelosi has Alzheimer’s, Hillary was afflicted with some terminal illness during her candidacy, and that Democrats are objectively always wrong. He even donated to Trump during his run, and despite figuring out he’s a conman, hare when people talk shit about him because it’s “uncivil” and the “station of president is sacred”.
The worse thing he ever said, politically, was that the killing Jamal Khashoggi and the turning of a blind eye was a “necessary sacrifice” for getting Saudi Arabia to bend to our will and give us cheaper gas.
He’s a terribly misinformed, intellectually dishonest man, and that hurts me more than anything because he is genuinely brilliant and loving family man, just red-pilled to fuck and back.
As far as I am aware, I am the most politically conscious person in my immediate family. Most of our political talk is between my wife, my brother, and my brother's girlfriend which 99% of the time constitutes them just asking me "Who is this guy in the news / why is this belief a thing / what does X politic topic mean?"
My father is a staunch Republican, which sucks because 99% of his beliefs actually are Democratic and he's pro-union. He votes Republican simply because he was raised that way and he grew up in a time when the GOP were more tolerable. Though in recent times, he's basically trash talked everyone in government regardless of their party affiliation. He thinks Trump is a moron and tarnishing the position of president, but believed Clinton is satan in a blouse.
My mother doesn't really care about politics. My father tells her how to vote every year. Not because he's a controlling person, but because my mother cannot be bothered to form a political position on anything and literally just asks him who she should vote for every year. I've mentioned to her that she ought to look into each person's platform more and all I got back was, "That's what I have your father for".
My family is almost entirely hard left, including myself, but the majority of my family is obstinately left and will not budge on issues. I've tried several times to get them to understand that not every trump voter is a racist bigot, and that their views can be changed, but they won't listen, and on other issues such as gun control and gender issues they can be a bit non-understanding of the opposite side. I don't dislike them for this, I understand it's mostly a result of how polarized politics has become and that they just don't understand how to convince people of an opposing politics, but it's still something that comes up.
My parents and I have done fairly well up to recently, despite my radical shift from conservative evangelical to non-religious social democrat. But after a big argument we had recently, we agreed that we would stop talking about politics with each other entirely. Things have been great ever since.
I should note that my parents are neither Trump voters nor racists, so I have it significantly easier than some of you do. They've actually been a great influence on my life, despite our recent disagreements, and put the majority of the so called Christians around here to shame. That's half the reason they've had such a difficult time finding a church to attend since we moved to Tennessee. So much of what passes for Christianity down here pays very little heed to all the things in the bible that contradict the current state of conservative politics. Like, for instance, welcoming the immigrant; one of the things my parents and I are STILL in complete agreement about is that the xenophobia of the Trump administration and his most loyal adherents is reprehensible.
As for the rest of the family? Grandparents on my mothers side aren't Trump voters either (Well, my grandmother for sure, at least), and are as disgusted with the current administration as my parents are. My uncle (mom's brother) and his wife are ex-christian agnostic buddhists, and due to my own personal growth I get along with them now better than anyone else in the extended family. (I actually started attending the local Unitarian Universalist that my uncle used to pastor and still speaks at once every month. He also recently invited me to play Arkham Horror with friends of his, one of whom is the first transgender individual I have ever met in real life.) And none of us are too keen to talk politics when we're all together for holidays or other events - but when the subject does arise, we tend to get along fairly well.
It's my dad's side of the family from Florida that is unfortunately worse off. His father is one of the many baby boomers who has been taken for a drive by modern day internet bullshit, starting with email chain letters going all the way back to when I was a kid. And one of my dad's two brothers is the only person in the entire family that I can certifiably call a racist. However, he's also a broken man, between chronic pain going back decades and his severe addiction to alcohol as a result of said pain. He is proof that money does not in any way buy happiness. (He's a self made millionaire thanks to his former career as a car salesman.)
Thankfully, we only go down to Florida once every few years. I expect the next trip we take as a family may be the last, as it will likely be for one or both grandparrents' funeral. They're both getting really old, and my grandmother herself almost fucking died around new years eve. We're still not certain she'll recover, and if she goes, my grandfather (who turned 90 this last year) will probably not be far behind.
My Mother, my older Sister and occasionally my young Brother are Apolitical but my mother is only interest or forced too in politics on local level like from last state house election that she wanted me to vote on update both all county schools and community college in Alamance county, NC.
While my brother is just going to said as a native apolitical junkie based on jumping political trends without becoming a permanent follower of such any political ideology e.x. voting Trump in last presidential election just for very likely lols from Internet or friends in high school and public university than actual reasons on supporting him and just randomly voting any state candidates without research which suspected the Internet or someone told him to vote. And my sister is very not interest to all forms of politics.
My Dad, Grandma, Aunts or very probably everyone from either side of my family in other hand, Are from between center-right and less Republican loyalist to closest of being far-right and religiously and diehard Republican loyalist as it gets.
My father was diehard Republican and mostly loyal to them in his late 20s to late 40s as I remember that if he was former George H. Bush and Ted Cruz follower prior to Trump win in Primaries. But after he is politics got nearly leftward based what he's acting but mild irrationally racist when I time, I talk to him about Net Neutrality got repealed and he go into literally go to temper tantrum rant before I punched him to stop it. That stimulation didn't go there after that, but overall he does like to listen my politics and current news about issues (both nationally and internationally) with other random or less relevant policies that I want to discuss.
My grandma and aunt who living here since 2015 are more right-wing than my dad, And accidentally blindly devouted to Trump and other Republicans as Superhero-like 'good politicians' despite the reality is said otherwise. While my aunt is just mostly following what grandma beliefs.
For other family member who didn't living my area, Are either more or less worst right-wing sided or Republican loyalists as I just said in last three paragraphs above this one.
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