I have 2 GOP parents, one that voted Trump originally and one that did not. Over the last 9 years, I have watched them both travel down the MAGA pipeline to become visibly fascist. The parents who taught me racism was wrong and to have empathy for others, have become openly hostile about immigrants, Muslims, and even parrot the Nazi “great replacement” theory.
Part and parcel with this, they refuse to have any discussions about the facts – like immigrants not stealing and eating people’s pets. They won’t hear it, they won’t even engage in the conversation…they just get angry and loud the second they hear anything that doesn’t fit into the Fox News narrative. Can you relate? How are you dealing with it in your relationships with your parents?
I had a friend who said there’s good in the natural order of people getting old and dying so that their bad ideologies can die with them. I’ve always appreciated that viewpoint. Unfortunately, I have a brother who still lives at home…and he gets that shit ideology from our parents and shit ideology from Stephen Crowder (and even Alex Jones!) and the like online.
And now, he just models my parents where, even when I try to approach him with understanding and empathy, he refuses to even discuss why we should give a shit about immigrants or anyone else. To mash together two of your points, it’s like religion in the 50s…there’s entire swaths of the US where it can be dangerous to even believe otherwise because everyone around you has their beliefs so intertwined with beating their enemy (communists/the left/atheism, etc.) that at best, you will lose your family, your friends, all your support networks, and at worst, you’ll have the devil beaten out of you if you even entertain leaving.
That sucks… but you hit the nail on the head at the end. He doesn’t have much choice, he’s surrounded by it, marinated in it… it will always be easier to choose hate and ignorance. Understanding and compromising take work, MAGA lets you hate almost anything and still be welcomed.