Fucking Christ. I went through a good 2 years of not receiving shit from my grandparents. I went to their home about a week or so ago and my grandfather just turned off Glenn Beck and turned to me and said, "I really like this guy. He teaches history all the way to the founding fathers instead of the bullshit the democrats try to push. He always gets his stuff right." Then he asked me, "Do you watch him?" Which I politely said, "No." He asked me why, and I told him, "The guy seldom gets his history right, often putting things out of context. I simply don't like him and I don't agree with him."

He obviously gets a bit defensive and asked me to name one thing he's gotten wrong. Like I keep a running tab of things he's screwed up on or misrepresented... So I mentioned that he often represents our founding fathers as strict Christians, which isn't right. Not all of them were Christian.

So now, I get political e-mails from my grandfather. Of course most of them are written by annoyed people, which I don't put much credibility into what they're saying.

Sometimes, I really want to send them an e-mail dismissing what the e-mail they sent was saying (which is pretty easy). But it's not worth it to start an argument with my grandparents. Last year I did it with my mother though and tore the hell out of her e-mails. Shortly thereafter, I stopped receiving them.

Anybody else suffer from this from family members???

[Edited on July 29, 2010 at 7:44 PM. Reason : TWW is a blog]

7/29/2010 7:43:53 PM

so you're filling the void left by God now?

7/29/2010 7:44:45 PM

auto-delete

7/29/2010 7:45:00 PM

dude, just because you can make a thread every hour doesn't mean that you need to. chill.

7/29/2010 7:45:11 PM

this is what i get:

Quote :

"http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/111611-obama-calls-african-americans-a-mongrel-people- This idiot can’t help but step in it! Today on "The View" Hussein called “African Americans”, and then all white people "Mongrels". No I am not making this up, he really did. Hmm, there was one other historical figure with that same point of view...who was it again? Oh, yeah, that's right...HITLER! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_Foreign_Policy_(debate) "However, noted through speeches and recorded conversations, after 1930, Hitler viewed the United States as a Mongrel State..." Sorry to cop out and use the Nazi reference, but it’s so often hurled at conservatives unfairly and this time I think the analogy defends itself. I’m sure we’ll get some stupid explanation from Gibbs about how He meant no harm by the word and it is a "generated a phony controversy" ginned up by right wing extremists…that The President of these United States called all of us mongrels! So much for our “post-racism” president. This guy is unbelievable. If it hadn’t happened on TV nobody would believe it. If it had been rumored about being said by Rush Limbaugh the natives would be up in arms, with the various "reverends" leading the charge! Just pay attention to the media cover that will be given to Hussein on this. And let's all pay attention now, to how quickly Wikipedia has to go and remove any references to Hitler using the term "mongrel". Conclusion: Hussein, if not an racist, elitist, National Socialist, is at the very least most definitely a complete moron."

[Edited on July 29, 2010 at 7:56 PM. Reason : quotes]

7/29/2010 7:45:44 PM

Quote :

"dude, just because you can make a thread every hour doesn't mean that you need to. chill. "

7/29/2010 7:45:46 PM

i was gonna say ibtlunak but i'm not

7/29/2010 7:46:22 PM

I made 2 threads today buddy. I made a thread 2 hours ago, and now I made this one.

7/29/2010 7:47:31 PM

my extended family does not begin political discussions with me, most likely because i'm already considered to be the "free spirit", and so they probably assume i'm always high and just want to eat tofu and watch birds fly across the lake.

[Edited on July 29, 2010 at 9:48 PM. Reason : however my dad has no problem telling me i'm an asshole for what i believe]

7/29/2010 9:47:19 PM

I get along with part of my family. However, the more country parts of extended family, and my southern baptist uncle... not so much.

What I will not stand for his my uncle's uncanny ability to bring up politics out of the inane, and push them on family. It also unnerves me that my father's political ideas seem to morph when he's around his "big" brother.

However, it's sometimes fun to call him out on it, and generally stir the pot that is already boiling over, and leave.

7/29/2010 10:13:31 PM

isn't this stolen from some old thread?

7/29/2010 10:17:03 PM

I agree with 97% of my immediate family's views...... this doesn't present an issue.....

7/29/2010 10:19:27 PM

It's not so much that I disagree with all of their views, it's that they're a little extreme for me. Like being told that we need to return to more christian values in government.

But it's always fun when my great aunt comes to visit, as she's a democrat. So it's just fun for everyone.

7/29/2010 10:24:27 PM

We were at a family event (wedding maybe) back during the election. and my normal uncle was telling me how he had gotten a signed photo from W, w/ a message of "blah blah blah, thanks for donating, blah blah blah." It was either bad marketing, or my cousin's husband had donated in his name for this to be sent to him. My uncle (very democrat, and anti-W) thought this was hilarious. Some distant relative overheard part of it, and walked up and told him how awesome it was that he received the gift, and proceed to tell the group why he was for dub-ya.

7/29/2010 10:30:33 PM

There are 2 people in our family of 26 that are of a different political view and religious thought....... interestingly - they make the other 24 feel weird.

I don't see face to face conflict & "silence equals consent" theories as fun. But that's just me.
To each their own.
I don't judge - don't mind listening to the others - and would desperately miss my grandmother's email forwards if she weren't on earth to send them to me, far more than their context bothers me.

7/29/2010 10:33:29 PM

I majored in Political Science and now I'm getting my masters in it so I definitely get a lot of political emails from family.

My Mom's side is pretty left, has pretty much always voted Democrat, etc. they don't send me that much political stuff. We talk politics around Christmas and I've never had any issues with anyone except my crazy Aunt but she's another story entirely....

My Dad's side are very political and very right wing but open minded to some things (almost libertarian but not extremist in some of the ways that they can be) He sends me extremely right wing biased stuff all the time and often quotes people like Glen Beck, etc. that destroy the credibility of the GOP and I do write him back almost like an essay detailing what I agreed with or didn't from the piece. He also reads all of my research papers (which mostly pertain to Chinese foreign policy, international institutions and democratization) so he's always up to date on what my thoughts are.

Politics are fun to debate as long as people can be rational and big enough to understand that some people are going to just see things differently than you. I will never post in the Soap Box, nor will I debate American Politics with my friends because I feel that it strays from academia and becomes a bi-partisan pissing contest.

This is largely why I chose to major in International Relations and minor in Comparative, because partisan debates are less likely to occur (though you do have the realist/institutionalist/etc. views).

Honestly, I don't take anything seriously unless I read it in a journal that's approved by the American Political Science Association (APSA) and that has been peer reviewed. I also read the rebuttal arguments/data and then form an opinion.

Mainstream news is just a rhetoric machine that floats shit to the surface and uses statistics to lie and distort the real underlying issues. I see Beck, Anderson Cooper, etc. and all those idiots as entertainers, not political scientists, and I do everything I can to avoid watching any of them regardless of their political lean or network affiliation.

/blog

7/29/2010 10:45:09 PM

there are 3 things my parents generally do not discuss with me:

1. religion
2. politics
3. relationships (or lack thereof )

I have little to no contact with my extended family, so they are a non issue. but i imagine they would be in the tea party camp.

7/29/2010 10:45:38 PM

yeah religion is one thing my dad and I don't talk about. he's super Baptist and was going to be a minister but wen to State College of Design instead thank god. I'm Episcopalian but don't practice and it bothers the shit out of him. He said I need to go hang out with Campus Crusade kids and get a room mate from there

7/29/2010 10:56:58 PM

Campus Crusade was the biggest lot of fake people and hypocrites on campus, or at least it was 10 years ago.

7/29/2010 11:01:48 PM

Campus Crusades creeps me out.

7/29/2010 11:05:05 PM

Sad

7/29/2010 11:07:39 PM

Enjoy quality time with your grandpa while you can. You can troll him on his history and politics irl.

7/29/2010 11:09:16 PM

Quote :

"Mainstream news is just a rhetoric machine that floats shit to the surface and uses statistics to lie and distort the real underlying issues. I see Beck, Anderson Cooper, etc. and all those idiots as entertainers, not political scientists, and I do everything I can to avoid watching any of them regardless of their political lean or network affiliation."

QFT.

I love the term mainstream news. News shouldn't be "mainstream" or "underground". Apparently people love different flavors of news. I prefer the taste of unbiased fact reporting.

::shrug::

7/29/2010 11:15:51 PM