Don't get me wrong. I love my parents, but calling my dad is like calling into Rush Limbaugh. He seems to be jacked directly into the GOP echo chamber. A conversation turns into a never ending stream of conservative talking points, obscure anti-Obama anecdotes, and outright bullshit. I spend almost the whole call googling and debunking each claim but we'll immediately jump to a different claim. Some recent gems:

-Obamaphone: free cell phones for poor folks (a program supposedly started by Obama but actually implemented by Reagan, then Bush).
-Any jobs created in the last 4 years were government jobs (in reality, public sector jobs have declined sharply)
-A dozen points about how Obamacare sucks (even though it's the same shit as Romneycare).
-The only reason Social Security is unsustainable is because Clinton bankrupted it
-Obama keeps raising taxes (despite the fact that federal taxes are at historic lows)

I'm thinking "This isn't fair. I don't get a stream of constant liberal talking points from listening to NPR." And I voted for fucking Gary Johnson anyway.

Anyone else have this problem?

11/7/2012 8:53:08 PM

Nah, my dad isn't a dick.

11/7/2012 8:55:01 PM

Thankfully I don't have to deal with that shit from my dad. He's likely thinking some of it, but still.

I do have to deal with someone on a regular basis, however, that does this. It's absolutely the most annoying shit because I can't respond to the guy and tell him how much of a fucktard he is due to business reasons.

11/7/2012 8:56:43 PM

Quote :

"Nah, my dad isn't a dick."

11/7/2012 8:56:52 PM

Quote :

"I spend almost the whole call googling and debunking each claim"

sounds fun...

11/7/2012 8:59:31 PM

^
This.

How about recording the next call?

11/7/2012 9:01:22 PM

No, but I do get to hear ultra conservative right winged Christian political drivel from my step-father whenever I go see my mother.

-"God blesses whoever supports Israel. That is why America has been so prosperous up until now."
-*insert some reference to Obama being a Muslim here*
-"Obama pays a woman at the clerk of court to keep his birth certificate a secret."
-"This is not what our forefathers intended when they wrote the constitution. It is "One Nation Under God."
-"Oh, everyone believes in the same God. Even the Jews and the A-rabs believe in the same God."

11/7/2012 9:04:33 PM

My dad hates to talk on the phone and my mom has hearing loss so we mostly communicate through email. I delete a lot of the political stuff my dad sends, and when he asks I'm just like "oh yeah, so funny ha ha ha"

11/7/2012 9:07:18 PM

my brother and i have the same problem as OP

we just laugh at him

11/7/2012 9:10:19 PM

Wait Reagan gave cell phones when he was pres? Is that how Zack Morris got his?

11/7/2012 9:25:18 PM

My family on both sides are pretty much all democrats from grandparents down, so I don't have this problem at all.

11/7/2012 9:26:53 PM

I come from the land of good old fashioned New Deal Democrats, who are racist as hell evangelical Christians who forget all about their affiliation when it's a black man running for office.

[Edited on November 7, 2012 at 9:36 PM. Reason : .]

11/7/2012 9:36:04 PM

11/7/2012 9:44:30 PM

i dont talk about politics with my dad.

11/7/2012 9:46:32 PM

My dad is conservative and my mom is liberal. My dad is more outspoken about politics than my mom. But our conversations are hardly ever centered around politics (other than around election time). My parents don't talk that much about politics with me.

[Edited on November 7, 2012 at 10:00 PM. Reason : d]

11/7/2012 9:58:13 PM

meh - my parents aren't bad

my brother in law in the worst but i just don't talk to him

11/7/2012 10:02:25 PM

Quote :

"I spend almost the whole call googling and debunking each claim but we'll immediately jump to a different claim."

Just nod and smile, over the phone. He'll know what your doing.

11/7/2012 10:06:26 PM

Quote :

"My dad is conservative and my mom is liberal. My dad is more outspoken about politics than my mom. But our conversations are hardly ever centered around politics"

11/7/2012 10:07:59 PM

my brother & i just spend the day ignoring our dad's political rants (we both work for him). dad work black in mourning today.

11/7/2012 10:10:39 PM

BECAUSE TODAY AMERICA DIED. But at least Romney wasn't allowed to mutilate the corpse.

11/7/2012 10:13:51 PM

Quote :

"Nah, my dad isn't a dick."

I'm a dick and my dad's a dick but we realized long ago that we can't talk about that shit if we still want to be family.

Talked to him today and he didn't even mention the election.

11/7/2012 10:18:15 PM

Quote :

"we realized long ago that we can't talk about that shit if we still want to be family."

lol

11/7/2012 11:14:42 PM

this is not my experience talking to my parents at all, which i am very grateful for.

11/7/2012 11:39:17 PM

The phone program begun under Reagan was to subsidize landline phone service to poor people and in rural areas; the uses of the Universal Service Fund were expanded under the younger Bush to include free basic cellular phones and only noticed by the right-wing echo-chamber during the Obama years because it fit in better with their narrative about Obama giving away free shit to undeserving brown people.

Quote :

"-"Oh, everyone believes in the same God. Even the Jews and the A-rabs believe in the same God.""

They kinda do: They just believe different things about the God (Heb. "Elohim"; Arab. "Allah") who according to legend made a covenant with Abraham (Heb. "Avraham"; Arab. "Ibrahim") after destroying all but the family and animals of Noah (Heb. "Noach"; Arab. "Nuh"), and then through Moses (Heb. "Moshe"; Arab. "Musa"), led His chosen people out of Egypt, and much later found a notable prophet in Jesus (Heb. "Yeshua"; Arab. "Isa"); a notable distinction is that Arabic uses the generic word for "God" as the proper name of the deity (even among Arab-speaking Christians and Jews, and speakers of languages derived from or heavily influenced by Arabic), whereas English normally uses "the LORD" (small-caps, following the tradition of the King James Version) in Christianity and "Yahweh" (most usual transliteration of a Hebrew name most directly transliterated as "YHWH") in Judaism, although both of these religions do frequently use both the generic term and numerous appellations (like "Heavenly Father" or the Hebrew word for "master," "Adonai") as forms of address, and Islam considers notable the "99 Names of God" (including "the Compassionate" and "the Merciful").

[Edited on November 8, 2012 at 1:25 AM. Reason : P.S.: Not everyone believes in the same god, and many (like me) believe in no god.

11/8/2012 1:24:50 AM

Quote :

" The phone program begun under Reagan was to subsidize landline phone service to poor people and in rural areas; the uses of the Universal Service Fund were expanded under the younger Bush to include free basic cellular phones and only noticed by the right-wing echo-chamber during the Obama years because it fit in better with their narrative about Obama giving away free shit to undeserving brown people."

Free phones aren't part of the legislation. Just the service (60 min/month at a low price). The carrier chooses to offer the phone for free to entice the person to use their service. Just like now. You can go to any carrier and get a "free" phone with a basic calling plan. These people get the same thing, except a far more basic plan that could be seen as unusable and pointless by most.

11/8/2012 2:48:27 AM

My mom and dad both ramble on and on about shit I could care less about. I use to "accidentally" hang up on my dad all the time. They never rant....just ramble.

11/8/2012 6:35:05 AM

Quote :

"-"God blesses whoever supports Israel. That is why America has been so prosperous up until now.""

Damn

11/8/2012 7:19:11 AM

Luckily, my parents are not interested in talking politics !

11/8/2012 7:58:31 AM

My dad was disappointed that I wasn't going to vote for as he calls him "Ol' Mitt." We still can talk but I hate it when he says things like "Romney can produce jobs if he is president" when on several occasions Romney sneered at Obama for thinking government could produce jobs. ("sneered at" sounds wrong. hmmmm)

So yes...I, too, have this problem.

[Edited on November 8, 2012 at 8:41 AM. Reason : yeah, I don't know about that Israel claim. Wow. ]

11/8/2012 8:39:34 AM

Quote :

"They kinda do."

No, they don't. Yes, the God of Abraham is the same god of the Christian, Jew, and Muslim faiths. . .but those aren't the only religions out there. That's the basis of my entire argument with my step-father. He always complains about how our country is falling all to pieces because God has been taken out of government and schools. I keep trying to get him to understand that God does not belong in government or school because we are a nation of many people with differing views on faith and religion. I do not believe that the people who pay taxes to support their government and schools should be forced to pay for a system or education that is based on something that they do not believe in. I seriously doubt that an American Hindu is going to want their 5 year old indoctrinated in the Christian faith while attending kindergarten. Hell, I seriously doubt that a Free Will Baptist is going to want their child immersed in the Catholic faith while attending kindergarten. Then he usually gives me some nonsense about majority rule and "One nation under God." And no matter how hard I try to explain to him that our forefathers were not the conservative protestants that he believes that they were (I cannot get the concept of Deism vs. Christianity through to him) and that our forefathers really did want a separation of church and state, it always comes back to how a college education has somehow made me dumb.




[Edited on November 8, 2012 at 8:58 AM. Reason : Yes, education leads to ignorance.]

11/8/2012 8:53:15 AM

Quote :

" "God blesses whoever supports Israel. That is why America has been so prosperous up until now.""

Quote :

" "This is not what our forefathers intended when they wrote the constitution. It is "One Nation Under God.""

The founding fathers had nothing to do with 'Under God'. In fact they were vehemently against this. 'Under God' wasn't introduced until the 1940s or 1950s.




[Edited on November 8, 2012 at 9:05 AM. Reason : gg]

11/8/2012 9:01:08 AM

Don't get me wrong. I love my parents, but calling my mom is like calling into Keith Olbermann. She seems to be jacked directly into the Democratic echo chamber. A conversation turns into a never ending stream of liberal talking points, obscure anti-Romney anecdotes, and outright bullshit. I spend almost the whole call googling and debunking each claim but we'll immediately jump to a different claim.

11/8/2012 9:01:43 AM

Whenever my parents (and other family members) talk politics, I just try to ignore. However, sometimes it gets so out of hand (Obama is the anti-christ, he's a muslim that wants to ruin 'Merica, etc) that I have to open my mouth. And then when that happens I get called a confused and lost young person, and if I don't get myself in line then I will go to hell.

Fortunately my brother agrees with me, which is why he's the only person I call on a routine basis.

11/8/2012 9:03:28 AM

My step mom and dad are like ^ but my real mom and dad aren't.

11/8/2012 9:05:56 AM

My step mom and dad are like ^ but my real mom and dad aren't.

[Edited on November 8, 2012 at 9:06 AM. Reason : I guess double post for two sets of parents? ]

11/8/2012 9:05:56 AM

Thankfully my parents and I agree for the most part politically. So no problems there. And since dad got a dSLR a few years back and subsequently got my first one as well, we talk more about family and photography with a little news, sports, and some politics interspersed. Mom does not really care about politics at all, so I never get that from her. She just wants to know how her grandsons are doing.

Honestly, politics can be more aggravating when I talk to my wife. She is more of social conservative, where I am far more into straight up fiscal conservatism/social libertarianism. So while our political beliefs can overlap, she gets into the "the world is so terrible, this is obviously the endtimes" kinda stuff. I was more of a Ron Paul or Gary Johnson kinda guy, while she was pulling more for Rick Perry.

11/8/2012 9:07:49 AM

For those of you who are wondering where the concept of God blessing those who bless Israel comes from, which has been a political talking point of evangelical Christians:

"I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed" (Genesis 12: 3).

Evangelical Christians have taken these words that are said to Abraham as meaning that nations who support Israel against it's enemies will be blessed.

11/8/2012 9:09:24 AM

^^She clearly does not value her uterus.





[Edited on November 8, 2012 at 9:10 AM. Reason : ^^]

11/8/2012 9:10:23 AM

If either of my parents have ever voted they have done so without my knowledge and without telling me about it. A political discussion with them is typically lighthearted and usually ends with jokes/laughter at the expense of any party and sometimes at just the absurdity of politics in general.

My wife's dad told us and her family that anybody that doesn't vote Romney is disowned. Her mom chimed in that they had decided this after much consideration even though, in her words, they watch msnbc sometimes (never when I'm around lol). Luckily it is only around election time when they want to talk politics.

[Edited on November 8, 2012 at 9:37 AM. Reason : ]

11/8/2012 9:37:04 AM

My parents have never complained to me about anything lol... At least nothing real. My mom occasionally complains when she can't get something to print correctly or something lol

I'm krallum and I approved this message.

11/8/2012 1:55:04 PM

bottombaby, the edit on my earlier post indicated that by "they" I meant followers of the Abrahamic religions, even though the ignoramus you quoted said "everybody"

Quote :

"Free phones aren't part of the legislation. Just the service (60 min/month at a low price). The carrier chooses to offer the phone for free to entice the person to use their service. Just like now. You can go to any carrier and get a "free" phone with a basic calling plan. These people get the same thing, except a far more basic plan that could be seen as unusable and pointless by most."

thx for the clarification; my best guess is that it's mainly for emergencies, much like the landline-based USF program

[Edited on November 8, 2012 at 2:29 PM. Reason : Pikey, more specifically, "Under God" entered the Pledge in 1954.

11/8/2012 2:27:27 PM

Quote :

"I'm a dick and my dad's a dick but we realized long ago that we can't talk about that shit if we still want to be family."

11/8/2012 3:12:03 PM

Quote :

"I'm a dick and my dad's a dick but we realized long ago that we can't talk about that shit if we still want to be family."

This. Came to a head a couple years ago at Thanksgiving and I ended up leaving early. We're generally good about avoiding politics and the like now.

11/8/2012 4:28:27 PM

i haven't talked to my mom in like 8 weeks, which bums me out because it means i'm going to have to talk to her again pretty soon

my dad's alright, though

11/8/2012 4:33:08 PM

my parents and older brother voted for obama. younger brother voted for romney and i voted for gary johnson. we do discuss politics but as far as i can tell nobody gets butthurt about it

11/8/2012 4:51:47 PM