I usually avoid politics on this community but thought this article kinda fit
“I don’t care about other people’s rights until it personally affects me”
I mean, I get that, and the amount of rage I feel about the fact that Republicans never have any empathy for anyone they don’t know is probably going to give me an ulcer, but this is good news. People changing their minds in response to new information is a positive thing, and we should encourage it. There are plenty of LGBTQ+ people whose families don’t change their minds. That’s how we end up with kids committing suicide or living on the streets. My extended family would never change their minds, and it’s led to me cutting them off, and my cousin will never come out because I’m pretty sure his dad would kill him, or at least do his level best to beat him to death.
Anyway, I didn’t mean for that to get that dark, but that’s the reality for a lot of us. I’m going to welcome anyone trying to be better with open arms.
I fully agree that conversion to the right side of things is good, but god damn it’s hard consider it uplifting when they didn’t have to be selfish pricks to begin with, and the only reason they came around is because the person being treated like shit was a loved one. They would have gladly treated that person like shit if they were a stranger. I wouldn’t call that uplifting.
People changing their minds in response to new information is a positive thing
I still hope their toilet seat is perpetually too cold for their comfort.
Man, you took the words right out of my mouth…or my typing fingers as it were. I was going to say almost exactly that. I remember them saying “Covid is a hoax. Covid is all a democrat conspiracy…”
And democrats took it seriously. Wore masks, stayed 6 feet apart, got vaccinated. Yes, it affected democrat cities, because cities are more densely compact than rural areas, but somehow those rural area republican voters are the ones that it affected the most. Suddenly I was seeing posts online like “I didn’t think this was real, but now my brother is dead. Treat it seriously guys!!!” and they’d get ignored by their own people.
Oh NOW it’s real? NOW it’s no longer a hoax, because it affected you personally??? I feel cynical in saying that I don’t feel empathy for that type of person, because it’s such a self inflicted wound, but it’s true. If rural areas put the same amount of care into covid precautions as the democrat voters did, they’d have been largely unaffected. Forget 6 feet apart. They live on farms. It would be like 6 acres apart. You know why I wasn’t largely affected by covid? Because I wore a mask. I stayed my distance. I got 4 different rounds of vaccines. I listened to medical advice. If they’d have done the same, these sob stories of people doing stupid things facing stupid but very real consequences wouldn’t exist.
Sorry to go off on a rant, but this just bug me so much. People that refuse to believe anything is that big of a deal, unless it minorly inconviences them. Then it’s the biggest deal in the world. Not that covid was a minor inconvience…but it could have been if everyone just did what doctors said. For me personally it was a minor inconvience, which I feel a lot of other people COULD have had the same experience. My 98 year old grandma lived to be 102, just recently dying because everyone in my family agreed to treat her like a fragile piece of glass. Yet these people can’t be bothered to wear a cloth over their face in public, AND THEN HAD THE GALL TO USE “I CAN’T BREATHE” AS THEIR MOTTO FOR NOT WEARING THEM!!! This at a time when “I can’t breathe” was already the motto for the injustice that George Floyd faced.
Ok, I have to stop now. I’m getting myself worked up.
Would you rather the grandparents had shunned the grandchild? What use is gate keeping correct decisions?
I think it’s just frustration that they can’t take the leap that every trans child has grandparents. It’s like someone realizing that knives are sharp and can hurt their baby and then finally connecting that voting for the sharp-blades-for-infants party could be harmful to people!
My guess is that they’d rather those grandparents not have been hateful pieces of shit in the first place. But better late than never!
Well that’s my point. Maybe I’m too willing to give older folks the benefit of the doubt, but we don’t know anything about these folks besides political affiliation and that they have a trans grandchild.
I mean, I grew up in a conservative household. In 1997, trans healthcare wasn’t a consideration. It wasn’t an issue in 2007. If it’s not an issue, I guarantee that it wasn’t on most voters mind. The vast majority of the ardent champions for LGBT rights in elected office right now were part of the majority that were against marriage equality at some point of their political career.
Disparaging people for growing, regardless of the reason, is counterproductive.
Did I say I wished they continued to be pieces of shit? No, I just don’t see it as uplifting when a person’s empathy only extends to their immediate family.
Did you read the article?
It explains that their daughter’s experience more or less opened their eyes to the treatment as a whole. (As in not just their family) It may be spun that way, but for two (likely groomed) 70’s+ republicans in a primarily red state, to have any diverging beliefs from their party is a good thing. It shows that the fight for LGBTQ+ rights, while admittedly slow (and shouldn’t be necessary), is showing progress, even if it’s small.
As another user mentioned, they could have just disowned their granddaughter, like a lot of bigots do. I’ve seen it happen and know a few people that it happened to. It’s not a good feeling being alone in the world because your family doesn’t agree with your identity.
I say that while the fight is still going on, we can at least enjoy this, albeit tiny, victory.
Look, lead poisoning degrades empathy. I’m just glad they have some left.
Ah, classic conservative “Its okay until it affects us, and now that it affects us its the most horrible thing in the world!”
Classic conservative (and especially with “Christian” added onto that) = Severe lack of empathy
thats…a classic human thing. so you must be saying anyone who isnt conservative isnt human. wow.
poor idiot think they got me in a gotcha, when all they are doing is revealing that they don’t give a fuck about horrible shit until it happens to them.
straight to insults. classic hidden conservative tactic. thanks for calling me not only non human but also an idiot. this website saddens me sometimes. but not that much because i dont really care
“It’s been very, very disappointing. It was a no-brainer. I’m voting Democrat, and it doesn’t take intelligence, it just takes compassion, whether you’re a grandparent, whether you’re a parent, an aunt or an uncle,” she said. “Everybody should be treated equal. It doesn’t matter color, race, gender. It’s just a travesty when you get the government involved with trying to legislate how we should feel.”
Free life pro tip: just never vote republican ever again.
also here’s an idea: you can be none of those things. you can just be not at all related to some people and still feel compassion.
The only good republicans are the ones who quit the party for democracy.
Because why try to make a change when you can just give up and quit? /s
Bigotry isn’t a part of the Republican platform, it’s a disease that members of the party have and isn’t going to be changed until those people start getting pushed out from within.
…and before you try to argue that it’s permanently engrained remember that the Democratic party once supported slavery and the Republican party was formed in direct opposition. So things very much can change.
It takes time to change the hivemind and it can only be done by people standing up against it from within, not from people surrendering and fleeing.
Attacking trans people will eventually give way to something else, as it has before. When push comes to shove, family normally overrides politics. The more things they attack, the more chance it has of hitting somebody they care about.
Racism will always work though, because no middle class white kid ever came home and said “Mom. Dad. There’s no easy way to say this… I’m black.”
