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In the past two days I have had both a long conversation with my mother and my grandmother (seperately) about New Orleans and *.
The good story: My mother was very critical of Bush, and even made fun of him about his statement "Nobody could have foreseen the levy breaking". My parents are both Libertarian/Conservative by philosophy, and my mother in particular is generally very apolitical in "real life" - she is an avoider, someone who tends to stick her head in the sand rather than face any negative news happening in the real world. So I was quite surprised when she brought Katrina up all by herself and then proceeded to bash Bush for several minutes. Although I don't think either of my parents voted for him in November (prob. voted Libertarian), they weren't anti-Bush either, up until this moment probably. So I guess this is a semi-convert story. If this administration is pissing off my ostrich-Pollyanna-head-in-the-sand mother to the point where she's actually thinking about something bad in the world, you know they've really fucked up.
The bad story: I also talked to my extremely conservative/fundie grandmother about Katrina. I was dreading the conversation before I called her, but it went better than I expected in the sense that neither of us ended up yelling at the other one and our relationship is still (relatively) intact. She basically repeated RW talking points word for word, some of which I was able to refute (and she believed me, amazingly enough). I think the reason I didn't get angrier at her than I did is because I realized very early in the conversation that she wasn't listening to anything but government propaganda (i.e., Fox News), and was truly ignorant of some of the actual facts. She was very surprised at some of the things I told her, and backed down on a few of her points. However, I wasn't able to convince her to stop watching Fox. I tried to explain that it wasn't just about conservative vs. liberal, but that they were actively messing with her head and manipulating her with the way they present things, but she wouldn't believe me. This was the really frustrating part for me - it actually kept me awake last night worrying about it. I feel like my elderly grandmother is being conned by unscrupulous people, but instead of stealing her SS check, they're stealing her soul.
I understand that she has some conservative viewpoints, and honestly, I consider many of them (not all though) to be legitimate differences of opinion, especially given the differences in our ages. She grew up in a different era, she's 87 years old, and some things are just not going to change for her no matter how much I yell at her or cut her off (which I have done before, and that's why she makes an effort to have civil conversations with me now). But listening to this propaganda crap that Fox and Limbaugh and them spew - that's another story entirely. That's not a difference in outlook, that's LIES and MANIPULATION. I wish I knew what I could do to change her mind about this. She is almost blind and can't read anymore, so I can't send her reading material or links to the internet. She listens to what I tell her about various stories, but I am unable to explain to her in any way that she will understand what is wrong with listening to these kinds of programs. It's very frustrating for me. I feel badly about the whole thing, and I am angry at these assholes for conning my grandma.
I guess I'm just trying to get this stuff off my chest. No real point to this rant or anything other than just venting frustration. If you've gotten all the way through this rant, I applaud you. Thanks for listening. I do feel better now...
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