How Estrangement Has Become an Epidemic in America
How Estrangement Has Become an Epidemic in America
'According to our research, today, 1 in 2 adults is estranged from a close relative,' write Joshua Coleman and Will Johnson.
He’s a father of a 28-year-old son and he’s hurting. A retired police officer, he proudly voted for Donald Trump every time he ran and never hid his political beliefs from his family. “My son and his wife say that since I’m a fan of Trump they’re no fan of mine and cut me off,” he said. “Now I can’t see my only grandchild who I was so close to. It’s crazy and it’s tragic.”
It’s also increasingly common. The 2024 election spatchcocked the nation, widening a rift that was exposed in 2016 and put in an even sharper gulf four years later. Now, the hyper-partisan politics in the shadow of the 2024 election is breaking the bonds of families to a greater extent than ever before.
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Two-thirds of survey respondents agree that ending contact with a family member because of political beliefs is not justified and that most family fights over politics could be easily resolved.
Ah yes those pesky, abstract “political” beliefs shouldn’t get in the way of family. Such esoteric ideals like
- I believe in human rights.
- Rapists should not be in power.
- Nazis are evil.
Who could ever let a silly disagreement over politics spoil a relationship? /s
It’s hard to be told “everything will be fine” when much of the incoming administration believes trans people aren’t real/shouldn’t exist/are all groomers. And it’s really difficult to even associate with folks who voted for this and refuse to see the coming storm.
Fucken, not to compare everything to nazis but it is LITERALLY the “first they came for x, but i am not x so i said nothing”, only it’s the fucking PARENTS hearing THEIR KIDS say “I don’t feel safe” and saying nothing except “can you believe my crazy children?”
I don’t understand Dem supporters cutting off family that are GOP supporters. Both parties oppose human rights, enable rapists in power, and support currently arming Nazis (Congress had to withdraw a ban on arming Nazis in order to send arms to far-right groups in Ukraine).
If you’re a leftist opposing both fascist rightwing parties, you’d have a leg to stand on. But Dem supporters cutting off GOP supporting family just feels like that meme of spiderman pointing at himself. Anyone supporting either pro-genocide party is in no position to be criticizing the political beliefs of others.
Assuming this is a good faith argument, I'll throw in: Some thoughtful, leftist commentary claims that the Democrats and the Republicans are fundamentally the same behind the scenes, with identity politics as the window dressing to distinguish them, and keep the lower classes divided.
Well, look at what we have here: Identity politics successfully dividing the lower classes. The two parties do differ quite a bit in some ways, and the window dressing is causing the estrangement.
How do they differ in any way besides rhetoric?
How do they differ in any way besides rhetoric?
In the most important way of all by far. Republicans always do gigantic tax cuts for the rich and corporations. Dems always raise taxes on the rich and/or corporations. All 3 of the most recent Dem presidents accomplished the latter.
Why are taxation rates the most important thing to pay attention to? Because wealth inequality is related to and driving almost all of our other problems. If someone payed attention only to tax rates on the wealthy being cut/increased then they would understand 95% of politics.
It's arguable, but they use the rhetoric because it works on their supporters.
Yeah, but I don’t care about their rhetoric. I care about how they govern, and in that respect there’s no difference between the GOP and the Dems.
Nope. Both sides are not the same. Not even close. I won't dignify you comment nor give myself carpal tunnel typing out just how different they are.
Okay, but your first comment referenced supporters, who are different people than the electeds or party leaders. I might suggest re-phrasing to say, "I believe that Dem supporters have the same facts, thoughts, and perspective on the parties as I do, and as such, I find them morally culpable for every action of the party leaders." That's a different thing than not understanding how they can behave the way they do.
Trump is directly responsible for the poor and delayed response to COVID and furthering the validity of fringe anti mask claims, making him also directly responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people.
Yup. And Biden is responsible for hundreds of thousands more, ending Covid assistance, forcing people back to the office, and implementing Trump’s shitty “stop counting sick people” idea to pretend it was over. There’s still people dying today of severe covid, with it as one of the top killers of young people now.
Prosecute them both for these deaths.
Biden is responsible for hundreds of thousands more, ending Covid assistance,
Nope. You totally made that up. He was criticized for providing TOO MUCH Covid assistance.
forcing people back to the office,
Biden never did that at all. It would only even be possible for him to do that with government workers. Which is what Donald Trainwreck is doing. They already drafted a mandate to force all government workers into office 100% of the time.
Prosecute them both for these deaths.
There is nothing whatsoever to "prosecute". Biden saved lots of lives merely by running the government in a competent manner. Donald Trainwreck costs many lives in Covid, but incompetence is not prosecutable. However Trump certainly could and should be prosecuted for Treason and Sexual Assault and Fraud and stealing government secrets.
Biden still owes me $2000
and he definitely ended the covid assistance. why would you lie about it?
nd in that respect there’s no difference between the GOP and the Dems.
You mean besides the $4.5 trillion in taxes on the wealthy and/or corporations? Musk fucked up twitter by burning just a mere $0.044 trillion.
Unfortunately it's a side effect of the team sports of politics. I vote Dem but they obviously have problems to fix. My family mainly votes RNC. I can talk to some on an individual level and get to agreements about political topics. Usually after agreeing on something they will reset back to talking points.
I understand why some people will cut off toxic families, but it doesn't help change the situation. I feel obligated to try to talk sense into people while I still have some patience. Pushing each group further into their echo chamber just helps our oppressors.
Arming Nazis & ISIS, supporting genocide, escalating to hot wars with nuclear superpowers, breaking records on oil extractions, breaking records on deportations, working to privatize Medicare, etc. Saying the Dems have “some problems to fix” is putting it mildly. If you judge their actions, instead of their words, there’s no difference between the two.
You’re in no position to be giving your family any grief while you’re still voting for Dems. Pot calling the kettle black.
If you judge their actions, instead of their words, there’s no difference between the two.
Dems did literally none of those things. Your conclusions are worthless because your facts are too.
In the US there are only two party choices that matter. We are forced to vote for evil and must choose the lesser. I agree with you in principal but Trump is an especially egregious choice.
When both evils support genocide, there is no lesser. The only reason these two maintain their power is because people like you convince everyone that’s all that’s possible.
The only reason these two maintain their power is because people like you convince everyone that’s all that’s possible.
Is because those are the two with the support of the vast majority of voters and we don't have a parliamentary system that would allow for more than 2 viable parties. By not voting for a serious candidate, all you are doing is setting yourself up to be a lifetime loser in politics.
Not to be reductionist of the genocide in Gaza, it is undoubtedly evil and both parties deserve to be labeled as such for supporting it, but to speak as though that's the only issue in this world and the only yardstick we can use to measure both parties is itself reductionist. And the reason they maintain their power is that the system is so structured as to ensure it. And that's not to say there is nothing we can do about that (for one, elimination of FPTP voting), but as of the 2024 election the reality was that only one of those two parties would win. And to claim that recognizing that in itself is the sole cause of it is silly.
It’s not the only thing happening. But it is the worst thing happening. It’s the worst thing that can happen.
I thought we all agreed genocide is the worst crime possible.
And nobody in this thread at least is arguing against that. You seem to have taken the position that because both parties support Israel in their genocide of Palestinians there can be no other measures worth judging them by. That they are equal. And the "both sides" argument is objectively a false equivalence. It's not as though a woman's bodily autonomy no longer matters because Israel is leading a genocidal campaign in Gaza, for instance.
It is precisely because there are other issues in the world and in the country that there is a lesser evil. Even if we disagree on degrees of "lesser" or even who is "lesser", everything is not so one dimensional as to be able to label both political parties as equally evil when there are other evils that need to be piled on and added to the scale. Ignoring those evils is ignoring the victims of those evils.
When people are charged with a crime, while there may be many lesser charges for other crimes committed at the same time, the prosecution will mainly focus on the most severe charge.
Both parties are criminally complicit in genocide. Debating the weight of the lesser charges each is guilty of is not really relevant. They’re both genocidal. They’re both irredeemable. They both need to go.
Well as far as I understand, this discussion is about voting and not prosecution. A prosecutor's job is to seek the greatest penalty they think they can feasibly get, so of course they're going to focus on charges that carry the greatest penalty. A voter's job, in the context of presidential elections, is to choose between a series of power-hungry hyenas to lead the Executive branch of the government. Not voting is counter-productive and under the current system voting third-party is also counter-productive, so a voter has an incentive to consider all of the "crimes", and even the good sprinkled amongst them, and not tunnel-vision on the worst.
So debating the "lesser charges" could not be more relevant, because who you vote for matters and the government does a heck of a lot more than support Israel. If I follow your line of false equivalence, I can only envision 2 conclusions:
- Who you vote for does not matter at all, just flip a coin.
- There's no point in voting at all, leave the decision to everyone else.
Yes, the current system is corrupt and is awful, and it needs to change, but in the meantime elections are still held and decisions are still made about things like education funding, women's bodily autonomy, trans rights, student debt, and so on and so on. Saying nothing else matters because the political parties that have a duopoly on power support Israel's genocide campaign is short-sighted at best. As far as I can tell what you're advocating for is voter apathy, and I fail to see how that's productive.
I thought we all agreed genocide is the worst crime possible.
We agree that Hamas is most responsible for Gaza and Israel's terrible prime minister is the 2nd most responsible party. Americans are much farther down the list, and the GOP is way ahead of Dems. Biden literally gave the Israeli PM an ultimatum at one point. There is 0% chance Donald Trainwreck would have done that. And you are helping people like Trainwreck come to power. YOU are "enabling genocide" more than us.
Yes. Thank for agreeing with me that the Dems have some problems to fix. I think their main problem is they put corporate interest over citizens. I think that will solve many of the other issues that you mentioned. Would you like to suggest something else for them to focus on? Or is your complaint that they aren't perfect?
I don't got time for doomers that just want to blame others. We (humans) have enough blame to spread around. Fix each other and help each other grow. Don't wall off everyone else.
Also thank you AGAIN for agreeing with me (even if your reason isn't 100). I'm NOT giving them grief. I am engaging them with conversations. I can do this because I don't let perfect be the enemy of good. That just helps fascists.
I guess my confusion is what do you think should happen? Then whatever you say as the answer. YOU go make that happen. You can keep complaining about other groups not doing anything, or you can get involved yourself. Join a different group, if the current ones aren't up to your standards. Start a new group. Try to make the world a better place for you and your loved ones by trying to make your goals a reality.
Hmm yes 2 and 4 are both numbers under 10, so they are the same number. I guess 4 is prime now.
Once you’re far enough right to support genocide, absolutely. There’s no worthwhile distinction.
Once you’re far enough right to support genocide, absolutely. There’s no worthwhile distinction.
The way I see it, there is no worthwhile distinction between supporting Trump and not opposing Trump. And since Biden gave Israel an ultimatum over Gaza and Trump never would have done that, then by either supporting Trump or not opposing Trump WITH YOUR ACTIONS, you are enabling genocide more than the people who opposed Trump.
Biden is in open violation of domestic and international in continuing to arm this genocide.
And two genocides is the same as one genocide.
Sheesh... it's the ignorance.... it's blindness.
Push for love and inclusion, not division.