I can't BELIEVE the garbage my parents are emailing me!

[Elidor]

They're both good liberals, and usually the mail I get from them is about life affirmations and positive vibes and such, but...holy shit. First my mother sends me a blatant right-wing email about Hispanics in Denver getting their court cases heard first "because the translator leaves early." :eyes: She's a wonderful person, but she watches that racist bastard Lou Dobbs, and I keep telling her to turn that shit off.
Then my stepfather emails me several photos of a would-be carjacker who got run over by a semi! :wtf: "Hey dad: please do not send me photos of fucking DEAD PEOPLE! I know what they look like already! Jeebus. This is all so totally out-of-character for both of them. I mailed them back and I was like, WTF??? What have you done with my parents? Not even my fundy sister would dare send me bullshit like this. It's like they're drinking Kool-Aid all of a sudden.

[idgiehkt]

1. yikes

my parents have gotten more conservative too. My dad listens to preachers who yell all day long. He believes the popularity of Harry Potter is a sign of the Rapture. I don't know why he didn't say that when "Bewitched" was so popular, we all used to watch that show and no one was listening for trumpet calls in the background. :shrug:

I empathize. :hug:

[Elidor]

5. Wow

That's got to be scary to watch. I understand the tendency toward conservatism in old age, but there's real-world conservatism and then there's...that other stuff. I hope I never go off the deep end.

:hug:

[Lex]

2. Make sure they aren't secretly watching Faux News.

It is like a bad drug--it is addictive and will make you increasingly crazy.

[kath]

3. or listening to Rush.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

4. I've long wondered if there wasn't some kind of subliminal suggestion going on

during Lush's shows.

I have a hard time believing such a total wacko could be taken seriously by people.

[Elidor]

6. Almost as bad: they watch CNN

I'll be visiting them for a weekend and here comes Wolf Blitzer. They don't understand why I throw things at the television and snarl and curse when he's on. "He's a fucking media whore!" They think I'm a little excitable. And perhaps I am. I need to document Blitzer's atrocities for them sometime.

[WindRavenX]

7. many good Democrats--even self-labeled liberals--are racist towards hispanics

Even my sister has issues with "Mexicans" because they make her feel "uneasy" :puke:

[Elidor]

8. The thing is, she raised me to be against racism

But they talk a lot about immigration laws lately. "Lou Dobbs says..." Meh. Lou Dobbs gives a platform to hate groups. I don't understand how two such open-minded and intelligent people can fall for his insidious crap. Illegal aliens are the least of my worries. In fact, I'm not worried about them at all, except insofar as they're ruthlessly exploited. I've heard stories that they're "stealing our services." Heavens! They pay anyway, whether xenophobes realize it or not. A local man (white) received three years in prison for drowning a Mexican in a pond of pig shit. People spend more time in jail than that for stealing cars.

If I had to compile a list of matters that need to be put right, immigration reform would fall somewhere around #97.

[treestar]

9. I get that type of stuff from an aunt

I try to gently point out it is just a bit unbecoming for middle class whites, who live pretty well all things considered, to pretend to be the victims of people who are just barely getting by, like the undocumented immigrants coming from Mexico.

She sent one entitled "I need MY social security" which claimed that Congress is considering letting undocumented aliens collect (like, right) which would somehow deprive her of her social security. In reality undocumented aliens may pay into the system with no change of ever collecting from it, and even if they did collect when they paid in that would do her no damage - may as well whine that every new worker is depriving her of her social security.

[Elidor]

10. It's amazing to me that otherwise intelligent people fall for this

But I suppose intelligence has nothing to do with it. They don't see that their emotions are being manipulated, and the jealousy reflex is one of the easiest to stimulate.

I'm going to have to sit my parents down and give them a good talking to.