Politics and family

I admit to more or less blowing my top a couple days ago after seeing the umpteenth post on my Facebook feed about the current US election. Personally I wouldn’t have a problem with the posts if there was anything valid in them. But they almost always tend to be stuff spouted from some right-wing news group and almost always full of inaccuracies. What tipped me over the edge were the ones about the woman from the beauty pageant saying how much of a gentleman Trump was at the time. And the one where it listed several good things Trump has done,  Apparently this makes Trump a good guy. Sigh. It’s interesting that I don’t see those from the opposite view posting such vitriolic material.

I went into a mad fury, replying to the ones that most incensed me. In hindsight, it was truly a waste of time. The ones posting are almost always family members. It’s been said to me that I just don’t understand what’s really happening back home because I am not there. Because, you know, we live in a backwater here in Australia. I’ve been told that I don’t have respect for the military and veterans in the past just because I don’t believe that they should be elevated above everyone else just because they are veterans. I don’t get this deifying veterans business that seems to happen so much back home. I don’t disrespect them but they aren’t the only ones who do good things for the country. It’s baffling.

The reality after much back and forth on a number of posts is that it seems the message I come away with on reading or viewing something is obviously totally different than what certain others in my family see. The most telling example is I can read a Snopes article debunking something and see all the sources attributed and another person will just see that one source mentioned that isn’t going to prove anything and claim that Snopes isn’t to be trusted even though this particular information may be presented more as background than the fact check.  In any case, it seems that most people already have a very firm opinion and it isn’t likely to be changed by anyone sharing yet another “proof”.

For years, I avoided engaging in discussion about politics with many family members because it was obvious no good would come of it. But then I was criticised for avoiding this and so sometimes did engage. Sadly, the time has come to return to that rule because it’s been proved again and again that no good comes from this sort of discussion. We are all just too entrenched in our views and it feels as though nothing I can attempt to convey will ever get through and nothing presented to me is valid enough to ever change my view.

On a related note, I happened to see an NPR article that went through various issues in this election and the views of four candidates (including the Libertarian and Greens candidate). To me the only real choices are the major parties since there’s no way of voting for a minor party without having no say on the final outcomes. This is where I find the Australia preference system works far better because a minor candidate can be chosen by listing which candidates to choose if the first doesn’t win.  Anyway, it’s funny because I haven’t seen too much posted about most of these issues in recent months so I kind of forgot about them. Not surprisingly, my views were fairly close to those of Clinton, so I think I can feel fairly assured that I am choosing correctly for myself when I vote.