To be more specific, my parents raised my siblings and me to “respect” them, saying "yes sir, and “no ma’am” to everything they said. Spankings, all of that. Typical super conservative evangelical parents. Before I learned better, I was that way too. I went to college and since then have embraced the left more and more.
They’ll say things now and then that are really distasteful politically. Today I made an Instagram post about DeSantis lying about liberal states allowing post-birth abortions and I got several family members railing against me. I’m tired of staying quiet when this happens. I think that, because how my parents raised me, I’m afraid to speak my mind to older family members. Fuck that though.
Has anyone else had this experience? I wonder if therapy would help. I just don’t know how to explain it.
For context I’m left, and most of my relatives are some flavor of far right christo-fascist, white nationalist, or literal neo-nazis.
I openly speak out against their bullshit when they start spewing it.
I also did this with any of my relatives.
Of course at this point most of my relatives openly wish to hunt people like me (lefty queer folk) so most of us have blocked each other. Funnily enough primarily they’ve blocked me rather than me blocking them.
Something about calling them snowflakes when they’d inevitably lose their shit when faced with facts seemed to trigger them.
Edit: Here’s a bit of advice more people should take to heart and something that I learned as a teen. Family is the relationship, blood doesn’t matter. So if your relatives are terrible people, feel free to no longer consider them family.