Hello comrades! I expect this thread will evolve to more issues revolving around the immediate family of an active and theory-ridden communist. A bit of self disclosure: I’m an only child. My mother is a Boomer and my father is just over the cusp in the Silent Generation. You can imagine the issues growing up with them. I’ve found, now that I’m an adult and a father, that toning down the Marxism and practicing as much compassion as possible has helped solidify a genuine and positive relationship with both of them, even though their understanding of the world is inextricable from capitalism. It’s not even that they have hardline political views, it’s simply that they do not see another way. Trust me, I’ve been a leftist teenager with all the “Mom, I have some stuff you should read” bullshit. The more patient and compassionate I can manage to be, the more they’ve been able to understand that my political standpoint is important to me, and it’s a heartfelt and purposeful guide for my life. They’ll still scoff when they ask what I’m reading and I say Lenin, but they’re not openly hostile - at least anymore. What are your experiences with family? How do you deal with the generational divide, where previous generations were force fed capitalist propaganda? Who’s got a racist right wing uncle like me? (That’s a story for part 2, and possibly more). Tell your stories! This subcom isn’t just about kids, we all have families!
Here’s some TMI ranting;
My parents were born about 4 years apart, my dad was army special forces - my mom was a hippy who lived in Berlin for a while, both anti-communist and right-wing. Growing up I was handed a lot of offhand “ussr was evil” and “socialism is when black people try to vote” from both of them, with my dad more specifically spouting off U.S. Army indoc and legitimately believing that the USSR was only lying about dissolving, so suffice to say, my political upbringing was a little… weird.
My dad had four children, I only really know three of them (counting myself as one of the three). My older sister (4 years older than me, the strange trend) turned into a social-democrat / woke liberal with socialistic leanings. I, the only male, turned into a Communist and avid fan of the USSR (eat my shorts, dad!). My younger sister (4 years younger than me, this really is a strange trend) was a child of affair and grew up with her mother and “father” in Poland - she turned into a pro-marxist “in the political void” socialist.
Generally, my little sister and I get along on most things. We have the same general palate for politics, same general taste for girls, the same general opinion on sports and the such. I’ve been able to make some breakthroughs with my older sister and my mother about Socialism, for my sister talking about college debt and healthcare, for my mother talking about west Germany and the DDR along with other things she was alive for. My dad, however, I have to exclude from discussions on politics (and exclude from my life, but that’s a different story) last time we spoke he fully supported President Trump and had a lot to say about the “evil antifa communists”. Though if I had to guess at a way to get him to start accepting socialism, I’d probably have to break down his world view and force him to rebuild a new one, which seems to be an unfortunate reality for many from his generation with his background.
My girlfriend’s family is a different but similar story, they’re petty-bourgeois - mom makes enough money a year to pay for my GF’s college and then some but refuses, step-dads a turd in the bowl who thinks veganism is a disease (GF’s vegan) and thinks all long-haired boys are gay (I’m a long-haired boy). Both brothers are right-wing sock puppets, which is very frustrating to us with her older brother, who’s FtM and just underwent surgeries last year for transition, but still backed the bathroom bill.
Suffice to say, I don’t talk to most of my relatives, I’m personally not a fan of being forced to consume verbal garbage.
That’s quite a background story - a lot of different viewpoints that you’re exposed to. I totally get not speaking to relatives, it’s sometimes very tough to bridge those gaps even when discussing the most banal things. I truly hope your dad does eat your shorts and wakes up to the fuckery that’s been going on for ages. Thanks for the story! Wtf is with the gfs brother and the bathroom thing?
In North Carolina (the state they live in) the ?i think it was the senator? put forth an anti-trans bathroom bill that demanded that citizens use the correct facilities for their “god-given gender” and it makes absolutely no sense for my GF’s brother to support it, but he did - despite himself being openly trans.
