Venting Knowing my family is full of people who cant think logically about political issues is making me even more suicidal

[Nemaki Arber]

Kindof funny uh? My family is conservative (the Canadian variant)but they usually dont care much about politics...

Though my brother, the only person i still talk to in the family started speaking politics with me, so i engaged but then the topic of Charlie kirk came up

I expressed that while i don't feel sympathy for Charlie im not happy or celebrating either, he fucked around and he found out with the things he supported which lead to his death (undying support of no gun control, being ok with people dying to keep his guns, etc) and the way he "debated" (if you can even call his approach a debate)

Brother kept saying he has empathy for kirk and all as a father himself since his kids saw him die

Yeah I can empathize with Kirk's kids and wife and those who witnessed his murder, that shit is traumatic, but why care for Kirk who supports the bombing of gaza, who supports taking away human rights, who is OK with "sacrificing people" to "save the 2nd amendment", who himself said he didnt believe in empathy

I told my brother if he as a father is hurting, then why isnt he hurting for the kids killed in school shootingw everyday? Why isnt he hurting for the children who are orphaned in gaza and people who have to carry the body parts of their dead relatives in trash bags?


But no, he ignored those points, hes tunnel visioned on the fact kirk was killed "over his opinions"when we don't even know the motive of the murder yet...

Taking away human rights and spreading those types or rhethorics is not politics, its fascism.

 

[LackOfDetermination]

Ask him how he'd feel if Karl Marx was up there preaching communism and got shot, for the memes of course (don't actually, he'd prolly go feral lol)

Really though, these kinds of people only care when they news tells them to, and even then they usually only use it to find a group to let out their reprssed anger from having shitty life on to

 

[Nemaki Arber]

Ask him how he'd feel if Karl Marx was up there preaching communism and got shot, for the memes of course (don't actually, he'd prolly go feral lol)

Really though, these kinds of people only care when they news tells them to, and even then they usually only use it to find a group to let out their reprssed anger from having shitty life on to

Honestly thats 100% what it is, they don't care until it affects their immediate family

My brother does care about me but weve never bonded in our life, so I find it weird he claims at every chances he gets that hes empathetic but yet lacks empathy for people who are going through a genocide. He seems to have issues with thinking of himself as a good person (he has done some horrible things i wont disclose here, the crime is done and he paid the price) but then uses language that minimizes his actions rather than accept the true nature of it.

Idk, a true empath doesnt have to constantly tell the world they're an empath, a truly good person isnt afraid to tell their bad actions as they truly are as that shows change and improvement.

Everyone in my family is allergic to facing the truth.

 

[Dejected 55]

Most people don't care until it affects them. Rare people exist who care about others even when they are not being directly affected.

This is true, though, of people in all walks of life, of all faiths, of all political leanings.

Every time a Muslim terrorist commits a horrible act, there are Christians who jump to demonize all of Islam and demand all Muslims denounce violence. But what happens when there is a Christian terrorist? Christians don't see it as apples vs apples, though they don't all denounce the Christian terrorist... instead, they say that he wasn't a true Christian to do such things... but they do not accept this same sentiment from Muslims. The fact of the matter is that most of the world's Islamic and Christian faith population are in fact peaceful. It is the outliers who are violent and sometimes use their religion to defend their violence.

There are the people who demonize gay people until one of their children comes out as gay. Sometimes when their child comes out as gay, and they really love their child, they have an epiphany that leads to understanding. It's a shame that it takes this to form the connection, but at least it does happen sometimes... and in this situation, it is a good thing that the direct affect of it hitting close to home opens their eyes. My point being, sometimes the myopic affect can work for good.

It would be nice if more people had empathy. Sympathy is easier because you don't have to know what someone is going through to see they are hurting... whereas empathy requires a greater understanding, and sometimes you need to have felt the pain yourself to understand it fully. But as humans, we should be better at realizing that just because we don't understand someone's pain doesn't make it not real.

I've had this conversation with transgender people I know... where I've said to them that I do not at all understand what it is like to feel like I am trapped in a body that doesn't reflect my gender on the inside. I am not sure I am even capable of truly understanding that... but I believe them, and I can see that they are going through something difficult, and I do at least understand what it's like to not feel like you can truly be yourself in the world... and I've told them that it is not required for me to fully understand what they are going through to be supportive and accept them as they want to be supported and accepted. I don't know why more of humanity cannot take this approach to things they don't understand.

 

[Nemaki Arber]

Most people don't care until it affects them. Rare people exist who care about others even when they are not being directly affected.

This is true, though, of people in all walks of life, of all faiths, of all political leanings.

Every time a Muslim terrorist commits a horrible act, there are Christians who jump to demonize all of Islam and demand all Muslims denounce violence. But what happens when there is a Christian terrorist? Christians don't see it as apples vs apples, though they don't all denounce the Christian terrorist... instead, they say that he wasn't a true Christian to do such things... but they do not accept this same sentiment from Muslims. The fact of the matter is that most of the world's Islamic and Christian faith population are in fact peaceful. It is the outliers who are violent and sometimes use their religion to defend their violence.

There are the people who demonize gay people until one of their children comes out as gay. Sometimes when their child comes out as gay, and they really love their child, they have an epiphany that leads to understanding. It's a shame that it takes this to form the connection, but at least it does happen sometimes... and in this situation, it is a good thing that the direct affect of it hitting close to home opens their eyes. My point being, sometimes the myopic affect can work for good.

It would be nice if more people had empathy. Sympathy is easier because you don't have to know what someone is going through to see they are hurting... whereas empathy requires a greater understanding, and sometimes you need to have felt the pain yourself to understand it fully. But as humans, we should be better at realizing that just because we don't understand someone's pain doesn't make it not real.

I've had this conversation with transgender people I know... where I've said to them that I do not at all understand what it is like to feel like I am trapped in a body that doesn't reflect my gender on the inside. I am not sure I am even capable of truly understanding that... but I believe them, and I can see that they are going through something difficult, and I do at least understand what it's like to not feel like you can truly be yourself in the world... and I've told them that it is not required for me to fully understand what they are going through to be supportive and accept them as they want to be supported and accepted. I don't know why more of humanity cannot take this approach to things they don't understand.

Yep... My brother often labelled kirk's anti lgtbq+ and anti feminism views as "just his opinions he's sharing", not realising those "opinions" are being shared by an influencer with power not just some random joe shmo nobody pays much mind to

Its frustrating, people dont seem to realise spreading certain opinions can cause a lot of damage and when the evidence shows that to be true these people shove their fingers in their ears going "LALALA IM RIGHT YOU'RE WRONG" basically

I hate being surrounded by people like that, theyre every where and its already hard enough to make connections for me