Moronic Siblings

[Wildewolfe]

I posted a bit of the afterthoughts about a conversation with my brother this last weekend elsewhere but there were some gems from the conversation itself that didn't fit that forum I'd thought I'd share. In forward, he's a rabid far right wing repub fundamentalist. Use your imagination, then go two steps further right.

About 2 months ago he had come down to visit my sister who lives cross the street from us. We went across the street to say hi. I had a headache that day and wasn't very social. Told him I had a headache and he (I swear) snapped his finger, pointed to the ground and said something like "god I command that headache to be healed....etc etc etc".

I suggested to him that he might be dyslexic in that snapping your fingers and pointing to the ground is how you summon a dog not how you request help from a supreme diety.

He immediately went on to the "well I'm sorry if I offended you" line of crap. I responded with I'm not offended, and if you think that's why I'm telling you this then you've entirely missed the point. If you think that you, as a human, can summon god like a common dog then you have reached the heighths of arrogance and you need to reexamine your heart.

There is so much more to the conversation ... it went on for 2 hours. Lots of it political with him hitting almost word for word right wing talking points and me countering him with facts from all of you (Thank you to all of you by the way). He couldn't come up with even one factoid or relevant piece of anything to back up any statement he made. The friend that was with him, bless her little fundy heart, turned out to be more liberal than he was by far and didn't back him up quite a few times which just left him stunned.

So hopefully he left a bit thoughtful. At least I can hope.

[monmouth]

1. I love stories like this, many thanks...n/t

[Cary]

2. I'm sorry your brother is afflicted with this disease.

However he is afflicted. You have to live with that.

Part of the disease that is "conservativism" (and I use that word in quotes because they really aren't conservative) is their absolute refusal to compromise. How can you compromise if everything you say is good and everything a "Liberal" (again in quotes because "Liberal" is some kind of mythical creature they managed to collectively conjure up from the depths, which may explain your brother's ground pointing ritual) is evil.

The good news is, however, that these radical extremists, like your brother, have conservativism and the Republican party in a death grip. There aren't enough of these radicals to be a viable political force and since they cannot compromise they can only alienate those who can't buy the whole radical rightist schtick, hook line and sinker.

I think this explains much of McCain's schizophrenia. He couldn't win with just the radicals and he couldn't win without them, so he tried to straddle that gap. In fairness I think he was dreaming the impossible dream on that. But what did he have to lose, other than his good name and credibility?

I don't see a way out for them, but I'm trying too to find a way to relate to the radical right. I do not have any lofty goals, like a rapproachment. I just want to coexist and to be able to fend off their bullshit with minimal effort. I have been experimenting with taunts about their ideology being dead. That evokes a lot of anger and lashing out, of course, and it cuts to the bone because it's so true. That's kind of hard to accept when your whole cosmology comes crashing down on you, I guess.

But this man is still your brother so maybe taunting him isn't such a good idea? I might try taking that a step or two back and trying to engage his limited brain power in an effort to explain exactly how "conservatives" are going to reverse their political fortunes. He will try to evade this question with all kinds of irrelevance, but if you keep putting his nose in that he might break a little.

Good luck. Stay strong.

[Wildewolfe]

3. I've let him slide on his stuff for a long time

He's several years older than me. It sounds corny but it put a burden on me to stay silent and I wasn't willing to accept that burden anymore.

In at least my brothers case, and I do love my brother, I will no longer tolerate mindless BS. He wants to talk to me he will do so intelligently. If he wants to state an opinion then he needs to be able to back up his opinion. If he crosses a line I will call him on it. If he's being a pompous ass I will call him that to his face rather than calling myself a lilly livered coward for NOT calling him one to his face later when I'm by myself.

If he cannot face his own beliefs then maybe he will think about and revise them some. No one has challenged him before because he surrounds himself only with those as mindless as himself and they can't help him defend defenseless positions so he still will have to think to be able to actually discuss. He doesn't get any more free passes.

[Cary]

10. I understand and empathize.

Of course, do what you think you need to do. I just put in my thoughts, is all. What use is my experience with pukes if I can't relate it to others who, by chance, might find it useful?

These people are beyond the looking glass. I don't know what dimension they exist in, but it isn't the same one you and I know. These people can rationalize anything, and they do. Years of trying to talk sense has yielded little, and if anything their crushing defeats in the past two elections seems to have pushed the rightists I know further over the edge.

One would think they would adapt to their reality, but it seems to have had the opposite effect. Clearly they are reprobates.

But I wish you the best of luck with your brother. Maybe confronting him will help? Anything is possible, I guess.

[Demeter]

4. That was a Really Good Snark!

Sorry about your brother. He might have a small stroke and get better....personality change is a common effect.

[Grey]

5. You are brilliant......

I really liked both stories.

[QueenOfCalifornia]

6. You should

carry mace or a stun gun with you when getting together with your brother. What a fuckwit he is. :eyes:

[Wildewolfe]

7. well...

I think he was stunned enough by the end of the conversation as it was. He'd never been, to my knowledge, fully confronted like that before and he was essentially unarmed for debate.

I had an interesting epiphany about his beliefs during the conversation... I posted it in the other thread.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=214&topic_id=197851&mesg_id=197851

Hopefully I linked that right.

Puts a lot of the fundamentalist viewpoint in perspective at least for me.

[DCKit]

8. I'm cruising DU to avoid writing a letter to my sister explaining why *I've* divorced my family.

In a fit of typical, delusional Republic projection, once again, IT'S ALL MY FAULT when, in fact, I only want to be left alone and exempted from the vicious family gossip, backstabbing and jockeying for favor.

I went to my younger brothers memorial (don't ask and not looking for condolences) last week with the understanding that it very well might be the last time I saw any of them. How screwn is that?

Your family + my family = a match made in Hell. We should get them together so they can exorcise each other's demons while talking conservative family values and the evils of "Teh Gay".

[Wildewolfe]

9. Yeah that sounds like most of mine as well.