An interesting conversation I had today..

[Fumesucker]

I don't have any real wingnuts in my direct family but I have family members who are more closely related to said wingnuts..

I had a conversation with a direct family member today and she tells me her true wingnut fruitcake "Christian" relatives have completely clammed up regarding politics and politicians where before the election they were vociferously in her face over this stuff.

I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't heard it from the horse's mouth, so to speak.

It seems this may indeed be a "teaching moment" for at least some of the wingnuts..

[monmouth]

1. The same thing happend to me. I still get e-mails from my RW friends

and relatives but none are political. I think that "Reply All" was one of the things that impacted, the other was having a barrel of knowledge and facts to hit them back with....It's good to be a Dem...

[Fumesucker]

3. This person hasn't even done the "reply all" thing..

I think it's the steady drip of horrible info coming from even the M$M..

Imagine if these people were pursuing the hidden information the way we political junkies have..

What is coming from the M$M is but the tip of the iceberg and that is enough to shut up some wingers..

[barbtries]

2. i think you may be right

and i hope so.

my sister, not a wingnut but traditionally republican in her politics, called me after the election and said i thought i'd call and let you crow for a while because i know how happy you must be. and i did, for about 10 minutes, telling her about my faith being restored and how i actually have some hope now and maybe we'll end the wars and start taking care of our citizens and restore the USA's good name around the world and so on, for about 10 minutes, when she said, okay, that's enough.

we laughed. later she forwarded an email asking for opinions - it was such a bunch of shit. i wrote back (to "all") and asked her never to send me crap such as that again. far from it causing hard feelings, the next time we spoke she said, "i didn't say i agreed with it, i just wanted your reaction."

for someone like my sister who may be coming around to the reality of what a disaster the gwbush administration was, and how much of a failure the republican party is generally, it's gotta be hard. not just to acknowledge these facts, but then to be around people who were not taken in by the BS and have to eat crow. i give her credit for at least being a sport about it all. unfortunately i wonder about her, my older brother, and others, how the hell could they have been so willfully ignorant for so long?!

[havocmom]

5. For someone like your sister, the power of the RW echo chamber needs rebuffing

There are a lot of people out there who sorta just go along to get alone. Since the RW makes so much noise in proportion to their actual numbers (just look back to November's election - they were clearly outnumbered) many of those folks just sorta fall into step with the noisy band they see/hear. We need to make sure people like that are well aware that there are opposing viewpoints and that actually WE are mainstream America, not the wingers.

Sad but true: Some people do not want to give the little effort to use critical thought and arrive at their OWN conclusions. So much less bother to just follow a herd, thinking they are going with the flow of what is mainstream. Unfortunately, that thinking is what leads over too many cliffs into disaster. But those in the middle of a herd can't see that far ahead.

Our job, since WE are the majority, WE are the mainstream, is to make sure we make that very point.

Best of luck to you with your family. I know some of that worry. My older bro is a meme spouting, lazy ass, and I know he was raised better than that. I know he just wants to 'fit in' and since RW hate radio is about all that plays in his radio market, he THINKS that is America.

Sad, but true.

[ProgressiveFool]

4. My brother was just here to visit for a week or so, a libertarian anti-tax pro 2nd ammend. repub

And at two separate times when we went out to dinner, he had what I called "Democratic Outbursts". Both were in relation to federal tax dollars going to corporations, one railing against the bank bailout, and the other against farm subsidies to huge agribusiness. I was quite shocked. He had been a liberal in high school and early on in college, but changed over at some point before graduating. At times he had supported the whole line of Republican talking points, but now he's not buying it.

I think the exposure of all of the cronyism, lax or non-existent regulation, fraud and waste that brought the banks to the point of insolvency and required the bank bailouts has really opened a lot of people's eyes. It just looks like a big giveaway of our money to the rich, and has put other such giveaways into a new light. Those Republicans with brains are beginning to see that they are the little guy, have no hope of being the big guy, and are beginning to really resent that.

[Fumesucker]

6. Yep, I think the sheep may be starting to look up..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sheep_Look_Up

The Sheep Look Up is a science fiction novel by British author John Brunner, first published in 1972. The novel's setting is decidedly dystopian, the book dealing with the deterioration of the environment in the United States. It was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1972.

The title of the novel is a quotation from the poem Lycidas by John Milton.



I've been reading SF for over fifty years now and nothing that has happened has really surprised me, all of this was "predicted" long ago in SF..

[elleng]

7. WONDERFUL to hear about 'TEACHING MOMENT!'

.