"I don't care about other people's rights until it personally affects me"
Most of the right are the uneducated and poor voting to empower a system that already oppresses them. For many of them, it's not about what affects whom, it's about whose side is winning. The fact that a Republican changed sides at all is enough for me. I do not care why.
I mean, I get that, and the amount of rage I feel about the fact that Republicans never have any empathy for anyone they don't know is probably going to give me an ulcer, but this is good news. People changing their minds in response to new information is a positive thing, and we should encourage it. There are plenty of LGBTQ+ people whose families don't change their minds. That's how we end up with kids committing suicide or living on the streets. My extended family would never change their minds, and it's led to me cutting them off, and my cousin will never come out because I'm pretty sure his dad would kill him, or at least do his level best to beat him to death.
Anyway, I didn't mean for that to get that dark, but that's the reality for a lot of us. I'm going to welcome anyone trying to be better with open arms.
I fully agree that conversion to the right side of things is good, but god damn it's hard consider it uplifting when they didn't have to be selfish pricks to begin with, and the only reason they came around is because the person being treated like shit was a loved one. They would have gladly treated that person like shit if they were a stranger. I wouldn't call that uplifting.
Let's not let perfection stand in the way of progress
In this case it's even worse, they're not even looking to achieve perfection, they're looking to change past reality, which as far as I know, isn't an option until we come up with a time machine.
This is weird for me - you disagree with each other, but I very much agree with you both!
Yes, I find some republicans really annoying with their "I never thought it would be MY loved one that got mistreated" and "I just can't understand why my republican friends haven't realised that gun controls are a good idea like I did when my kids nearly got shot at school last month".
But on the other hand, there's hope that people can change their minds and suddenly see humanity where they were previously demonizing, turn around and start advocating for a bit more love and kindness in the world.
People changing their minds in response to new information is a positive thing
I still hope their toilet seat is perpetually too cold for their comfort.
Man, you took the words right out of my mouth......or my typing fingers as it were. I was going to say almost exactly that. I remember them saying "Covid is a hoax. Covid is all a democrat conspiracy....."
And democrats took it seriously. Wore masks, stayed 6 feet apart, got vaccinated. Yes, it affected democrat cities, because cities are more densely compact than rural areas, but somehow those rural area republican voters are the ones that it affected the most. Suddenly I was seeing posts online like "I didn't think this was real, but now my brother is dead. Treat it seriously guys!!!" and they'd get ignored by their own people.
Oh NOW it's real? NOW it's no longer a hoax, because it affected you personally??? I feel cynical in saying that I don't feel empathy for that type of person, because it's such a self inflicted wound, but it's true. If rural areas put the same amount of care into covid precautions as the democrat voters did, they'd have been largely unaffected. Forget 6 feet apart. They live on farms. It would be like 6 acres apart. You know why I wasn't largely affected by covid? Because I wore a mask. I stayed my distance. I got 4 different rounds of vaccines. I listened to medical advice. If they'd have done the same, these sob stories of people doing stupid things facing stupid but very real consequences wouldn't exist.
Sorry to go off on a rant, but this just bug me so much. People that refuse to believe anything is that big of a deal, unless it minorly inconviences them. Then it's the biggest deal in the world. Not that covid was a minor inconvience.....but it could have been if everyone just did what doctors said. For me personally it was a minor inconvience, which I feel a lot of other people COULD have had the same experience. My 98 year old grandma lived to be 102, just recently dying because everyone in my family agreed to treat her like a fragile piece of glass. Yet these people can't be bothered to wear a cloth over their face in public, AND THEN HAD THE GALL TO USE "I CAN'T BREATHE" AS THEIR MOTTO FOR NOT WEARING THEM!!! This at a time when "I can't breathe" was already the motto for the injustice that George Floyd faced.
Ok, I have to stop now. I'm getting myself worked up.
Would you rather the grandparents had shunned the grandchild? What use is gate keeping correct decisions?
It's not so much gatekeeping, as much as it is reminding them that they contributed to building a world that is hostile toward their grandchildren in the first place.
I think it’s just frustration that they can’t take the leap that every trans child has grandparents. It’s like someone realizing that knives are sharp and can hurt their baby and then finally connecting that voting for the sharp-blades-for-infants party could be harmful to people!
My guess is that they'd rather those grandparents not have been hateful pieces of shit in the first place. But better late than never!
Well that’s my point. Maybe I’m too willing to give older folks the benefit of the doubt, but we don’t know anything about these folks besides political affiliation and that they have a trans grandchild.
I mean, I grew up in a conservative household. In 1997, trans healthcare wasn’t a consideration. It wasn’t an issue in 2007. If it’s not an issue, I guarantee that it wasn’t on most voters mind. The vast majority of the ardent champions for LGBT rights in elected office right now were part of the majority that were against marriage equality at some point of their political career.
Disparaging people for growing, regardless of the reason, is counterproductive.
Well that's the thing: nobody's disparaging them for growing. It's great that they finally saw trans people as people. Wonderful for them. But they're LIFE-LONG Republicans. They sat through Nixon, Reagan, both Bushes, and Trump as president. All the while, their party just got shittier and more full of bigoted people. They watched the rise of right-wing talk radio, with horrendous humans like Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck spewing their vitriol in the name of the party, and they remained. They watched the Tea Party hold up signs decrying Obama as a monkey, or a muslim, signs calling for the hanging of Obama, and they remained. They watched Trump try to overthrow democracy as hundreds of terrorists committed violence at his bidding, and they remained.
Now, they're finally deciding to leave the party because the bigotry they supported all along suddenly became turned their way. Fuck them. I'm not disparaging them for growing. I'm disparaging them for being pieces of shit.
The second-best time to realize others matter is today; but we get to remind people that the best time would've been before today
Would have liked to have seen them do that for the reasons they did even if they didn’t have a trans grandchild
Did I say I wished they continued to be pieces of shit? No, I just don't see it as uplifting when a person's empathy only extends to their immediate family.
Did you read the article?
It explains that their daughter's experience more or less opened their eyes to the treatment as a whole. (As in not just their family) It may be spun that way, but for two (likely groomed) 70's+ republicans in a primarily red state, to have any diverging beliefs from their party is a good thing. It shows that the fight for LGBTQ+ rights, while admittedly slow (and shouldn't be necessary), is showing progress, even if it's small.
As another user mentioned, they could have just disowned their granddaughter, like a lot of bigots do. I've seen it happen and know a few people that it happened to. It's not a good feeling being alone in the world because your family doesn't agree with your identity.
I say that while the fight is still going on, we can at least enjoy this, albeit tiny, victory.
Standard republican bullshit.
I’ve maintained for many years that the biggest thing the right lacks is an imagination.
Look, lead poisoning degrades empathy. I'm just glad they have some left.
Ah, classic conservative "Its okay until it affects us, and now that it affects us its the most horrible thing in the world!"
I'll give the couple in the article this, I know many of the it's okay until it affects us types and none of them changed their voting habits
Classic conservative (and especially with "Christian" added onto that) = Severe lack of empathy
severe lack of empathy..for others
“It’s been very, very disappointing. It was a no-brainer. I’m voting Democrat, and it doesn’t take intelligence, it just takes compassion, whether you’re a grandparent, whether you’re a parent, an aunt or an uncle,” she said. “Everybody should be treated equal. It doesn’t matter color, race, gender. It’s just a travesty when you get the government involved with trying to legislate how we should feel.”
Free life pro tip: just never vote republican ever again.
also here's an idea: you can be none of those things. you can just be not at all related to some people and still feel compassion.
"What, you mean care about someone you don't even know? Sheah, right!"
The only good republicans are the ones who quit the party for democracy.
Attacking trans people will eventually give way to something else, as it has before. When push comes to shove, family normally overrides politics. The more things they attack, the more chance it has of hitting somebody they care about.
Racism will always work though, because no middle class white kid ever came home and said "Mom. Dad. There's no easy way to say this... I'm black."
Dating a black guy/gal can sometimes prompt some introspection. Not as often as I'd like, but sometimes.
There must always be an "other" for conservatism to work, because they need that other to hate, and to feel superior to, so they don't notice/give care to how much their own policies and the ones they support are destroying their own livelihoods.
Warning, the below is not uplifting @ all. Avoid if you don't wanna see it.
spoiler
Then there's my parents who disowned my younger brother after he came out as male.... They kicked him out of the house and now he's broke and alone trying to scrape by in the world. I'm one of two family members that supports him out of a previously huge family network. I tried to warn him that this would happen but he was convinced that everyone would do a 180 on their deep-rooted political beliefs.
Yeah I’ve been disowned for 9 years. I’m doing well, and I’m definitely the anomaly (most disowning in my experience is like 2-3) but it’s important to remember that not everyone chooses loved ones over bigotry
seeing people shitposting in the comments here.
And while it's funny, i concur on that. Should we also not congratulate them for being able to grow and change?
These isn't exactly a leopards situation. This would be more of a leopards situation if they did nothing but complain about republicans being shitty, which they havent done.
personally, i think these two people are rather nice individuals. I suspect they make for some ballin grandparents as well.
They were perfectly willing to support and spread the hate right up until it personally affected them.
Good for them for changing when it did personally affect them, we have seen Republicans literally dying (covid) instead of learning from their experiences, but it is a very low bar to set for being "nice people".
I get it, I just get so pissed people only doing the right thing after if affects THEM. The GQP has been bashing gay and queer folks for decades! But, it's only after their child is targeted that they see the light.
They are better than those who are still in the GOP, and I'm happy they left, but it still leaves a sour taste in my mouth.
When being a decent human being comes in the way of voting Republican.
Always has. These people just had their eyes opened because the hateful Republican rhetoric is affecting people in their orbit for a change.
Progress is progress. Any amount of empathy in this world is welcome.
It's never too late to develop the valuable human skill of "empathy."
Although most of us learn it at an early age.
Who let the leopards in here?
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