Were either of your parents radicals? How were you raised, politically?

Submitted by moto in AskRaddle

My mum was a staunch liberal, and my dad was originally a hardcore Marxist from Turkey, who had to flee due to the governments crackdown on leftists in the 80s. He de-radicalised his beliefs as time went on (living in the U.K had that effect on him) but I always remember his arguments about society being more poignant than my mums.

This whole thing with Brexit, and living in what you would call a cosmopolitan part of the U.K has welded my beliefs further that liberals are really no different from conservatives, only that they like humous a little more and feel that their refusal to be racist/homophobic means that they are absolved from trying to make society more economically equal.

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BunnyBop wrote

I wouldn't know how to classify my mom, tbh. She votes solidly Dem and hates Trump yet believes poor people shouldn't get assistance beyond two years (because that's the estimated time to complete a technical degree for a full time student), even if they have kids.

She also thinks Native Americans are poor and marginalized because they cling to their cultures too much. This is a white woman who believes she has Cherokee ancestry and has a collection of Native American themed items and books on fake Indiginous spirituality, because she fetishizes their cultures while expecting them to abandon it for money. She makes me pretty sick.

Idk my dad, so your guess is as good as mine.

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yaaqov wrote

My mom is an intensely liberal, moderately Zionist, gentrification-defending self-identified feminist.

My dad is an intensly liberal, moderately spiritual, cultural-appropriation-defending self-identified environmentalist.

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Throwmeout wrote

I was raised vegetarian and both my parents had pretty cool ideas. My dad used to tell me about the US’ atrocities in the Middle East at a pretty young age.

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Fairnin wrote (edited )

No, both are libs. But they both occasionally say something that sounds like they're pushing into lefty territory.

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zzuum wrote

Dad is a flag bearing Republican, mom is a lesbian liberal (long story). Had to find my way on my own

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martasultan wrote (edited )

My parents are one part generic conservative one part full on neo-fascist, and abused me historically for my LGBT identity. I've been raised to hate a lot of people and I bought that for a long time.

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ziq wrote (edited )

My dad always brags that he never took a penny from the government no matter how hungry us kids were. He was always one of those broke ass conservatives who dreamed of being rich and stepping on peasants like him some day. Always bending over backwards to win the approval of bourgies that are disgusted by him. My mother won't even talk about politics because he yelled at her once for voting socialist 30 years ago because she thought the candidate 'seemed nice'.

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lookin4 wrote

Ma is quite apolitical and Pa was a social democrat while being younger and became more radical in the last 25 years, but nowadays it is difficult to label him.

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surreal wrote

both my parents were leftists but they didn't interfere with my political views directly. it was more of a watch and learn process.

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transhumancom wrote (edited )

my dad's a trump-loving racist who keeps it to himself and my mom's a centrist liberal. my mom raised me and probably instilled most of my values but i quickly surpassed her and now we don't really talk. it didn't help that she kicked me out for being trans.

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An_Old_Big_Tree wrote

Were either of your parents radicals?

Nope

How were you raised, politically?

Conservative

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PerfectSociety wrote

My parents never raised me politically, at least not in any overt manner. If I had to label them, I guess I'd probably say they're more or less social liberals. They're immigrants from India and now would be considered Labor Aristocracy by Marxists. They've consistently voted democrat in every election. They often vote to raise their own taxes if they feel like it'll help society. They're largely pro-LGBTQIA rights.

Having said all that, politics was never regularly discussed in the household. The only time we talked about it is when I brought it up because of my interest. At times, I find that my Dad's political views are quite malleable and open minded. He's praised Fidel Castro a number of times and considers Cuba to be a "noble, virtuous" society. He places a lot of value on equality. He basically implied to me a while back that he was a Marxist-Leninist/Maoist when he was around my age.

And then...there's my extended family that lives in India. They're highly reactionary and hierarchically-minded people (on both sides of the family), much of which comes from their privileged position in the caste system but a lot also comes from the social mindset of India ("fuck you, I've got mine"). On my Dad's side of the extended family living in India (especially the old folk), there's a huge superiority complex that comes from the royal lineage in my family. My great-great-great grandfather was the Monarch of a kingdom.

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rot wrote

I was basically raised apolitical and had to come up with anarchism on my own with some help from the web.

My parents are- dad: right wing reactionary will support the state basically if it leans a little to the right mom: apolitical centrist? democrat? posadist?

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Green_Mountain_Makhno wrote

My parents were both very conservative growing up - like had never voted for someone who wasn't a hardcore republican. After I left home for college and started to break out of that brainwashing my dad went Green Party - that's who he's voted for the last 2 presidential elections. My mom is still hard-core conservative who voted for Trump.

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