Is your family supportive of your politics?

[Red Son]

If not, are they tolerant at least? Or maybe you got your political perspective from a family member.
My dad used to make jokes in my teen trot days, greeting me in the mornings with a playful 'Morning comrade' and referencing Citizen Smith (80's BBC sitcom about the fictional Tooting Popular Front).

[Quail]

I think my parents just dismiss my views as me being mentally ill, to be honest. That's the impression I get every time I talk to them. Which is actually pretty fucked up, given the long history of using mental health as an excuse to silence women.

I try not to talk about politics with my extended family because I don't want to turn the few times I see them into an argument. Unfortunately some of my family can be a bit sexist and racist so I have to call them out on that, ugh. I'm hoping they'll get over their homophobia or at least keep their damn mouths shut when I bring my partner home this Christmas, or else they'll be facing both of our wrath.

My partner shares a good deal of my views which is pretty wonderful. I don't think I could live and raise my son with someone who didn't share my core values.

[Lily Briscoe]

My family (immediate and extended) are pretty much all social democrats. Whenever I see them, there are usually, em, lively.political arguments. They also have an obnoxious habit of calling me en masse during election season and harassing me about not voting. Overall, I think I kind of lucked out though, as I have friends who come from really right-wing/insane Christian fundamentalist families and I can't even imagine living with that.

[Lily Briscoe]

I think my parents just dismiss my views as me being mentally ill, to be honest. That's the impression I get every time I talk to them. Which is actually pretty fucked up

It's really fucked up.

[Le Socialiste]

My family has always identified as 'New Deal' type Democrats. They're somewhat sympathetic to my views, but don't hesitate to steer our conversations in reformist directions.

[Bala Perdida]

My family has many Catholics and Protestants that are hostile to my beliefs. Others, less-religious types, think I'm crazy and brainwashing some of my cousins. Although many just don't care, which I like. I have a cousin to claims to be sympathetic to my views but he upholds racism misogyny and is all around a pretty shitty person. I do have another cousin infamous in the family for holding views very similar to mine, but he's hard to get a hold of.

[Ethics Gradient, Traitor For All Ages]

My fiance's family are liberal catholics, they seem to place me on the same level as survivalists and jihadis.

[consuming negativity]

my parents have at points in their life adorned vehicles and their bedroom with confederate flags (despite living in the north). my dad swore upon the election of obama that within two years we would all be speaking arabic (although my mom voted for obama) and has said that all black persons and homosexuals (not the terms he used) should be round up and shot. at one point i was also told by them both that if i were gay i would be disowned.

sometimes i'll take positions to the right of mine because i don't feel like having to argue the intricacies of what i actually believe, but they know that i don't like the police and they know that i am sympathetic toward the rioters in ferguson. both of these conversations ended in them screaming obscenities both at me and at black people, and other times i have had to walk out of the room to avoid physical confrontations. neither has any idea that i am anything near a communist or anarchist, and they hate unions, but my dad thought that hugo chavez was great and both seem to be completely okay with me being a self-described feminist. gems in a pile of shit, i suppose.

[Igor]

ive basically never talked of anything remotely political with my parents so who knows

[Brandon's Impotent Rage]

My parents have absolutely no idea about my politics. Neither does the rest of my extended family.

It just isn't worth it. I learned a long time ago that you can get alot more accomplished when you pick and choose your battles, instead of just firing all guns at all times.

[RedWorker]

My family is left-wing. I don't understand what it is with everyone's families being right-wing.

[Sabot Cat]

I don't tell them about it, because they're lost causes, politically speaking.

[adipocere12]

No, they're not really. But I'm in the camp that's absolutely convinced that capitalism is in its final irreversible death spiral. As such I don't feel the need to win people over.

[Anglo-Saxon Philistine]

I never thought I would say this, but you need to read some Slaughter.

I don't tolerate the political positions of my family. Father's a Titoist and Mother a liberal. Our disagreements are clear and loud.

[Redistribute the Rep]

My dads a libertarian...

enough said

[Slavic]

My mother is apolitical.
My father is a bit of a social democrat with a mixing of Protestant work ethics which is odd considering he isn't religious. I think that is just due to trying to survive as working class.

We both agree on a lot of points on their surface, but not necessarily how those points should develop.

We have more in common with our psychedelic drug use then our political opinions.

[Art Vandelay]

My father considers himself very pro union and working class, but has a hard nationalist bent. He's also in an MC with folks that I've seen rep Nazi insignia, so there's that. My mother is pretty center left. Her father was a MP for the liberal party here in Canada, so she generally votes for them. My step dad is a libertarian of sorts, who votes conservative.

My family is well aware of my views. I can't be bothered to talk politics with them anymore, but we used to get into extremely heated discussions when I was younger. I suspect they think/hope I'll grow out of it eventually.

[synthesis]

my parents have at points in their life adorned vehicles and their bedroom with confederate flags (despite living in the north). my dad swore upon the election of obama that within two years we would all be speaking arabic (although my mom voted for obama) and has said that all black persons and homosexuals (not the terms he used) should be round up and shot. at one point i was also told by them both that if i were gay i would be disowned.

sometimes i'll take positions to the right of mine because i don't feel like having to argue the intricacies of what i actually believe, but they know that i don't like the police and they know that i am sympathetic toward the rioters in ferguson. both of these conversations ended in them screaming obscenities both at me and at black people, and other times i have had to walk out of the room to avoid physical confrontations. neither has any idea that i am anything near a communist or anarchist, and they hate unions, but my dad thought that hugo chavez was great and both seem to be completely okay with me being a self-described feminist. gems in a pile of shit, i suppose.

I find all that really hard to reconcile with liking Chavez. It seems like those sort of views almost always go hand-in-hand with hardcore national chauvinism. Did he say why?

[consuming negativity]

I find all that really hard to reconcile with liking Chavez. It seems like those sort of views almost always go hand-in-hand with hardcore national chauvinism. Did he say why?

Because of the heating oil:


However, Venezuela has been stepping in to make Alice’s life a bit easier by delivering 100 gallons of free heating oil each winter. She is a four-year beneficiary of the Citgo-Venezuela heating oil program, which provides free heating oil to 500,000 poor Americans living in low-income neighborhoods and shelters throughout the country.

President Hugo Chavez, often demonized by Washington, helped launch the program in 2005, following hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

http://rt.com/news/hugo-chavez-charity-venezuela-435/

[The Garbage Disposal Unit]

In my immediate family, I'm something of a black sheep. My father is a small-c conservative (in Canada, that's a differentiation between conservative politics, and support of the capital-C Conservative Party or old "Progressive Conservative Party" which is still a force provincially in Atlantic Canada); my mother is a Liberal with a family history in the Liberal Party. My sister is aggressively apolitical - tending to steer a course somewhere between our parents. All are somewhat socially liberal, but with disturbing "polite racist" streaks.

In my extended family, I feel some affinity with many of my cousins on my father's side. We all lean left at least sufficiently that we can have productive conversations, and I'm not the only one who gets made fun of for being a brick-thrower.

[VCrakeV]

Me: "I'm going to vote for Trudeau come election time" Dad: "You mean that looney bin who wants to legalize pot?"

... Not exactly tolerant. When I asked him, my father told me he was supportive of Socialism, but I doubt he even knows what that means. He has always wanted a big truck, a big house, etc. He looks down on the poor, and makes a clear segregation between the classes.

As for my mother, we've never really talked politics. I think I just might though. I figure she's a capitalist, because she's like my father; she has big dreams, and high hopes.

My brother doesn't seem supportive, although he does seem open. The only thing we seem to argue about is Communism. He keeps saying, whenever I bring it up, that "Communism won't happen/work". There's probably some truth in that, but I believe that it's possible. It just needs time.

[Sentinel]

My mom is an old stalinist, but has been very supportive of my activities both when I was an anarchist (not very active) and a trot (very active). I guess it has to do with the rest of the family being far from revolutionary leftists. She's not really a stalinist anymore either, more like an undefined leftist, not in any organisation herself but supporter of many, and quite active in her trade union.

My dad used to have similar (stalinist/tankie) views too, but got disillusioned after the USSR collapse. He has passed away. I don't really have contact with my paternal family, but I have no doubt their views are crappy.

The only one of them I talk to is my half brother, who lives in the US. He is some kind of liberal, with some ok views but far from a socialist as we see it.

My maternal family are all Christians (except my mom who is an anti-theist), some of them left-liberals or social democrats - and some right wing conservatives. I had to remove an uncle from my fb a while ago for being a homophobe.

I'm not sure how to vote in the poll.

[CaptainCool309]

The only family I have that is really close to me is my mommy and daddy.

My mom is apathetic towards politics in general, but come voting time she'll vote for the Democrats, that's about it. My dad is an MSNBC die-hard liberal who is sympathetic to socialism (more specifically Scandinavian style social-democracy). But draws the line of sympathy at Communism (which he only sees as Oppressive Marxist-Leninism) and Anarchism (which he calls a bunch of "Wacky Utopian Noam Chomsky Crap")

The rest of my relatives live very far away from me and I don't spend much time with them at all, but my guess is they'd either be apathetic to politics in general like my Mother, or bourgeois republicans who'd denounce me as a "crazy red" and try and dissuade me from embracing socialism.

[Rosa Partizan]

my parents were born and raised in Tito's Yugoslavia and they tell me how fucked up communism is (they don't get why that was no communism) and that I couldn't be more wrong, but then again, they're nationalists and racists, especially my father who's highly prejudiced against blacks, jews, arabs, chinese, serbians, albanians, and many more, so I can't be bothered by their opinion.

[motion denied]

My only family is The Party.

And they don't support me, I support them.

[Q]

My mom is not very political, but supports me. My brother got into politics because of me, but went with the Dutch Greens and is active in a local branch leadership. My sister is also supportive and is an inactive member of the SP.

Until 2009 my whole family was very supportive of the SP. But then I got kicked out and they, much more than me in the long haul, resented the party for that incident. I still get regular questions of why I went back becoming a member again when there is a setback of any kind. So I explain again and they'll never get it. Kind of funny really.

[Sentinel]

I moved this from Chit Chat to Non Political. Seems to develop into a more serious thread.

[Halert]

My mom is not very political, but supports me. My brother got into politics because of me, but went with the Dutch Greens and is active in a local branch leadership. My sister is also supportive and is an inactive member of the SP.

Until 2009 my whole family was very supportive of the SP. But then I got kicked out and they, much more than me in the long haul, resented the party for that incident. I still get regular questions of why I went back becoming a member again when there is a setback of any kind. So I explain again and they'll never get it. Kind of funny really.

I don't want to derail the topic but, why did they kick you out and why would you want to go back to those social dems?

[Sasha]

My mom is a PSP (pacifist socialist) that folowed her party into the merger into what is now the Green-left, but all her family upwards where either pannekoekist left-coms or leninists that left the CP after the surpession of hungary so while she thinks my political positions are a tad to radical she does understand them. My dad was a old school social-democrat who always voted for the PvdA but who now slowely has been moving toeards either the Greens or the SP.

Our disagreements are more over tactics and finer points (voting, direct action, role of the police etc etc) than the overal need for social equality and justice.

[Q]

I don't want to derail the topic but, why did they kick you out and why would you want to go back to those social dems?
Good questions. This was the thread (http://www.revleft.com/vb/expelled-dutch-socialist-t118386/index.html?t=118386) I created at the time when I was expelled in 2009. This was the blogpost (http://www.revleft.com/vb/blog.php?b=18849) announcing my comeback in 2013. This is the project (http://communisme.nu/) that resulted from the latter (in Dutch).

[Sasha]

I don't want to derail the topic but, why did they kick you out and why would you want to go back to those social dems?

All trot groups (except the cliffite IS) that joined the SP with the goal of enty'ism got purged on dual membership and where only allowed back after some time and on a individual basis.

And while the day to day politics of the SP are certainly now oldscool soc-dem the background and base of the party still make it an intresting project, esp for people with a trot outlook. The SP started out as Maoists and as such the congress actually has still some tangiable influence on the party line, its also the party with the biggest and most active, mobilized membership so its a good place to find people who already active on class issues and radicalize them.

[Zoroaster]

My mother is apolitical, and doesn't really care what I am. My father is a liberal, but is actually rather supportive of my politics, although we do have friendly debates often. My brother is a social democrat and a staunch anti-socialist who thinks I'm a loony, and is always talking about how I'm wrong and that voting is the way to go.

My uncle is a social democrat, but he has actually helped me with materials and research, and gave me a book on the history of existential Marxism in Postwar France (it was a pretty good book). My grandfather thinks I'm a liberal, and rambles on on how he thinks Obama is a communist, and the rest of my family doesn't know.

[human strike]

My family are all small-'c' conservative Mormons. They're well aware of my views, though sometimes they do get things a bit confused. Despite being religiously conservative, they're not right wing. Being brought up I was exposed to a lot of anti-Tory sentiment. Thatcher was especially hated, particularly by my mother who I can remember crying tears of joy when Blair was elected in '97 when I was six years old. She didn't approve when I attended two Thatcher death parties, but really it was her influence that lead me to that. Most of my family - as much as they have any political consciousness - strongly support state welfare. My brother-in-law votes UKIP - we don't talk about politics. I could easily get into arguments if I wanted, especially about things like gender and sexuality. I don't avoid the topics, but I do avoid arguments. They do generally think I'm a bit mad and probably have an exaggerated view of the extent to which I'm some kind of reckless rioter - I think sometimes my mum worries I may be a slight negative influence on my younger brothers. She's always telling me to "be good," which I take to mean "don't do anything illegal."

[BIXX]

I don't think I've posted in this thread yet.

My dad used to be a radical leftist of sorts (I suspect not really an anarchist but also not really an authoritarian) so he at tines is very sympathetic to my views. But then he goes on to say shit like voting is the best way to go and shit like that. But he is really into guns which kicks some serious ass.

My mom is a die hard left liberal who says a lot of the shit you read in the dumb shit liberals say to radicals thread.

So kinda sorta not really.

[Lily Briscoe]

My family are [...] Mormons.

LOL

How are British Mormons even a thing?

[Futility Personified]

I have a family member who converted to mormonism a few years back. A few missionaries were hanging around the council flats where my mate lives and knocked just as we were leaving and he had smoked a fatty. Awkward vibes so we closed the door and waited, and when we left they were still there. So I piped up, said, yeah, I have a relative who's a mormon and the bastard said something really sarcy back. Jamboree of shit-noshers.

Odd tangent aside, my family are tolerant of what I think; yet we're worlds apart, and being the youngest i'm patronised to pieces and quite frankly ignored in arguments. It could just be because when my blood gets up, it really gets up, but it's never me who starts shouting first. So that's nice. I think certain things are hard-wired to one's political convictions, and my family tend not to put their heads over existential parapets.

[Lily Briscoe]

I have a family member who converted to mormonism a few years back. A few missionaries were hanging around the council flats where my mate lives and knocked just as we were leaving and he had smoked a fatty. Awkward vibes so we closed the door and waited, and when we left they were still there. So I piped up, said, yeah, I have a relative who's a mormon and the bastard said something really sarcy back. Jamboree of shit-noshers.

When I was sixteen, me and a friend (who was from a batshit Christian fundamentalist family which she reacted against by getting really heavy into the 'militant atheist' thing) decided to attend a service at a 'Kingdom Hall' as a joke. We hotboxed her car on the way there and walked in all slanty-eyed and reeking. We were kind of legends for awhile after that :lol:

[Futility Personified]

Do they do communion snacks or anything? Or at least a bacon sandwich? All that religious excitement must've made you hungry!

[Lily Briscoe]

No, they actually just did a really extended victim complex thing about how no one talks about all the Mormons killed in the holocaust, and then some crazy woman named 'Becky' tried to get our numbers and wrote down a bunch of (hilariously fabricated) information about us.

It was pretty disappointingly boring tho, I thought they'd at least sacrifice a baby or something

EDIT: whoa wait, I'm totally confusing mormons with Jehovah's witnesses! It was Jehovahs witnesses not Mormons (serves me right for being blasted I guess)

[Atsumari]

My dad was supportive of me until I started talking shit about Obama and the Democrats. I accused him of being inconsistent and holding Bush to a higher standard and told him that if Bush launched an assassination campaign in so many countries around the world, sucked up to Israel more than Daddy Bush and the other Republicans, and the destruction of civil liberties that made the Patriot Act look like freedom in comparison, he would be up in arms. Then he gave me the shit about if it were not for the Republicans, Obama would be able to do better things but we have to mature and play the game of lesser evils. Things got so bad that he threatened to cut off my finances (he did) and told me to get out of the house, get a real job, and experience reality. I have done all that and still hold true to my views. Some fucking realist.

[human strike]

LOL

How are British Mormons even a thing?

I'm sure you've noticed, but Mormons put a lot of effort into converting literally everybody they see. Unsurprisingly there are a lot of them (more than 15 million) around the world - most live outside the US and slightly under 200,000 live in Britain.

[Creative Destruction]

I think they don't care, for the most part.

[RedAnarchist]

LOL

How are British Mormons even a thing?

I'm from Lancashire, which is sort of like a Mormon ancestral homeland. There's a Mormon church in my county that is lit up at night. Also, a load of Lancashire people went to Utah - my family tree is full of Utahns.

[Lily Briscoe]

I was half just messing with 'human strike' (or drunkenly being rude, depending on how you look at it!)

I assumed there were Mormons in Britain. Its a little hard for me to visualize though, because - from my (albeit limited) exposure to American Mormon culture - it is like this Leave It To Beaver, stepford-style wholesome all-Americanism on a level that makes your average WASPy suburbanite soccer mom seem suspiciously cosmopolitan.

What is British Mormon culture like?

[RedAnarchist]

I've no idea, I don't actually know any Mormons. I've met some, they didn't seem too stepford-y but I didn't really have much interaction with them.

[Slippers]

My boyfriend is a liberal - and an ignorant one at that. I want to... persuade him more to my line of thinking but he is... frightened by my views and no good seems to have come from me trying as of yet.

[Thirsty Crow]

Somewhat tolerant, even agreeing, paints the pitcture rather well.

I don't talk about it but we get each other as far as some basic points go.

[G4b3n]

I come from of a family of union workers for the immediate family and liberal intellectuals sympathetic to labor in the extended family. As long as words like "socialism" or "communism" are not used, political discussions go smoothly.

I truly admire my mother, because she has no desire to understand politics or political issues, yet she is always up to date on racial issues and advocating for the victims of racist violence. These things are exceptionally admirable when independent of political purpose, in my opinion.

[Rugged Collectivist]

My family is mostly apathetic Democrats. All I can really remember hearing about politics when I grew up was "The Republicans are for the rich, to hell with em", and I think that's the extent of their understanding. Could be wrong, we don't talk about it much.

I do talk politics with my dad pretty often. He's a small business owner, and his attitudes and worldview reflect this. You know, thinks the poor and disadvantaged are just lazy and/or incompetent, and that their position in society is a reflection of their moral failings. He's an atheist, but he supports religion, believing that society would descend into some Hobbesian nightmare without it. He also thinks the world is overpopulated, and that we'd be better off if we all lived like the Amish.

He's a little weird, honestly.

None of them know I'm a communist (except, possibly, my sisters). I don't admit it and I tone my rhetoric down a bit when I'm around my family. I want to make it on my own before I start going on about communism. Otherwise, they'd just dismiss me.

[human strike]

A small sample size, but feel like this thread to an extent deconstructs that whole rebellious teenager stereotype - lots of people's families seem to support or are sympathetic of our politics.


I'm from Lancashire, which is sort of like a Mormon ancestral homeland. There's a Mormon church in my county that is lit up at night. Also, a load of Lancashire people went to Utah - my family tree is full of Utahns.

I suspect you're talking about Preston Temple, by the sounds of it. And yeah it's true that lots of Mormons from Lancashire emigrated to the US in the 19th Century. I actually have an ancestor from Dorset who did - complete coincidence that my grandparents ended up converting 100 years later though.


I was half just messing with 'human strike' (or drunkenly being rude, depending on how you look at it!)

I assumed there were Mormons in Britain. Its a little hard for me to visualize though, because - from my (albeit limited) exposure to American Mormon culture - it is like this Leave It To Beaver, stepford-style wholesome all-Americanism on a level that makes your average WASPy suburbanite soccer mom seem suspiciously cosmopolitan.

What is British Mormon culture like?

There's a stratum of more affluent Mormons that aren't all that different from what you described - that kind of American suburbanite culture (or 'Molly' culture as some Mormons sometimes call it) leaks through. But there are also a considerable number of poorer and working class Mormons who achieve nothing like that kind of middle class status but generally aspire to it (my own family comes to mind). I suspect this is true everywhere though.

[The Feral Underclass]

I went to Marxism 1997 at the age of 14 and my grandfather threatened to write me out of his will. His wife, my grandmother (who is 93 this year), admitted that she voted UKIP once, but she won't be doing it again because she thinks Farage is a fool. She's generally fairly right-wing on economic issues but quite liberal on social issues. Her father was a communist. My father was an Irish republican socialist and my mother is a trad-lefty, unionist hack (yawn).