How dos one deal with a Libeal family member

It sounds like your sister has as well....would for that situation...

 

If you believed in your spelling errors with the conviction that you have for your political positions, you would simply assume that we were the ones making all the spelling mistakes.

 

You mean, when someone says something that you disagree with? What do you do?

You argue with her, obviously.

I'm not understanding the problem.

 

I think the family should get together and agree to leave your sister out of family decisions like what do with your grandmother. Irrational people are not entitled to have an opinion.

 

So liberals are irrational?

 

Not all of them. But I would say the vast majority of them are varying degrees of emotional rather than rational. Every now and then you come across one like Juan Williams who actually is as open-minded as he claims to be. I can be friends with those types.

 

This has nothing to do with the sister being liberal. It has to do with her insistence on derailing the conversation every time the family is attempting to make decisions about the grandmother. She is acting irrational and obstructive.

The family should simply decide that the sister will no longer be invited to family meetings to discuss this issue.

I have an irrational sister as well, which has nothing to do with politics. If we had to make an important family decision like this, we would not consult with her.

 

You should sit down with your liberal relative and listen quietly to what they have to say. When it feels like your brain has exploded, that is the beginning of enlightenment. It shouldn't hurt too much, but you'll feel much better for living in reality once you get used to the change.

 

JIMV, I have a 39 year old gay brother who lives in LA, and who I consider among the LGBT activist/militant crowd, and a progressive leftist talking point parrot.

He comes home a few times a year for holidays and major family related events.

During last Thanksgiving's big meal, he went off on a rant about some violation of "social justice" somewhere, which inspired a protracted and highly contentious discussion between he and I, and other overwhelmingly conservative family members.

Before it got too far out of hand, I bellowed...

"You know, John.... speaking of which you know, would give us all a bit of peace and quiet"....

The ensuing laughter pissed him of so much, he left the table to go sulk, and created a month's long rift between us (patched up)....

but, he's never brought his deluded politics home again.

To make a long story short, lefties "on their soap box" are loud, selfish, irrational, generally clueless, arrogant, snarky, and virtually incapable of conceding a point....

and can only be 'brought to heel' with public humiliation.

Try it...if her wounds don't heel, you haven't really lost much.

 

I agree to a certain point. Facts are one thing, but it's the conclusions that one draws from the facts that should leave a person open-minded. In any political discussion, facts must be established before one can attempt to sway the opinions of someone else. Above all, the most important thing is to STAY CIVIL. Absolutely never get emotional. I know it's hard to not be annoyed with blatant stupidity but you must put it in the back of your mind and remember that being uneducated or misguided is not the same thing as being unintelligent.

As far as dealing with a liberal goes, when discussing politics, you have to also discuss things that you both agree on to make the conversation feel a little bit more comfortable. You must find out which things the Liberal has an indvidualist attitude towards and which things they have a Collectivist attitude towards. If you can make them see the hypocrisy of having both Collectivist and individualist ideas, then you can more easily help them to change their opinions. It has been my experience that Liberals are more open minded when it comes to converting from Collectivism to Individualism. Neo-conservatives, on the other hand, are hopeless.

 

Irony.

Noted.

 

An argument between one person who is correct and one person who is incorrect is not an example of two people who are incorrect, with the truth being elsewhere.

That only happens when two liberals argue.

 

Smarmy. You haz it.

 

Duck tape.

 

With patience.... lots of it.

 

I agree with that BUT, the issue is not the specifics of the politics but the insistence on bringing politics into every discussion and conversation. That the politics produced are child like is another issue.

 

is she under the age of 3 ?

 

Point at the deficit, point at her pocketbook, point at the clock.

 

You really can't reason with an emotional thinker. They have to be mugged by reality.


_

 

Only in her behavior..

 

I know exactly what you are going through. I have been there myself. It really takes you off guard dealing with people like that. Sometimes, in every other area of their lives they are rational, coherant people. Capable of working a job, taking care of children, etc. But you get into politics, and it is as though they become a completely different person. Irrational, beligerant, and completely committed to their being correct in what they believe. As though their very lives depended on it.

I am a very rare person (so says the Meyer-Briggs personality test... an ENTJ less than 2% of the pop.), so in a very real way... I just do not think the same way that most other people do. For me.... when I have a conversation, arguement, spirited discussion, etc. It is never personal. I fully understand that if someone does not like my ideas, or my feeling on politics, then it does NOT mean they do not like ME as a person. I feel completely comfortable to disagree with others, and some are even great friends of mine. Some, cannot handle that sort of thing.

I think for the highly liberal minded among us, this is not how they see the world. I believe that for many of them, their beliefs, specifically in politics, are so intertwined with their own self identity, that for you to disagree with them, is viewed as a personal attack. They do not hear, "I disagree with you..." they hear...."I disagree with who you are". Of course, that was not the intention, but that is their perception of it. It is also the reason that facts become irrelavent to them while in this emotional state. I think in a certain sense... they really cannot hear what you are saying. Because once in that mode of thinking, all they can really hear is.. "you are a bad person". And then they feel obligated to explain why they are correct, and not a "bad person".

Once a person is in that mode of thinking... you need to just stop... and walk away. Nothing good can possibly come of it after that. If they can learn to separate the personal attack from an idea.... then you might be able to continue...

 

My sister is a far-left nut (she is an enthusiastic supporter of the "occupiers" in her home city of Oakland)...it would be OK except for my wife. My sister LOATHES my wife...my wife, meanwhile, considers my sister beneath her contempt. This results in my sister trying harder and harder to get a rise out of my wife. Last time they were together, she succeeded with a remark about my wife's (deceased) mother, and spectacularly: my sister wound up pinned against a wall by her throat.

I think we are well over our quota of crazy female relatives on this thread!

 

Just agree with her and smile. I'm sure enough people make fun of her already.

 

Why would it even be an issue? She's entitled to form her own opinions and defend them. Unless you live in a house full of plastic people (thanks to Frank Zappa), i'm sure that have a difference of opinion or position should be welcomed.

 

Same point...again, what does politics have to do with a specific health care issue, especially when the political opinion expressed is simply silly?

If she wanted to rant about politics outside of the medical issue, it might be amusing, but instead, is an impediment to the real problem.