We got to talkin' about politics. 99% are democrats which, notwithstanding the problems of the party they do recognize, that the dems are fundamentally for the little guy. And my best defense? Basically that the claim is the essence of cow, that the dems and repubs are pretty much the same minus some superficial differences. I don't bring up abortion, cause I'm a coward, but yes while the republicans lead us into senseless wars that claim civilian lives the dems have ok'd the murder of the most vulnerable of us. But fetuses and embryos are not cute and cuddly and can't feel so who cares? I want to say that when people vote for primarily self-interested reasons (if Romney is elected I will lose my pension/job) we lose the big picture and it's a giant mess.
And I want to say that if you believe in helping the disadvantaged than you should want the option of helping your neighbors and not be coerced into doing it, because putting that responsibility of helping our neighbors onto the government opens up a whole feast of philosophical and practical issues that I can barely articulate in writing let alone verbally. But looking at the state to give us things makes me massively uncomfortable (even tho I take things from them, and they take things from me) and I wish that people could just see how it's wrong without me explaining.
Basically I wish I could channel winchester in these moments.
Then later after dinner a few remaining people. "I don't believe just because I don't go to church on sunday that a loving compassionate God is gonna send me to hell. Not the whole world is Catholic. You tellin me God is gonna send buddhists and atheists to hell cause they don't go to church?" "and what about vatican II? You mean people who believed pre-vatican II things all of the sudden need to change their beliefs? So it was a sin to eat meat on friday before but isn't anymore." "I believe in God, and in Jesus, the Holy Spirit, isn't that enough?"
I want to say that they're conflating a bunch of things. That there are no quick answers, and everything, even that its fundamental level is rarely reducible to a convenient little morsel you can swallow and feel happy about. I want to give them all the answers I know (which ain't much), but how can I disgorge all this info that took me many hours, many sleepless nights, confusion and agony it took to get those answers in a neat package for them.
Then I get the understanding that if I really am the one who knows the most about this stuff, we are all terribly terribly screwed.
And we've avoided talking about gays for the whole day surprisingly, but as I'm sitting upstairs, I can hear that conversation going on now. "Well some people are gay. You're gay or not gay what can you do?!" And I don't have the gall to explain that for thousands of years of human history there was no conception of sexual-orientation, that people who engaged in homogenital acts did so openly and were virtually indistinguishable from the rest of society, so is being "gay" really something concrete and inherent. Even though Hassan told me that's a leftist assertion (although I don't see how), I'm pretty sure they'd be like say what?! YOU TALKIN BOUT?!
Oy vey! It's been a long day. Most of the conversations were civil though, no infarctions were triggered or anything like that and no one got hostile, but I'm mentally shot.
TL;DR: I'm not very much surrounded by like-minded people. But they are my family and I love them. So please don't use this as an opportunity to rip them/their beliefs apart because I already know they are fundamentally flawed ways of thinking. Tell me how hard it is to be so right and perfect in a wrong and messed up world!
