Almost as good as Lichtman’s keys!

  • catbum@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    The worst part is knowing that they’re (most likely) just listening to the loudest voter in their household even if other opinions manage to exist in their family.

    I only remembered my dad talking about Bush or scoffing at this or that “donkey” thing so I thought it was Bush and the elephants I was supposed to like. I know I would have voted as such in something like this because I didn’t know any better at 6-8 years old, although I’m not finding the kids’ age ranges in this mock election. Anyway, I still didn’t know any better in junior high, I remember voting for Bush again in a 7th grade social studies poll on the 2004 elections. I recall the teacher saying even the results amongst one class were usually a pretty accurate reflection of the actual election results, right down to the goob who voted for Nader.

    It took me going to college in the purplest damn section of a pretty red state for me to come to terms with what I actually believed and felt about people and politics. Further education was definitely key, and intertwined with that, it opened me up to people. Just talking to people in an environment where you’re all on essentially the same operating level day to day is huge.

    My dad kept doing his thing in the small town where everyone knew everyone and somehow managed to sleep with everyone, too. He turned into a Trumper. I did my thing and I admit, it took me a lot of those four years of working on projects and getting pissed about loans together but really just enjoying life with a modestly diverse, pretty tolerant student body (still a lot of white raised-as-protestant types) to undo the damage of a conservatively skewed and Catholic childhood. But I can tell you that by 2014 I was annoyed at myself for not caring about the 2012 election, this first time I could vote. And you can guess I most certainly never even considered supporting Trump or any of the terrible things he represents when he suddenly-to-me showed up.

    Would it make any reasonable sense for my dad to go to college at his age? No, probably not. But how do we get people to “simply” live around and be exposed to more people with relatively little prejudice in social status?

    Do we just … Idk where I’m going with this I got high but wait just a tick here did I just reason myself into communism fuckityshit