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Last year my Jewish grandmother spent hours begging me not to move to Berlin because she still associates it with Nazism, and then this week she called to tell me she’s glad that unidentified government agents are kidnapping protestors because the protestors are subhuman scum.
Not great, folks!
We also had a pretty amazing conversation about taking down Confederate statues, where somehow walked herself into a scenario where she said she would not agree with tearing down statues of Osama bin Laden and Hitler if they were erected in her neighborhood.
“I wouldn’t vote to put them up, but if you wanted to take them down, there should be a referendum on a ballot.”
Again, this is in reference to having statues of Osama bin Laden and Adolf Hitler in West Hollywood, CA.
Honestly, the roughest part of this is that she doesn’t have any visible cognitive decline.
She is totally lucid and thoughtful and intelligent, she also totally shuts off the critical thinking part of her brain when it comes to her Fox News talking points.
She is totally lucid and thoughtful and intelligent, she also totally shuts off the critical thinking part of her brain when it comes to her Fox News talking points.
The statue convo was clearly uncomfortable for her, she KNOWS it’s an absolutely ridiculous position to take.
But she also knows that ceding any ground whatsoever in that argument threatens her core beliefs and identity, and she would rather sound ridiculous.
But she also knows that ceding any ground whatsoever in that argument threatens her core beliefs and identity, and she would rather sound ridiculous.
I’m reminded of the time Trump threatened to bomb Iran’s cultural sites.
My grandmother is a massive history & culture lover, the idea of bombing cultural sites was an anathema to her, and I could tell that having to handle such a wild disconnect was literally painful.
My grandmother is a massive history & culture lover, the idea of bombing cultural sites was an anathema to her, and I could tell that having to handle such a wild disconnect was literally painful.
She finally landed on the idea that “I don’t like that he’s threatening that, but like me, he’s a lover of history, so I’m sure he won’t do it - and anyway, Obama sent Iran $100 billion so ISIS could destroy statues, and that’s much worse”, and immediately her brow unfurled.
Last one:
During the Obama admin, my grandma would go on long rants about how chain migration is destroying this country because anyone can bring along their entire family and flood the US with immigrants...
During the Obama admin, my grandma would go on long rants about how chain migration is destroying this country because anyone can bring along their entire family and flood the US with immigrants...
In 1992, me, my mom, my dad, his brother, both of my dad’s parents, my dad’s grandmother, and both of my mom’s parents came to America because my grandmother’s sister had been living here since 1985 and was able to chain migrate us here as soon as she got her citizenship.
Her sister literally made it possible for every single member of my family to move to the US at the same time.
When pressed on this point she said, “When you add sugar to tea, if you add a little, it’s better, if you add too much, it ruins it.”
When pressed on this point she said, “When you add sugar to tea, if you add a little, it’s better, if you add too much, it ruins it.”
