Let me see if I can give a contrasting, though not conflicting, perspective. https://twitter.com/K_NoiseWaterMD/status/1324021257134837760

Most of y'all know I grew up a stone's throw from where I live, in a little flyspeck of an oil town called "Andrews." Andrews is a dark place; you must never go there. But it is *formative*. /2

It's conservative, in the sense of "allowing alcohol sales at stores in 2013, but only beer and wine, not the demon liquor." It's conservative as in the town's webpage used to boast about the number of churches. It's conservative... /3

in that those churches were STILL heavily racially segregated in the 1980s and 90s when I was growing up. We had precisely 1 man of color in our church, the Latino janitor (whose family did not attend church with us). And this was a mainline Protestant church! /4

It's also a heavily blue-collar town, with most workers (at the time) working in the oilfield. But not my mother and stepfather; they were schoolteachers, degreed professionals. /5

My maternal grandfather was an OLD-SCHOOL capital R Republican, from before the Southern realignment. His father's father's father was a KY private in the Confederacy, but after that, the entire family was heavily Republican. /6

They were dirt poor dirt farmers, but my grandfather, riding the GI Bill after his Purple Heart discharge from the military in WW2, went and got himself not only a fancy college degree, but one of them medical degrees, a DDS. /7

He chose Andrews, Texas, as his eventual home because they needed a dentist and he was young and capable. He parlayed a successful career as a dentist into an investor and property owner, and naturally, drifted to the conservative party. /8

But he refused to be a Democrat even when every other person of note in the down was a huge Dixiecrat. He was also unbelievably racist, but only in the abstract. He would fuss if, during one of his hospital stays, he had a black nurse, but... /9

One of his closest friends was the black husband of the black school librarian my grandmother (who ALSO had a college degree) taught with. Ask him about it, and he'd say "Oh, he's not one of the bad ones." /10

My grandfather's racism was PURELY a product of ignorance -- he had grown up being taught black people were nasty brutes and believed it unquestioningly; cases like his friend had to be aberrations. /11

Enter my stepfather; he was the child of a Native American man and a poor dirt farmer white woman, both of whom had grown up in the post-war FDR coalition. Until their dying day, they were the STAUNCHEST of Democrats and liberals. /12

My mother matured from reflexive rich-girl conservatism toward modest liberalism over the years, but my stepfather was always (and still is) a big liberal firebrand. Naturally, neither of them are too popular in my hometown. /13

Which, neither was I, because my political views were shaped in a large part by them. I grew up surrounded by the visible financial security my grandfather provided and my parents' dual-income, degreed-professional status afforded me. But they never let me forget it. /14

I have been acutely aware of my privilege since I was young, and, coupled with exposure to liberal and left-leaning beliefs since I was a child, my political leanings shouldn't come as a shock. /15

We have our disagreements, sure. I'm far enough left I got my guns back, and my parents are still anti-gun. They're all for a $15 minimum wage while I want to abolish wage labor and gulag landlords. /16

But growing up liberal/left in a small and conservative environment, the grandchild of an anti-populist Republican neoliberal, has had a weird effect on my perception of political ideology. If you suggest I might have a chipped shoulder, well... /17

You'd be right. I've told the story before of the time I pissed off the town and nearly got driven off by a torch-bearing mob, which has not helped things, but when they talk about "liberal tears," it's my tears they mean. /18

From about age 12-18, I was the town's outspoken liberal punching bag. My friends, their parents, random strangers in town, the local florist's adulterous jezebel of a wife, all of them felt free to take potshots at me for my beliefs. /19

On the plus side, I'm now and ornery cuss that'll take on anyone, but on the downside, I'm SUPER sensitive to perceived political dislike and what it entails, which, coupled with ye old autism spectrum, means I'm not super good at judging disagreement from danger. /20

I think I've got a pretty diverse ideological group of buddies online and off, and try to use that to remember to moderate myself, but I am always acutely sensitive to the idea that political disagreement can be a physical danger to me and mine. /21

I know I've told the story about being chased out of a small town BBQ restaurant because my wife is brown/black. So because we are left, and visibly so at that (we don't hide our support), because racism is an actual threat to us, we tend to be… sensitive. /22

Not sure where this ramble is going, but the stories people tell of why their political views were shaped and how that impacts how they live, especially in this polarized world, touches close to home for me. /23

Just know that if you're somewhere similar to me, you've got someone who understands, even if you're bigtime red in the heart of urban Seattle. I get it; I get your nerves, and I get why you worry about friends and family. /end