I need help figuring out how to educate my Stepfather on progressive causes. HELP!!!

[scubadude]

My Stepfather is receiving, and reading, and donating, to a great number of Hate mail sites. He regularly gets mail from groups like Freedom watch and the rest. Yesterday he sent money to 7 of them.

If I try to discuss it with him rationally, he spews out the lines he is receiving no problem. He is totally controlled by the wingnuts. The only thing he seems to get info from is the US mail.

I am struggling finding out how to get on progressive mail lists. Does anyone know how I can get some progressive mail coming into the house?

Thanks,

Scubadude

[Warpy]

1. This is Not. Your. Job.

Educating parents and stepparents is impossible because it goes completely against the parent-child dynamic. You're going to have to agree to disagree and back off. He doesn't get to spew at you and you won't try to "educate" him, the gate swings both ways. This is the only way you can continue to tolerate each other.

You're going to have to let go of this one and hope either the cognitive dissonance gets too painful or someone not related to him gets through to him.

I know how frustrating it is, my own dad was a right winger who called me a commie when I was growing up. We agreed to disagree when I was 20 and that allowed us to stay in touch until his death a few years ago. I miss him.

Eventually he did come around, his last vote was for Kerry in 2004 and he died a religious unbeliever, unafraid of judgment or hell. I couldn't be the one to bring him around, though, and understanding that allowed me to have my dad.

[scubadude]

2. My stepdad seems somewhat open.

I think he just needs to see things in print. That is the dilemma, getting things to him in the mail, even if they are in my name. Unfortunately, I am not in the position to donate money, which I know would get the ball rolling.

So, how to get liberal mail to be sent to myself without making donations. That is the goal.


Scubadude

[sinkingfeeling]

3. Buy him a subscription to 'The Nation'.

[EC]

4. When he starts spewing ask him exactly what he means.

Yesterday there was a piece on some show (can't recall) about if you ask people to explain what they are angry about, they usually can't and calm down.

[CBHagman]

5. I'm not counseling you to try change his mind, but...

...I'd say finding common ground is helpful here. Find a role model, a historical figure, etc., for whom you share admiration, or a few topics on which you already agree.

I'm moving more and more away from thinking I'm going to sway someone and towards striving to be respectful and open-minded. A lot of us have relatives who don't share our points of view, but we still have to live through family gatherings!

Me, I'm biased towards classic movies as a shared experience. If Spencer Tracy could be a Republican and talk about health care affordability in State of the Union, that tells you a lot about how public discourse has been hijacked. Make no mistake; there were powerful corporations and racists and worse back in the day, but a lot of the basics we can all agree on -- fair wages, a secure retirement, etc.

[ZRT2209]

6. The Progressive Revolution, book or audiobook, by Michael Lux

He writes: "Progressives invented the American ideal and inspired the American Revolution. Conservatives, then known as Tories, opposed it. Since then, every major advancement in American freedom, democracy, social justice, and economic opportunity has been fostered, fought for, and won by progressives against conservative resistance. Now who's anti-American?"

History is not linear. It is not gradual or evolutionary. Human progress proceeds in fits and starts like a volcano, where pressure gradually builds over years and then erupts with enormous power.

Very often those explosions of progress - periods when we expand the realm of democratic values, human dignity, economic opportunity and optimism -- are precipitated by periods of domination by the forces of privilege, inequality and selfishness.

By assuring that all of the fruits of the growth of productivity in our economy went to the wealthiest 2% of our population, the Bush Administration set the stage for the current economic collapse.

...

Lux's study also makes something else absolutely clear. In American history, the pendulum has not swung inevitably back and forth between conservative and progressive periods with some form of historic equivalency. Instead, the changes emerging from periods of progressive success, once made, remain a permanent feature of our society.