What in the hell does "family values" mean?

[SHRED]

We stopped into the visitor's center up here in Palmer, AK. The lady was nice enough and said this town has strong family values.

We talked about it later kind of scratching our heads not knowing what she meant.

[JI7]

1. usually it means "i hate gays"

[Rex]

11. +1

[AgingAmerican]

16. Yep, and abortion

[Press Virginia]

2. It's kind of loose term

Generally it's the way people are taught about traditional gender roles, culture, morality etc

IOWs Christian....likely fundamentalist.

[Gman]

3. It means crying babies and unsupervised kids running around and screaming

[Populist_Prole]

37. Pretty good working definition...

...Now that I think about it.

[SHRED]

4. Next time someone says that...

...I'm gonna ask them what they mean.

..

[TexasBushwhacker]

5. It means they only value certain kinds of families n/t

[egduj]

6. I don't recall ever hearing that term without the word "christian" preceding it.

[Wounded Bear]

7. Well, what it doesn't seem to mean at all...

at least to the RW fundamentalist types, are things like:

1. Good paying jobs
2. Health care affordability
3. Good public schools

etc, etc. None of that matters, only the god, guns, gays shit matters.

[Skittles]

8. for starters, white, married, heterosexual, Christian

all else need not apply

[trackfan]

9. "Votes Republican",

and is dead set against them folks in bad old New York and L.A. who take their clothes off in the the-A-ter plays and movie shows.

[ladjf]

10. Code words that means support the religious right, racism and the

out of control capitalist segment and to an extant be a Republican.

[Behind the Aegis]

12. Basically, it means "Queers Beware! Locked and loaded!"

It also can mean, "We have our eyes on you Jews, Muslims, atheists, Buddhists, pagans, and other non-Christians (even some Christians)."

The true meaning, is almost always, "a small, exclusive group has already established barriers to keep out or make life uncomfortable, if not downright dangerous, for anyone not conforming to our values, which may change upon our whim or our needs."

[libodem]

13. Biblically

The man is the head of the family and the wife is subservient to the will of the man because he's supposed to be prayerful and wise, The wife is not supposed to me a smart ass so,the man doesn't have to smack her around but if he does her can refer to St. Thomas Aquina's, rule of thumb, where he wrote that the man shouldn't beat his wife with a switch any bigger than his thumb.

[Zambero]

14. It's a structural concept

One working man in charge, one woman home in the kitchen, kids home schooled, gays bad, birth control bad, abortion always bad no matter what, family leave is social engineering, etc, etc. Nothing about a living wage that would keep the family out of poverty.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

15. Let's see......

1. You better go to church
2. You better not invite any queers here
3. If you must invite Blacks and other coloreds, they better leave town by sundown
4. You can vote for whomever you want, as long as they are Republican.

[Warpy]

17. I had a lot of cheap laughs back in the 90s

when I'd ask ranting right wing wankers to tell me what those values were since as a Democrat, I didn't have any of them.

They usually had to reboot and I made a clean getaway, giggling the whole time.

[SeattleVet]

18. Wide open to interpretation...

it really depends on the family they mean.

I mean, they never really let on as to whether are they taking about the Trump family, the Obama family, or the Manson family. I assume that each would have a different set of 'family values'.

[Major Nikon]

19. It's right wing codespeak for "fuck everyone who doesn't look and act like we envision ourselves"

Kinda like "states' rights" is codespeak for "fuck everyone who isn't white and Christian"

[dembotoz]

20. wish it meant group discounts at the buffet....but alas it don't

i usually interpret it as someone looking down on me cause i am falling short in some way

[gollygee]

21. It has absolutely become a dog whistle for "anti gay" n/t

[Iggo]

22. It means "Well, bless your heart."

[meow2u3]

23. It's a sexist dog whistle

When repukes say "family values", they really mean legally sanctioned discrimination against women, or at least that's what it meant before the rise of LGBT rights.

[TrappedInUtah]

24. It means traditional conservative values

Family really has nothing to do with it.
IE
The man works and the woman tends to the kids.
Hating gays, counterculture types and generally anybody who doesn't conform to social norms.
Tough anti-drug laws.
Bashing the homeless, needy and generally anybody less fortunate. (they're lazy and deserve to suffer)
And so on.

[RB TexLa]

25. It means we are to pander to everything people with childen want

because they deserve and are the only people who matter.

[Jester Messiah]

26. They'll justify all manner of bigotry and oppression in the name of "the children." n/t

[maxrandb]

27. White Male Privilege n/t

[HughBeaumont]

28. One or many of these code words:

Their word = What they really mean by it.

"Entitlements" = "Why should I have to pay for Sheniqua and her nine crack babies???/?"
"Values" = "What We Learnt Bein' White n Heterosexual . . . you know, NORMAL!"
"Freedom" = "I can be as big of an uncaring asshole as I want cuz I'm a WHITE MURKIN!"
"Conservative" = "The Way Things OUGHTA Be, Commie."
"Some Say . . . " = "Normal America thinks . . . "
"Democrat Party" = "Buncha pansy, sissy Ni**er-lovin COMMIES!"
"Austerity" = "Whatever it means, I won't be hurt by it. The Welfare recipients will!"
"Job Creators" = "True Hard Working Americans who I hope to BE PART OF someday!"
"We Built It" = "We Built It"
"Welfare Queen" = &quot Insert racial, ethnic or gender slur here)s"
"Statist/Marxist/Socialist/Socialism" = "All Democrats"
"Playing the Race Card" = "Why don't we have a WHIIIIIITE ENTERTAINMENT CHANNEL???"
"Right To Work" = "Whatever it means, I won't be hurt by it!"
"Liberty" = "FREEDOM!! Well, except for the gays, women and (insert racial slur here)s"
"Founding Fathers" = "Founding Christians"
"ACLU" = "FUCKING CORNHOLING DEMUCRAPS!!!!1!!!"
"Nanny State" = "Murka should just be a free for all!! Hey Shitter, watch me jump this fence with my jet ski . . ."
"Fiscal Conservative" = "More War, Less (insert racial slur here) welfare!"
"Class Warfare" = "LEAVE THE RICH ALOOOOOOOOOONE!!"
"Real America" = "Not the (Insert racial, ethnic or gender slur here)s"
"We're going to take this country back" = "I'm going to take me a gun and kill all the (Insert racial, ethnic or gender slur here)s I seeeeee . . . "
"Make America Great Again" = (see "We're going to take this country back" above)
"Feminazi" = "Git in the kitchen whur you belong, stupid!"
"Religious Freedom" = "Why CAN'T that Chick Filet guy tell it like it is about the homos without all these libs runnin' their yaps?"
"Small Government" = "Reagan, the Greatest Preznit Next to Bush!"
"PC" = "I should be allowed to say '(insert racial slur here)', '(insert homophobic slur here)', '(insert ethnic slur here)' or '(insert sexist slur here)' without these libs runnin their big fat YAPPERS about it!"
"Bernie Sanders" = "Fascist Statist Socialist Commie raisin"

[Different Drummer]

36. +1,000. n/t

[Initech]

29. It means "we get the right to discriminate against anyone not like us".

[TrappedInUtah]

30. For the children of course

We can't let the kids see no dirty hippies, gays, transexuals or people of different colors. Our daughters might wanna marry some darkie or run off to be a porn actress. We also can't have no gosh darn abortion, but once the babies are born we want nothin ta do withem. If that teen mom can't afford to support her baby she should just starve. No welfare queens!! Minimum wage? Screw that commie trash. Abolish min wage and we can have our own sweatshops and compete with China.

-A typical Trump supporter

[Initech]

34. Yup! And it's always about the daughters.

The fundies will do anything to protect their wombs and fetuses. But couldn't care less about the woman who owns said womb and fetus. Doesn't matter if the sons are more likely to commit the sex crimes or not *COUGH* Josh Duggar *COUGH*. They not only go out of their way to protect the male sex offenders if they pass the religious test, it's almost like they get a "get out of jail free" card.

[cherokeeprogressive]

31. You should have asked her. nt

[SHRED]

39. Yep...

...however she was speaking to my wife and I was across the room and barely heard it much less the context which I found out later it was kind of "out of blue".

Oh believe me, if I'm ever addressed like this I'll calmly ask this, "Ya know, I've heard this term "family values" for a good portion of my life and I honestly don't know what it means. Would you explain it to me?".

[Blue Dalek]

32. Hate and intolerance

I have always wanted to know when hate and intolerance became family values?

[Johonny]

33. The point is for you to fill in the meaning

many empty political phrases work that way. A candidate tells you he's for family values and if that phrases clicks with you then you assume he has the same family values as you without him ever needing to detail his values which might, of course, be at odds with yours. There are many empty phrases in politics that work this way. The big one right now is conservative values. The GOP spent months weeding out candidates because they didn't have enough conservative values, but never were these values actually stated.

[Different Drummer]

35. It Means The Following:

1. No gays here. If they show up, we kill them.

2. No racial minorities here, except American Indian/Alaskan natives, and we only allow those because they're indigenous.

3. No Democrats here. They get killed, too.

4. No one who isn't a fundamentalist Christian is allowed here.

The meaning of the town having "strong family values" is, by no means, limited to the above.

[edbermac]

38. Addams Family Values