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How do you talk to relatives who are politically stupid?

Posted on 01/27/2018 10:37:14 AM PST by Krosan

My cousin is an anesthesiologist. I think she is really smart, but she works 13 hours every day and perhaps doesn't have time to think. She is saying the dumbest leftist things, but I know she is not a bad person.

Perhaps you guys have some pieces of advice on how to talk with your family when they've been fooled like that.


TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: chat; vanity
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To: Krosan

I use various versions of - Did someone tell you that or did you make it up all on your own?


41 posted on 01/27/2018 10:50:28 AM PST by mad_as_he$$
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To: dfwgator

I have found that it’s easiest and most productive to talk to some people at their funerals. :-P


42 posted on 01/27/2018 10:51:16 AM PST by Alberta's Child ("Go ahead, bite the Big Apple ... don't mind the maggots.")
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To: Krosan

Don’t take her seriously and don’t wear yourself out.
Tell her when she says something crazy..”that sounds kind of nutty”
And then quickly change the subjct..”are those new shoes you’re wearing?”


43 posted on 01/27/2018 10:52:07 AM PST by Leep (The dims better watch it..Trump is CRAZY!!)
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To: Krosan

When I see them, I assume a position far to the left of them. Damned weenie socialist can’t see we need full fledged communism in this country. It is a hoot watching them try to defend their position, as my position is everything they stand for, but more so!!


44 posted on 01/27/2018 10:52:08 AM PST by ArtDodger
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To: Krosan

You cannot change someone’s opinions with facts.
You must persuade them.
This is what successful showmen and magicians do.

So take some time and read Scott Adams’ blog.
January 24th is right to your order.
http://blog.dilbert.com/
Patience is a virtue.

He is the author of Dilbert and a very persuasive man.


45 posted on 01/27/2018 10:52:18 AM PST by IgnaciKat
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To: Alberta's Child

LOL, it’s pretty much just as effective.


46 posted on 01/27/2018 10:52:23 AM PST by dfwgator
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Before the election, Scott Adams wrote a column on how to de-hypnotize a rabid anti-Trumper. I read that column over and over (and even made a little cheat-sheet summary for myself) because I was making calls for Trump and had to talk to a lot of rabid anti-Trumpers. The strategies didn't always work,but they often did get people to at least pause and think.

I'm going to re-read it because I'll be at an even and people there are always making random anti-Trump comments. He gave ways to respond to specific Trump criticisms. Those may not be relevant now but the strategies could be adapted to the current Trump attacks.

http://blog.dilbert.com/2016/06/19/how-to-un-hypnotize-a-rabid-anti-trumper/

47 posted on 01/27/2018 10:53:41 AM PST by Kipp
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To: Robert DeLong

Should have said that she is living in Germany. She is finding faults in German medical system and these make sense to me (her main gripe is that surgeons send 85 year olds to heart surgery that is paid by the government and these 85 years olds die soon anyway), but then she is being friends with dirty leftist scum willing to condemn their individual positions, but not them as a whole. And she really works a lot so I suspect she hasn’t had time to think things through.


48 posted on 01/27/2018 10:53:52 AM PST by Krosan
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To: Krosan

How’s your 401k doing?


49 posted on 01/27/2018 10:54:41 AM PST by Uncle Miltie (Government: Another Gang that steals your money for "Protection".)
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To: Krosan

If she is working long hours like that then she most certainly is not doing any real research on her own and instead is getting talking points from others.

Here is what I do that I have found to be very effective when debating/engaging/conversing etc....

I take the time to point out the Treacherous Trio:

1. Confirmation Bias
2. Cognitive Dissonance
3. Motivated Reasoning

I let them know that I apply these constantly myself when doing my research.

Also, when I ask them a question, I do NOT allow them to deflect or obfuscate and will insist that they answer the question. You have to do this as it forces them to confront their bias.

Good luck!!


50 posted on 01/27/2018 10:55:04 AM PST by Jayster
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To: Krosan

I don’t talk politics nor religion with family. I found it safer that way.
Of my fourteen uncles and aunts there were only two who didn’t follow the democrats in their turn to the left.
I loved them too much to disown them so I just didn’t participate in political discussions with them. They were too invested in their loyalty to the democrats to have a rational debate.

I found the more educated they were the more irrational they are.
Most of my cousins are flat out liberals. Them I just avoid.


51 posted on 01/27/2018 10:55:39 AM PST by oldvirginian (Its for the children and kick the can down the road. Two phrases that make my trigger finger twitch.)
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To: Krosan

Hillary paid actual Russians to fabricate a dossier used by Obama to tap Trump’s phones.

So I agree, there is a Russian conspiracy angle.


52 posted on 01/27/2018 10:56:46 AM PST by Uncle Miltie (Government: Another Gang that steals your money for "Protection".)
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To: Krosan

Hillary paid actual Russians to fabricate a dossier used by Obama to tap Trump’s phones.

So I agree, there is a Russian conspiracy angle.


53 posted on 01/27/2018 10:56:47 AM PST by Uncle Miltie (Government: Another Gang that steals your money for "Protection".)
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To: Krosan

How do you talk to them? Seldom.


54 posted on 01/27/2018 10:56:48 AM PST by Beagle8U (Wake up and smell the Covfef)
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To: Krosan; ontap
My cousin Billy Jack has been a raging liberal all his life and I have known him all of my 70 years. He happily lives out in Loony Liberal La La Land on the Left Coast and in the past 10 years we have occasioned communicated via Facebook.

Or we do until he gets pissed off at my replies and then he goes off in a huff to never ever speak to me again--

Then later on he send me an e-mail asking that we talk again. That never last long as again I reply to his liberal BS with the truth and he storms off. So it goes: listen to his liberal rant, reply, then he huffs off to later asks me to talk again. Repeat, repeat, repeat--

So I guess I am the last one you need to ask.

55 posted on 01/27/2018 10:57:45 AM PST by Bender2 ("I've got a twisted sense of humor, and everything amuses me." RAH Beyond this Horizon)
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To: Krosan
"My cousin is an anesthesiologist."

Maybe she's been sampling some of the anesthesia she dispenses, and she's numbed her brain.

56 posted on 01/27/2018 10:58:50 AM PST by mass55th (Courage is being scared to death - but saddling up anyway...John Wayne)
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To: Krosan
Start by setting so ground rules.

1. No ridicule. (that stops half their arguments already).
2. Don't assume you know my position. Amazing how they take the lib lies on what conservatives think.
3. Remind them we can talk rationally. We talk fine on other subjects, and respect each other’s opinions.

Anyway, this is where I am right now talking to my step son (which believe it or not we are really tight with each other), but I have been avoiding politics with him because of the three comments above.

57 posted on 01/27/2018 10:59:50 AM PST by where's_the_Outrage? (Drain the Swamp. Build the Wall.)
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To: Krosan

“How do you talk to relatives who are politically stupid?”

Personally, I scream at them.

But seriously, your most important effort is to build credibility with anyone you engage in political conversations with.

The number one priority is to help them see that there is a battle being waged for control of their mind. They need to become critical thinkers.

That is really the main difference between most conservatives and most liberals.

Yes, there are thinking liberals who generally have to do mental gymnastics to arrive at their crazy conclusions. And yes, there are conservatives who do not really understand their own ideology. But generally, I find that conservatives think and liberals emote.

As a result, it is often best to logically show a liberal how their emotion-based objectives can only be reached by conservative policies and actions.

For example, the news will tell their audience that conservatives want women to be abused, and they want children to work in sweat shops and have no education. In other words, liberals claim to be for women and children. In actuality, womanhood, and motherhood particularly, are despised within liberalism. The idea of a woman becoming a mother and rearing her children is despised. That’s what liberals consider public education to be for. And liberalism is completely anti-children. Not just in terms of feminism. In terms of population control, abortion, adoption, etc.


58 posted on 01/27/2018 11:00:59 AM PST by unlearner (You will never come to know that which you do not know until you first know that you do not know it.)
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To: Krosan

One thing to remember about anyone who has been to medical school. They were taught ethics based on Utilitarian Philosophy (see Peter Singer).

You can make a very logical argument but if they at their core accept immoral premises you have a battle of axioms on your hands.


59 posted on 01/27/2018 11:01:28 AM PST by Varda (Liberalism IS hate)
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To: Krosan

Ask questions, offer no answers unless asked. If asked, one sentence answer only.


60 posted on 01/27/2018 11:01:51 AM PST by freedomjusticeruleoflaw (Western Civilization- whisper the words, and it will disappear. So let us talk now about rebirth)
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