Not the wisest decision to debate politics with your father-in-law in his house. According to my partner, he would have kicked me out if I wasn’t family.

Basically - very stubborn white man in his 60s. Travelled a lot in the Asia-Pacific for work most of his life.

I’m an Australian-born Chinese and I know NOW that nothing that comes out of my mouth will ever change his mind. I mean, he HAS said before that “China can never be trusted” so I have no idea why I thought I could have a sensible discussion with him.

He believes in the Tibet and HK crap. He believes NATO is a defensive alliance. He believes NATO is not led by the USA.

He believes the USA is not out to get Russia or China. He believes that Russia had no reason to invade Ukraine but that the USA was justified in being upset over Russian weapons in Cuba.

He believes that the USA, with their 800 military bases around the world, is merely “being prepared”, while China is stepping WAY out of line in the South China Sea.

He believes that the 2 main aggressors in the world are Russia and China. He believes the Australian mainstream media is telling the full truth and that independent journalists are crazy conspiracy theorists.

And because I challenged him on all the above, I’m apparently heading down a ‘dangerous’ path. You know the guy who shot tons of Muslims in New Zealand mosques a few years back? He actually used that as warning of how extreme I could become.

I give up. He can continue thinking that the white man is the noble saviour of the world. I’ll bet he strutted around Thailand, Indonesia and PNG feeling real good about himself.

I’ve learned that too many people just don’t have any room in their heads for a differing point of view or fact. They don’t WANT proof of this or that. Their truth gives them comfort. To challenge it would be to question their entire identity and would cause an existential crisis.

That’s why, to these people, the West MUST be the good guys.

The racism is deep-rooted. That’s at the bottom of it all.

  • Ratette (she/her)
    6•2 years ago

    Omg I typed out a whole example of Joe America and how his existence has being taken from him and replaced with suffering and nationalistic extremism to a system that does not benefit anyone but the rich but I accidentally deleted it before posting 😭 it was meant to be an example of how even the apparent “greatest country in the world” 🤮 intentionally sends its citizens into squalor but you’ll have to imagine it now hahaha.

    I’ve heard exactly that too! I again can’t remember which people for my sins but I have definitely heard that example.

      • Ratette (she/her)
        6•2 years ago

        Damn hearing it from the horses mouth really paints just how in decline America really is. I guess for a brit I never see the nitty gritty outside of propagandised city crime and poverty but hearing how entire towns just evaporated (if im catagorising that correctly) is kinda spooky vs their slow shambles into irrelevancy that takes place in Britain.

        Oooo will have a look now!

        Edit: damn american steel production just falls off a cliff.

          • Ratette (she/her)
            9•2 years ago

            That clip is just every ‘capitalism vs socialism’ meme but just the capitalist part.

            Fingers crossed that this continued decline kick-starts a big movement towards class solidarity and change 💪

            The North of England wasn’t the bombastic class war I think people assume. It was essentially the slow erasure of protections and workers rights both by the government and the corruption of the unions by the Labour aristocracy. For the most part I think a lot of it blindsided the working class as they weren’t educated enough to understand and organise themselves generally and relied on the unions who were already stabbing them in the back. We got a whimper vs a bang when people lost their jobs and livelihoods in the North. That combined with the more trained workers sliding into the new middle class through sheer luck also split the lumpen proletariat into pieces leaving everyone angry but lost.