Languish.org

 :frog:

My family is uniformly conservative/GOP.  Extending out to aunts, uncles, and cousins I can only think of one person (a cousin) who is not.  And he's too chicken shit to ever tell you what he's in favor of, he just bitches about those on the right.

Quote from: derspiess on March 13, 2014, 08:59:18 AM
And he's too chicken shit to ever tell you what he's in favor of, he just bitches about those on the right.

Maybe he doesn't have anybody who represents him.  There are, after all, only two choices and they both are pretty horrible.

If I go out to cousins and uncles we have everything from insane Jesus freaks to crazy commies.  In my nuclear family I am one of the right wingers, me and my dad are probably the only two who have ever voted for Republicans.

Family are mostly social democrats. I'm more liberal (in the classical sense) and hawkish on defence and foreign relations.

My dad is a peacenik commie, my mom is maybe a Blue Dog. 

Never discuss politics with my brother or sister.

Around here, we don't separate on a left-right divide but a Separatist-Federalist divide.

My family is historically federalist, I am much more ambivalent on the question.

I used to be the most leftwing in my family. Now, evidence suggests I am the most moderate after my stepfather's conversion to the Labour Party. I'm not member of any party any longer. I sympathise with and vote Labour most of the time, but the liberal party Venstre is also a party I have voted for.
I think I may be the only one in my extended family still harbouring any hope and wish for a Norwegian EU membership, although that's not a left-right divide only.

I support the Kaiser.

I also used to be the most lefty and now I'm the most moderate. My parents are both left and moving further left as they age.

But I think one of my brothers is Ukip and the other's probably a Tory.

Hard to say. At one time, I would have said my family is mostly made up of democrats - however, since the older generation has died off, more and more relatives are popping out of the woodwork as republicans.

Quote from: Valmy on March 13, 2014, 09:02:31 AM
Maybe he doesn't have anybody who represents him.  There are, after all, only two choices and they both are pretty horrible.

I'm pretty sure he's a left-wing Obama-ite Democrat.  When you're 100% critical of one side and 0% of the other, it's not too hard to connect the dots.  He's a steadfast atheist & sci-fi nerd, plus he works for NASA.  He'd be a perfect fit for Languish, now that I think of it.

Quote from: derspiess on March 13, 2014, 09:42:38 AM
I'm pretty sure he's a left-wing Obama-ite Democrat.  When you're 100% critical of one side and 0% of the other, it's not too hard to connect the dots.  He's a steadfast atheist & sci-fi nerd, plus he works for NASA.  He'd be a perfect fit for Languish, now that I think of it.

Well if you only hang out with Republicans chances are you will spend most of your time being critical of them.  If I do something stupid and go talk politics on NCAA football sites it does not take me long to get labeled as a far left hater of America and God, or on a computer game site where I quickly get labeled as a reactionary Nazi who gains strength from every injustice in the world.

We rarely talk politics.

Quote from: Valmy on March 13, 2014, 09:45:06 AM

Quote from: derspiess on March 13, 2014, 09:42:38 AM
I'm pretty sure he's a left-wing Obama-ite Democrat.  When you're 100% critical of one side and 0% of the other, it's not too hard to connect the dots.  He's a steadfast atheist & sci-fi nerd, plus he works for NASA.  He'd be a perfect fit for Languish, now that I think of it.

Well if you only hang out with Republicans chances are you will spend most of your time being critical of them.  If I do something stupid and go talk politics on NCAA football sites it does not take me long to get labeled as a far left hater of America and God, or on a computer game site where I quickly get labeled as a reactionary Nazi who gains strength from every injustice in the world.

:hmm:

Being a democrat is mandatory in SF and little time is spend discussing the failures of democrats.

Quote from: garbon on March 13, 2014, 09:46:28 AM
:hmm:

Being a democrat is mandatory in SF and little time is spend discussing the failures of democrats.

I guess I should have qualified that with the caveat that you have big issues with both parties to the point you will complain about them.  Or just said that is how things work for me.

Quote from: Valmy on March 13, 2014, 09:45:06 AM
Well if you only hang out with Republicans chances are you will spend most of your time being critical of them.  If I do something stupid and go talk politics on NCAA football sites it does not take me long to get labeled as a far left hater of America and God, or on a computer game site where I quickly get labeled as a reactionary Nazi who gains strength from every injustice in the world.

I think it's more of a rebellion against dad thing in his case.  My uncle is a retired CIA guy who keeps the channel locked to Fox News all day long.  These days I don't think he spends a lot of time around Republicans.

Quote from: Valmy on March 13, 2014, 09:45:06 AM
or on a computer game site where I quickly get labeled as a reactionary Nazi who gains strength from every injustice in the world.

Funny, you don't get labeled that here...

Quote from: Peter Wiggin on March 13, 2014, 09:52:41 AM

Quote from: Valmy on March 13, 2014, 09:45:06 AM
or on a computer game site where I quickly get labeled as a reactionary Nazi who gains strength from every injustice in the world.

Funny, you don't get labeled that here...

Well we also talk a lot of NCAA football here.  It all balances out.

Quote from: Peter Wiggin on March 13, 2014, 09:52:41 AM

Quote from: Valmy on March 13, 2014, 09:45:06 AM
or on a computer game site where I quickly get labeled as a reactionary Nazi who gains strength from every injustice in the world.

Funny, you don't get labeled that here...

Yeah, that's my role :contract:

But you probably don't get labeled a commie on the football boards. Or anywhere.

Quote from: Peter Wiggin on March 13, 2014, 10:39:29 AM
But you probably don't get labeled a commie on the football boards. Or anywhere.

Oh for godsake mr. literal.

Thing is, most computer gaming sites you could probably be labeled a Nazi *and* a communist. Languish just has a long history of adversarial centrists beating down on everyone.  ;)

I have one uncle who is a leftie and so are his kids' families. His son has worked some fairly high-profile jobs in Illinois politics and also Washington. That's my uncle, aunt, two of my cousins and me.

The entire rest of the family are all way to the right, and we're talking like 50-75 people. So I'm dramatically outnumbered.

You consider yourself a leftie?

I've always thought of you as the quintessential swing voter centrist.

Well, compared to my family I'm a commie.  :P

Quote from: derspiess on March 13, 2014, 09:51:30 AM

Quote from: Valmy on March 13, 2014, 09:45:06 AM
Well if you only hang out with Republicans chances are you will spend most of your time being critical of them.  If I do something stupid and go talk politics on NCAA football sites it does not take me long to get labeled as a far left hater of America and God, or on a computer game site where I quickly get labeled as a reactionary Nazi who gains strength from every injustice in the world.

I think it's more of a rebellion against dad thing in his case.  My uncle is a retired CIA guy who keeps the channel locked to Fox News all day long.  These days I don't think he spends a lot of time around Republicans.

If that's the modus operati for CIA guys, then it's no wonder our intelligence operations are always a step behind.

My Führerprinzip doesn't allow deviant political views in my family.

Outlier in that I'm allowed to have a political opinion. Most of my family would likely be considered right-wing if you took their beliefs, although extreme pacifism and condemnation of wealth don't really fit that.

Quote from: Razgovory on March 13, 2014, 12:00:28 PM
If that's the modus operati for CIA guys, then it's no wonder our intelligence operations are always a step behind.

Well if our intelligence operations were run by retired CIA guys, then yeah-- we'd be in trouble.

Anyway, he was a gadget guy, not a field agent or analyst.  We sometimes call him "Uncle Q".

Quote from: derspiess on March 13, 2014, 12:23:42 PM
Anyway, he was a gadget guy, not a field agent or analyst.  We sometimes call him "Uncle Q".

:lol:

Man your family is cooler than mine :(

I've got a bunch of left-wingers, even in a European context, on the European side of the family. The Canadian side is maybe medium-right in Canadian context.

Of course, as mentioned previously, I also have one of the leading public intellectuals (and retired political leaders) of the populist anti-immigrant party in Denmark in my family.

So it sort of ranges across the board.

I moved my entire family from being social democrats in 1989 to being classical liberals by 1999.

Did you sit on them?

On my Mom's side the family is mostly conservative.  My Grandfather was a registered Democrat who always voted (from 1948 on) as a Republican.

On my Dad's side they were Northeastern Republicans, most of whom would be labeled as far-leftists by the Cruzites today.

Now there is a nice mix of far right, center, and lefties.  It is fun at a family reunion.

I loathe my brother talking politics. Because he sounds like newsmax.com. And he won't shut up about it. I do love it when he falls for a reposted Sorcha Faal story.

Other brother just trolls and switches his arguments for the laughs.

My father and mother are fairly centrist, but my sister is a member of the teacher's union.  My brother is apolitical.  I'm also fairly centrist, but with certain eccentricities.

My father is just pretty much a contrarian, and definitely enjoys trolling.  Claims to have last voted for the Libertarian candidate in 1972, then not voted again until 2004 when the Iraq War riled him up enough to hold his nose and vote Kerry; sat out 2008 cause he hated Palin too much; voted for Romney in 2012 against the "socialist" Obama.  I would say he's pretty much a centrist, of the "they're all morons" school.

He's completely repelled by Bible-thumping or really social conservatives generally.  In favor of gay marriage; not a homophobe, not really an "ally" either -- maybe a little smirky about gay stuff -- but I did watch him take an admirable public stand (in the lounge of a gun club) telling off one of his semi-drunk buddies who was going on about how it was disgusting, he'd never let a son of his be gay, etc.  Pro-choice.  Gun enthusiast, but resigned from the NRA in disgust after their response to Sandy Hook.  Has a lot of anti-Chinese sentiment; "fuckin' Chinese, they're coming for us" was his standard analysis of the past decade.  Very isolationist in foreign policy; thinks the Israelis are a bunch of "fucking nutjobs" and should be given some land in Idaho or Montana "with all the other psychos" to solve the Israel-Palestine problem.

Actually, now that I describe it, he sounds like a good candidate for Languish.  :hmm:  I'm to his left and we troll each other; I take the bait a lot easier than he does.

EDIT: Oh yeah, and he really enjoys watching Pat Buchanan; since Pat's the only major US politician I know of with "an opinion" about the Holocaust, I guess that's kind of unconventional.

Mom was a Goldwater Girl, and Dad was a double Nixonian with cheese.  Both voted Reagan and Dad voted for Poppy Bush twice (Mom didn't, she's hated Bush since '80), but over time, disillusionment set in with the GOP;  Mom, who is vehemently pro-choice to the point of making Molotovs, and Dad doesn't really dig on the rich and has hated the influence of the megachurches that started in the '80s. 

I don't think either one's voted GOP since 1992.  Dad would've voted McCain in '08, but he lost him by choosing Palin.

I like CdM's dad.  Nixon.

Both mom and dad were PC back in the day (as was extended family on both sides).  PC being Progressive Conservative.

In my teens I was massively political (Reform!!!) and I think I swayed many of them that way (not that it was that tough - look at where politics have gone).  The exception has been my mom - she was a teacher before us kids were born (in the 70s you didn't need much), went back to school and got her degree when I was a kid (which I admire the hell out of her for), but then sadly fell in for the Teachers Union line and is a pretty reliable Liberal for the most part.

I wish I had some amusing stories about political differences, but nothing really.  My mom will get upset at my uncle (dad's sister's husband) who will spout vaguely racist lines at family events, but I don't know how much of that is true vs, well, "trolling" (not that the term existed for when he started doing it).

Mrs B is interesting.  I think her instincts are largely the same as mine.  But she was also the local union president of the government employee union in the Yukon.  Not because she was a huge ideologue about unions, but she was asked to do it, and she did believe in standing up for her fellow workers.  But she's not very political.  I do insist that she come vote with me, but I'd never presume to tell her who to vote for.  So sometimes it is the same as me (last Federal election), sometimes we go out and cancel each other's votes (last provincial election).

What did you think of the last provincial election, Beeb?

To right of my Mother.
My dad never really talks politics except to yell at everyone in Washington.

My family support labour, for obvious reasons, though my dad sometimes sounds more BNP, though I know he doesn't mean it, he's thoroughly apolitical and just grunts what the Sun tells him to grunt. My mother has some conservative in her, but given her age and her job she's as left wing as you could expect, has always been pro-equality.
I think I'm somewhat to the left of my parents, though given they're already pretty much live and let live people that's pretty tough to guage.
My sister doesn't have a clue what politics is.

My wife is very apolitical, carrying over her cynicism/ambivalence from her native land.  If you force her to state an opinion, she's pretty hardcore libertarian on just about everything.  And obviously she votes strictly derspiessian :)

Ten years ago, this thread would have read differently, I am sure.

Either we're all getting more centrist with age, or the fringes have turned even more idiotic than before.

My mom's stepdad, my grandfather, is a diehard Republican and extremely patriotic.  He's not religious at all, but he's enough of a party man to stick with the Republicans even as they took on strong fundamentalist Christian wing in the 90s.  He's young enough that Reagan was the definitive Republican president for him, even though he was well into middle age at that point.  My granddad is an emotional guy, and I think Reagan's must have just resonated with him much more deeply than the Republican presidents of his era -- Eisenhower and Nixon.  He's only an outlier in that he is not religious at all, and doesn't care too much about "social conservative" issues, although he's generally a reactionary; I think he's pro-choice (if only because he is anti-"welfare mothers"), but he's definitely not in favor of gay marriage.

The house was pretty much located at one of the main places Hurricane Sandy made landfall, so it got wiped out badly, but he had a great sense for patriotic/political kitsch.  The US and Marine Corps flags are always flying from the house.  A huge oil painting of John Wayne, c. Rio Bravo, and a big framed photograph of Ronald Reagan (first-term inaugural) were the main decorative features of the living room (along with NY Giants stuff).  He had, in one tiny bathroom alone: a framed letter acknowledging his work for the 1960 Nixon campaign; a framed letter from Barry Goldwater thanking him for his support for the RNC c. early 70s I think; and a watercolor of a smiling Ronald Reagan painted on top of the cover of a November 5, 1980 copy of the WSJ (no photos to get in the way).

Sounds like a cool dude :D

I consider myself a Reagan Republican and I was too young to ever vote for him.

Quote from: derspiess on March 14, 2014, 09:47:33 AM
Sounds like a cool dude :D

I consider myself a Reagan Republican and I was too young to ever vote for him.

I voted for him in my second grade class in 1984.  Mondale won in landslide I think I was one of two 7 year olds to vote for the Gipper.

Quote from: derspiess on March 14, 2014, 09:47:33 AM
Sounds like a cool dude :D

Yeah, I might label him a "derspiess Republican." :P  Loyal to his political party, come what may.  Not particularly thrilled to see Republicans get all worked-up about a bunch of hot-button social issues, but isn't going to let that get in the way of supporting them.  Always substantially too far to the right to have been a Rockefeller Republican, but also not a Tea Partier.  Loathes Obama for being a commie, but couldn't care less about "birther" stuff.

He's probably more of a party man than you, though.  I don't remember if or where they still have this option, but he was proud to have voted in every election by just pulling the 'Republican' lever and walking out of the booth.

Also, I doubt he personally cares very much about gun control, being from New York City and never owning a gun.  But he certainly opposes it if the Democrats are in favor of it.  He's extremely pro-military, but pretty much takes his cues on which American military endeavors are good or bad based on what the Republican line is and/or whether a Republican is in office.

I didn't know Archie Bunker came in the Jew flavor.  :hmm:

Quote from: Valmy on March 14, 2014, 09:49:15 AM
I voted for him in my second grade class in 1984.  Mondale won in landslide I think I was one of two 7 year olds to vote for the Gipper.

We had that too.  :lol:

The whole elementary school had an election. The kids voted in Reagan with an 80% majority and the teachers voted Mondale by about the same margin.  :P

Quote from: Valmy on March 14, 2014, 09:49:15 AM

Quote from: derspiess on March 14, 2014, 09:47:33 AM
Sounds like a cool dude :D

I consider myself a Reagan Republican and I was too young to ever vote for him.

I voted for him in my second grade class in 1984.  Mondale won in landslide I think I was one of two 7 year olds to vote for the Gipper.

I did that, too.  Reagan won in our school by a landslide-- I bet that pissed off our teachers.

Quote from: derspiess on March 14, 2014, 01:03:55 PM
I did that, too.  Reagan won in our school by a landslide-- I bet that pissed off our teachers.

For some reason the kids around me were all convinced that if Reagan won we would all be destroyed by nuclear war.  That would have ruined recess.

Quote from: Peter Wiggin on March 13, 2014, 08:43:01 AM
:frog:

On my mother's side, they ain't very much into politics.  My uncle and my aunt are ex-teachers, so they hate the PQ with a passion for their 20% cuts in the 80s.  Their children lean toward my positions but usually don't vote for the same party as I do because of different measures that could potentially affect them.

On my father's side, they mostly lean toward the left, pro-PQ. Exceptions: my two male cousins, my dad and I.

Quote from: Capetan Mihali on March 14, 2014, 10:20:33 AM
He's probably more of a party man than you, though.  I don't remember if or where they still have this option, but he was proud to have voted in every election by just pulling the 'Republican' lever and walking out of the booth.

I try to avoid voting a straight GOP ticket if I can.  Occasionally I find a Democrat candidate I like for some local election.  More often than that, though, I may do a protest vote for a Libertarian-- particularly when the race isn't very close.

Quote from: Valmy on March 14, 2014, 01:07:11 PM
For some reason the kids around me were all convinced that if Reagan won we would all be destroyed by nuclear war.  That would have ruined recess.

IIRC, almost every kid I remember idolized Reagan to some degree.  Notable exception was my best friend, whose dad was a die-hard Democrat.  We got in arguments over Reagan all the time until I just decided not to talk politics with him.  He started out 1992 as a Paul Tsongas supporter and volunteered to help in his primary campaign.  Then voted for Clinton in the general election.  Then at some point in 1993 he became throroughly disgusted with Clinton and became a dittohead. 

Quote from: derspiess on March 14, 2014, 01:19:08 PM
Then at some point in 1993 he became throroughly disgusted with Clinton and became a dittohead. 

If he was disgusted with Clinton I would hate to imagine what he thinks of the last two guys.

I'm pretty sure the kids were just voting what their parents said.

This was exurban, far western Monroe County NY in my case.

Quote from: Valmy on March 14, 2014, 01:20:39 PM
If he was disgusted with Clinton I would hate to imagine what he thinks of the last two guys.

He'd rather have Clinton back.  He was a huge Dubya supporter but mellowed toward the end.  He dislikes the current president so much he decided it's best for everyone if he avoids discussing him.

Quote from: MadImmortalMan on March 14, 2014, 01:24:08 PM
I'm pretty sure the kids were just voting what their parents said.

Yeah Austin is and was a Democratic stronghold.

Quote from: derspiess on March 14, 2014, 01:11:33 PM

Quote from: Capetan Mihali on March 14, 2014, 10:20:33 AM
He's probably more of a party man than you, though.  I don't remember if or where they still have this option, but he was proud to have voted in every election by just pulling the 'Republican' lever and walking out of the booth.

I try to avoid voting a straight GOP ticket if I can.  Occasionally I find a Democrat candidate I like for some local election.  More often than that, though, I may do a protest vote for a Libertarian-- particularly when the race isn't very close.

I vote straight small-c-conservative (and I very much regret the one time I voted Libertarian), but of course federally has meant I've voted Reform-Canadian Alliance-Conservative, and provincially have voted Progressive Conservative-Yukon Party-Wildrose Alliance.

Canadian party politics are so much more interesting than southof the border...  :cool:

That former defence secretary going on about aliens seems particularly interesting. Same with the mayor of Toronto.

Quote from: Beenherebefore on March 14, 2014, 01:40:50 PM
That former defence secretary going on about aliens seems particularly interesting. Same with the mayor of Toronto.

Who, Paul Hellyer?  He was Defence Minister 50 years ago.  Meh.

I'll give you Rob Ford though.

I couldn't bring myself to vote for the Wildrose last election.  I think I'm a little too conservative for them.

Quote from: Barrister on March 14, 2014, 01:46:18 PM

Quote from: Beenherebefore on March 14, 2014, 01:40:50 PM
That former defence secretary going on about aliens seems particularly interesting. Same with the mayor of Toronto.

Who, Paul Hellyer?  He was Defence Minister 50 years ago.  Meh.

I'll give you Rob Ford though.

Ford's on another level than most. Exactly what level is hard to say.

Hellyer I suppose is just old. Or dead? Made the rounds on some Facebook group I sometimes visit today again with the alien interview. That's the sole reason I remembered him.

Quote from: Neil on March 14, 2014, 01:50:38 PM
I couldn't bring myself to vote for the Wildrose last election.  I think I'm a little too conservative for them.

And how are you feeling about that decision now? :yeahright:

My mother is a liberal Democrat and my dad is a hardcore Republican, though he likes to pretend he's more of a moderate than he really is (he is extremely homophobic for example and so is opposed to gay rights of any kind).

A Liberal Democrat? :w00t:

Oh wait...a liberal Democrat  :(

In Michigan the Democrat party is a coalition between the unions (dominated by the United Auto Workers) and the cities (dominated by Detroit.)  (There's a real lesson in this, if organized crime and ordinary criminals can get along why can't the rest of us?)  Since we're not from Detroit and my family isn't a blue collar one everyone in my family is Republican leaning (especially at the state level.)  My parents and my youngest brother are significantly more socially conservative than I am. 

Here in Florida things are different.  I'm tempted to vote Libertarian as the laws we have aren't stopping anyone or even slowing anyone down.  ;)

Quote from: Barrister on March 14, 2014, 01:54:43 PM

Quote from: Neil on March 14, 2014, 01:50:38 PM
I couldn't bring myself to vote for the Wildrose last election.  I think I'm a little too conservative for them.

And how are you feeling about that decision now? :yeahright:

I'm still alright.  I definitely didn't vote for the PCs either.  In fact, I had to spoil my ballot by writing 'none of the above' on it.  The Wildrose leaves me unconvinced and wary, but I'm delighting in the meltdown of the Redford government.  Her union supporters have cooled on her, and her mishandling of all the constant expense scandals has turned most people against her.  The problem is that there really isn't a credible opposition, so even if there was an election right away, she'd win by default.

Quote from: Neil on March 14, 2014, 02:31:24 PM

Quote from: Barrister on March 14, 2014, 01:54:43 PM

Quote from: Neil on March 14, 2014, 01:50:38 PM
I couldn't bring myself to vote for the Wildrose last election.  I think I'm a little too conservative for them.

And how are you feeling about that decision now? :yeahright:

I'm still alright.  I definitely didn't vote for the PCs either.  In fact, I had to spoil my ballot by writing 'none of the above' on it.  The Wildrose leaves me unconvinced and wary, but I'm delighting in the meltdown of the Redford government.  Her union supporters have cooled on her, and her mishandling of all the constant expense scandals has turned most people against her.  The problem is that there really isn't a credible opposition, so even if there was an election right away, she'd win by default.

I dunno.  I felt uneasy voting Wildrose last time, but I'm feeling much better about it now.  Smith has seemed like a solid opposition leader, and the party hasn't gotten into any self-induced wounds by stupid behaviour.

They have done a good job of ducking and covering, implying that they learned well from their election strategy of 'every kook in the party shoot your mouth off about social conservatism'.  They haven't earned my trust yet though.  Sitting around and letting Redford hang herself works up to a point, but they need to do some talking to convince people that they're not just right-wing populists.

Quote from: Neil on March 14, 2014, 02:36:50 PM
They have done a good job of ducking and covering, implying that they learned well from their election strategy of 'every kook in the party shoot your mouth off about social conservatism'.  They haven't earned my trust yet though.  Sitting around and letting Redford hang herself works up to a point, but they need to do some talking to convince people that they're not just right-wing populists.

I'm okay with "just right wing populists". :)

Quote from: Barrister on March 14, 2014, 02:41:34 PM

Quote from: Neil on March 14, 2014, 02:36:50 PM
They have done a good job of ducking and covering, implying that they learned well from their election strategy of 'every kook in the party shoot your mouth off about social conservatism'.  They haven't earned my trust yet though.  Sitting around and letting Redford hang herself works up to a point, but they need to do some talking to convince people that they're not just right-wing populists.

I'm okay with "just right wing populists". :)

I'm a little less so, since I live in the city and do not own property.

Quote from: Admiral Yi on March 14, 2014, 10:27:21 AM
I didn't know Archie Bunker came in the Jew flavor.  :hmm:

My granddad would definitely not be mistaken for a Jew. :lol:  I'm a mischling anyhow.

What's a mischling?

Quote from: Admiral Yi on March 14, 2014, 03:14:28 PM
What's a mischling?

Third Reich German term for Jew/Gentile mix.  Google & Wiki are our friends :)

Quote from: derspiess on March 14, 2014, 03:19:13 PM
Third Reich German term for Jew/Gentile mix.  Google & Wiki are our friends :)

Like you even had to look that up.  :P

My mother's side were Democrats from North Missouri.  Protestants who came in to the state capital because the got goverment jobs back in 1920's.  Farmer, rural types.  My Dad's side were more... colorful.  They were Catholics from the big city of St. Louis.  Lots of Union members among other things.  A lot of those other things weren't really that nice.  My dad left St. Louis to get away from that sort of thing.

Quote from: Admiral Yi on March 14, 2014, 03:25:06 PM

Quote from: derspiess on March 14, 2014, 03:19:13 PM
Third Reich German term for Jew/Gentile mix.  Google & Wiki are our friends :)

Like you even had to look that up.  :P

It's a pretty interesting subject.  The Reich had an interesting and often arbitrary system of determining what status a Mischling had.  Some got sent to camps, while others were trusted to serve in the Wehrmacht all the way up to rank of Field Marshal.

Quote from: Beenherebefore on March 14, 2014, 08:46:54 AM
Ten years ago, this thread would have read differently, I am sure.

Either we're all getting more centrist with age, or the fringes have turned even more idiotic than before.

My parents are odd. They're extremely anti-partisan, in that they absolutely hate the Tories.

So about ten years ago they were both firmly New Labour, though my mum liked Brown and my dad liked Blair. Since then they've been radicalised by moving to Tory heartlandshire. Now their politics are very left wing, but they'd definitely back Lord Mandelson outflanking the Tories from the right if it meant a non-Tory government :lol:

I was thinking a bit wider. I'm almost certain my granddad votes Ukip and I think if most of my aunties, uncles and cousins vote they'd probably be Ukippers too :mellow:

Being 25 years younger than my parents, I'm considerably to the left of them, in the same way they were socialists when they were my age, and communists when they were younger.

Quote from: celedhring on March 15, 2014, 05:40:40 AM
Being 25 years younger than my parents, I'm considerably to the left of them, in the same way they were socialists when they were my age, and communists when they were younger.

Where you are from everybody who is young is a communist or socialist?  Wild.

Quote from: Valmy on March 15, 2014, 04:52:04 PM

Quote from: celedhring on March 15, 2014, 05:40:40 AM
Being 25 years younger than my parents, I'm considerably to the left of them, in the same way they were socialists when they were my age, and communists when they were younger.

Where you are from everybody who is young is a communist or socialist?  Wild.

Not surprising in the Spain of that time.

Quote from: Valmy on March 15, 2014, 04:52:04 PM
Where you are from everybody who is young is a communist or socialist?  Wild.

That's true of lots of our family friends in Liverpool. My dad used to be a Communist in the 70s (largely because he was expelled from Chile after Pinochet's takeover and apparently the CPGB had the best anti-Pinochet demonstrations). My mum now works in the nuclear industry but literally can't talk about her job with many of our family friends because they were, and many still are, Trots. Most of them were in Militant Faction back in the 70s and 80s.

Edit: Of course they're polite enough not to ask her about her work.

Better a well-mannered pinko than an ill-mannered one.

Quote from: Valmy on March 15, 2014, 04:52:04 PM

Quote from: celedhring on March 15, 2014, 05:40:40 AM
Being 25 years younger than my parents, I'm considerably to the left of them, in the same way they were socialists when they were my age, and communists when they were younger.

Where you are from everybody who is young is a communist or socialist?  Wild.

In 70s Spain almost everybody who was young was a communist or socialist, it was the way to oppose Franco. The Socialist party got some massive majorities in the 80s until the shine wore off.

Quote from: Sheilbh on March 15, 2014, 05:29:28 PMMost of them were in Militant Faction back in the 70s and 80s.

Entryism. :)

I've always felt they failed at the first opportunity choosing that name. Surely 'Moderate Faction' or something similar would be a better name for an entryist movement :mellow:

Edit: Apparently in the UK it was 'militant tendency' which is a bit less threatening. 'I tend to militancy.'

Quote from: Sheilbh on March 15, 2014, 06:55:57 PM
I've always felt they failed at the first opportunity choosing that name. Surely 'Moderate Faction' or something similar would be a better name for an entryist movement :mellow:

:lol:  Yeah, "Labour As Usual Tendency" or "Same Old Labour Tendency" might have been a little more to the point.  But you need something for in-house consumption, I suppose.