Uplifting News

Most of the right are the uneducated and poor voting to empower a system that already oppresses them. For many of them, it's not about what affects whom, it's about whose side is winning. The fact that a Republican changed sides at all is enough for me. I do not care why.

I mean, I get that, and the amount of rage I feel about the fact that Republicans never have any empathy for anyone they don't know is probably going to give me an ulcer, but this is good news. People changing their minds in response to new information is a positive thing, and we should encourage it. There are plenty of LGBTQ+ people whose families don't change their minds. That's how we end up with kids committing suicide or living on the streets. My extended family would never change their minds, and it's led to me cutting them off, and my cousin will never come out because I'm pretty sure his dad would kill him, or at least do his level best to beat him to death.

Anyway, I didn't mean for that to get that dark, but that's the reality for a lot of us. I'm going to welcome anyone trying to be better with open arms.

Man, you took the words right out of my mouth......or my typing fingers as it were. I was going to say almost exactly that. I remember them saying "Covid is a hoax. Covid is all a democrat conspiracy....."

And democrats took it seriously. Wore masks, stayed 6 feet apart, got vaccinated. Yes, it affected democrat cities, because cities are more densely compact than rural areas, but somehow those rural area republican voters are the ones that it affected the most. Suddenly I was seeing posts online like "I didn't think this was real, but now my brother is dead. Treat it seriously guys!!!" and they'd get ignored by their own people.

Oh NOW it's real? NOW it's no longer a hoax, because it affected you personally??? I feel cynical in saying that I don't feel empathy for that type of person, because it's such a self inflicted wound, but it's true. If rural areas put the same amount of care into covid precautions as the democrat voters did, they'd have been largely unaffected. Forget 6 feet apart. They live on farms. It would be like 6 acres apart. You know why I wasn't largely affected by covid? Because I wore a mask. I stayed my distance. I got 4 different rounds of vaccines. I listened to medical advice. If they'd have done the same, these sob stories of people doing stupid things facing stupid but very real consequences wouldn't exist.

Sorry to go off on a rant, but this just bug me so much. People that refuse to believe anything is that big of a deal, unless it minorly inconviences them. Then it's the biggest deal in the world. Not that covid was a minor inconvience.....but it could have been if everyone just did what doctors said. For me personally it was a minor inconvience, which I feel a lot of other people COULD have had the same experience. My 98 year old grandma lived to be 102, just recently dying because everyone in my family agreed to treat her like a fragile piece of glass. Yet these people can't be bothered to wear a cloth over their face in public, AND THEN HAD THE GALL TO USE "I CAN'T BREATHE" AS THEIR MOTTO FOR NOT WEARING THEM!!! This at a time when "I can't breathe" was already the motto for the injustice that George Floyd faced.

Ok, I have to stop now. I'm getting myself worked up.

Would you rather the grandparents had shunned the grandchild? What use is gate keeping correct decisions?

Standard republican bullshit.

I’ve maintained for many years that the biggest thing the right lacks is an imagination.

Look, lead poisoning degrades empathy. I'm just glad they have some left.

I'll give the couple in the article this, I know many of the it's okay until it affects us types and none of them changed their voting habits

Classic conservative (and especially with "Christian" added onto that) = Severe lack of empathy

also here's an idea: you can be none of those things. you can just be not at all related to some people and still feel compassion.

Dating a black guy/gal can sometimes prompt some introspection. Not as often as I'd like, but sometimes.

There must always be an "other" for conservatism to work, because they need that other to hate, and to feel superior to, so they don't notice/give care to how much their own policies and the ones they support are destroying their own livelihoods.

Yeah I’ve been disowned for 9 years. I’m doing well, and I’m definitely the anomaly (most disowning in my experience is like 2-3) but it’s important to remember that not everyone chooses loved ones over bigotry

They were perfectly willing to support and spread the hate right up until it personally affected them.

Good for them for changing when it did personally affect them, we have seen Republicans literally dying (covid) instead of learning from their experiences, but it is a very low bar to set for being "nice people".

I get it, I just get so pissed people only doing the right thing after if affects THEM. The GQP has been bashing gay and queer folks for decades! But, it's only after their child is targeted that they see the light.

They are better than those who are still in the GOP, and I'm happy they left, but it still leaves a sour taste in my mouth.

Always has. These people just had their eyes opened because the hateful Republican rhetoric is affecting people in their orbit for a change.