We have pictures of my grandma on display in my house. People will be like "Who's that?" and I'll reply "Oh that's my grandma. She was a racist, misogynistic, anti-semite."

I don't get why people always feel the need to defend their shitty relatives. But I might have a personality disorder IDK

[–] NinaPasadena@hexbear.net 29 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I mean exactly. Like remember them, look at old photos, etc. History is interesting... Often even mundane history is interesting. But why pretend it is different than it was?

Maybe just the autism speaking. I do not understand this need to deceive

[–] ProfessorOwl_PhD@hexbear.net 26 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I don't think it's entirely the autism speaking, a lot of people put an incredible amount of stock in, essentially, blood and soil ideology, especially the blood. It's something I noticed in highschool, that people will treat their family's, and especially their parent's, achievements as their own - taking pride in them and ascribing themselves those same abilities. That then extends to treating their family's shame as their own personal shames, so like this, they try to hide or excuse it - "I'm not a nazi, so my grandfather couldn't have been".

I think autism made it more obvious for me, but plenty of neurotypicals aren't like that, whether they notice others are or not.

[–] MemesAreTheory@hexbear.net 14 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

And plenty of autistic people get real weird about it too. I've met an autistic Nazi before who was perversely interested in tracking family genealogy because that's what he was hyper interested in. Like, he'd do family trees for other people based on snooping without them knowing about it. I'm not sure what came first, chicken or the egg, but one hand sure washed the other when it came to the hobby and the political beliefs, that's for sure.

I think it's a pretty astute observation at the underlying ideology at work here. Whether we're taken by that meta narrative of self-identity or not though isn't connected to one's cognitive neuro-spicy level I don't think, it's just brain worms that'll take root in any soil as people try to develop a sense of identity and community and aren't given the tools to understand themselves as part of a class so instead kludge together something based on individualistic narratives.

[–] Le_Wokisme@hexbear.net 23 points 7 months ago

in-group bullshit goes brrrrrr

[–] Eiren@lemmygrad.ml 21 points 7 months ago (1 children)

My grandmother started telling me the crime problem in American cities is because of all the black people.

I tried arguing the point, so she called me a "removed-lover," so I punched her in the head. And that was how I ended up homeless, originally.

No regrets (except maybe that I should have punched her harder, I guess), but there are some practical reasons people tend to fall all over themselves to defend the hands that feed them, as it were.

[–] NinaPasadena@hexbear.net 5 points 7 months ago

I mean I would understand if someone was dependent on someone. redditor is not dependent on his grandfather who died 10 years before he was born.

Good on ya for standing up to awful old people damn the consequences. I'm blessed since non of my grandparents seemed particularly racist/sexist/etc