My dad had an aneurysm semi-recently and face planted in cement, broke some ribs, his arm and lost most use of said arm. This is from years of eating like a pig, not working out and not taking his health seriously.

In the hospital, well-aware of his bullshit, a forever MAGA into the second term, I offer him some "tough love" because he is stubborn and never listens to anyone. "You will kill yourself if you continue to eat poorly." The entire time he's whining about how the hospital food is bad.

His only response was timidly but broodingly "I will never change."

I genuinely cringed, and a light flashed before my eyes where I saw images of Anakin Skywalker turn on his red lightsaber, Shadow the Hedgehog pointing a gun at the camera, American eagles with tears in their eyes in Evil Knievel attire riding dirt bikes and blinding patriotism to something they half remember in a movie.

My idiot edgelord father. It's weird that my dad was someone who I thought was really intelligent growing up, was actually a stubborn bigot with a small world. Painfully, the minute I recognized his limitations, I saw myself as he was the one who raised me.

[–] Dialectical_Idealist@lemmygrad.ml 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

I've had a similar awakening about my father. You either grow up and become your parents or grow up in opposition to them.

[–] Poophammer@hexbear.net 4 points 1 week ago

That one meme where the dad is shielding his kid from whatever the previous generations are saying is kind of true. Like my dad had a lot of horrible things happen to him in his formation that definitely shaped him, and while he's an idiot he did shield me from a lot of those same things. He did the best he could is what I'm saying.

I think the best I can do to honor the guy is actually look at what my dad experienced, learn from that it and leave what didn't work behind.