My father drives me crazy

[Seifer]

My father is a crazy conservative. He loves Fox News and Bill O'Reilly, and absolutely hates Obama. Since I lean toward the liberal side of politics, this creates an issue. Why? Because every time we have a conversation, he somehow finds a way to bring up Obama.

For instance, this happened tonight:

Me: "Man, the north-eastern states got hit with Sandy and now they have a blizzard coming their way."

My dad: "Yeah, Sandy knocked out their power, and of course OUR PRESIDENT walks out and starts talking about the energy crisis!! YOU KNOW HE'S RAISING THE PRICE OF ELECTRICITY? WHY DO WE HAVE TO JUMP FROM $100 A MONTH TO $300 A MONTH ON OUR POWER BILL!!?!"

SERIOUSLY, it's always out of left-field. I can't talk to him about it, either, because I don't keep up with the news enough to have any major points to make. However, I know everything he's saying is complete horse-shit spewed from the talking heads on Fox News.

[Andara Bledin]

I think, were I in your position, that I would just close the topic of politics for discussion.

I don't know your exact situation so can't really speculate on how you could accomplish that.

However, I can totally commiserate with you on having someone you are attached to somehow insisting that every single conversation be about their pet topic. >_<

^-.-^

[TheHuckster]

Even when you agree with someone politically and they can't help but mention it all the time it drives me nuts. I disliked Bush, but it got tiresome when you knew someone who used any opportunity to rant and rant about him on a soapbox ad nauseum.

[blas87]

Are we related?

My Dad only watches Fox News. Except, of course, when Walking Dead is on. I've tried my damnest to get him to at least try Supernatural or something else during the week (maybe get the DVDs sometime), anything but listening to the ranting on Fox.

And he believes all of it.

[KitterCat]

Seifer, Blas and I must all some how be related. Through some weird twisted family tree with more branches than a bush we have to be related. Tell me, how do you deal with him when he comes up with something so far off base that you want to take a two by four to his head hoping that it will knock some sense into it? I have to admit being out of state means that I don’t have to deal with it that often so I’m lucky in that respect.

What I find worse is that even though at times I agree with him on some things, such as Obamas dealings with health care, my family will come up with some crazy off base idea to interject that has nothing to do with the subject. Like Obama is actually from Kenya and a Muslim. Makes you want to shake your head and hope they can at least get back to basic facts instead of complaining about made up BS.

[blas87]

Oh, I know it's conflicting.

I am by no means a fan of Obama, but some of the crap those talking heads come up with, it's just too much to be taken seriously.

[Giggle Goose]

Oh here's a doozy for you...

I eating at a restaurant the other night and my fiance asked the waitress for some ketchup. The waitress told him that since the restaurant was so busy and they were having a recent shortage of ketchup (due to ordering logistics, I think), she'd have to track the bottle down from another server. We only had to wait a minute or two before she found one for us.

This dude at the table next to us overhears the exchange and says "Yep, you can thank Obama for that, he's making taxes so high with Obamacare that restaurants can't afford ketchup" or some such idiocy. I don't care what your political leanings are, it's freaking KETCHUP, dude!!!

[blas87]

That's just about as bad as the bobbleheads on Fox screaming about Obama playing golf more than doing his job.

Didn't know the guy wasn't allowed any free time.

[AmbrosiaWriter]

I can't stand when people come up with random crap for any candidate (including ones that I hate.)

Seriously, there are several other things that you can easily and informatively bash the candidate on, and you decide to pick the flat out lie/hyperbole/willfully and totally misconstrued garbage from <totally biased source>?

Hell, even if someone bashes Faux News for something the really didn't say I get pissed off. THEY HAVE SAID SO MUCH INCORRECT AND TOTALLY FLAME WORTHY CRAP!

*headdesk* I hate politics. This is why I refuse to talk about them with pretty much everyone. I've flat out told one coworker "No, no politics. I won't talk about them, I refuse."

[TheHuckster]

I can't stand when people come up with random crap for any candidate (including ones that I hate.)

Seriously, there are several other things that you can easily and informatively bash the candidate on, and you decide to pick the flat out lie/hyperbole/willfully and totally misconstrued garbage from <totally biased source>?

Hell, even if someone bashes Faux News for something the really didn't say I get pissed off. THEY HAVE SAID SO MUCH INCORRECT AND TOTALLY FLAME WORTHY CRAP!

*headdesk* I hate politics. This is why I refuse to talk about them with pretty much everyone. I've flat out told one coworker "No, no politics. I won't talk about them, I refuse."

I witnessed an all-out flamewar on Facebook over someone defending a journalist who was caught red-handed taking an NRA-spokesman's words out of context to make it sound like, in effect, he was supportive of shooting kittens (I'm paraphrasing here, not sure what he said vs. what was implied without context). The guy basically said that because liberals are the good guys they have every justification to expose the evils of conservatism even if it means lying.

Keep in mind, I was friends with the guy who was challenging that point of view, not the idiot who was basically condoning dishonesty in favor of "the greater good" as he put it. The 50+ post flamewar ended with one of them unfriending the other. Good riddance, I say.

When you take a political stance, I don't care what stance you take, whether it's one I agree with or not, you've got to use honest and reliable testimony to defend that stance. If you don't, then you lose all credibility and you've essentially disproven your own case by not only lying, but defending your lying about certain facts to back your case.

[wolfie]

I witnessed an all-out flamewar on Facebook over someone defending a journalist who was caught red-handed taking an NRA-spokesman's words out of context to make it sound like, in effect, he was supportive of shooting kittens (I'm paraphrasing here, not sure what he said vs. what was implied without context). The guy basically said that because liberals are the good guys they have every justification to expose the evils of conservatism even if it means lying.

That's a case where the "journalist" needs to be fired. After all, by associating with them, a media outlet is putting its own reputation on the line. Good luck finding another job in journalism - the only place I know of that accepts its "journalists" telling outright lies is Faux News (they even went to court - and won the case - arguing that they have the right to publish as "news" items they know are false), and being on the right wing, they wouldn't be interested in hiring someone who lied to make an NRA spokesman look bad.

[LadyBarbossa]

My sympathies, friend. We appear to have the same model of Dad. It gets so much worse as they age, and the only 'solution' I've found is to simply talk to him less and less No matter how mundane and unrelated the topic, yes, it always comes back to Obama, the democrats, and whatever nutty conspiracy he heard about on Christian radio or Rush Limbaugh. Limbaugh, by the way, is apparently a 'very smart, good man'.

[protege]

That's just about as bad as the bobbleheads on Fox screaming about Obama playing golf more than doing his job.

Of course that goes both ways. The bobbleheads on left-leaning media channels blasted Bush Sr. for the same thing during his term

But seriously, journalism should be about reporting the news. It shouldn't be about trying to shape public opinion about events. Unfortunately, too many reporters--on both sides--seem to think that their job is to tell viewers/readers what to think. That's why I try to get my news from multiple sources before forming an opinion

[Seifer]

Seifer, Blas and I must all some how be related. Through some weird twisted family tree with more branches than a bush we have to be related. Tell me, how do you deal with him when he comes up with something so far off base that you want to take a two by four to his head hoping that it will knock some sense into it?

To be honest, I sit quietly and let him rant. I'll throw in my two cents here and there, but I won't say anything that I know will continue the conversation. Eventually he'll get tired of talking to himself and move on. It's annoying and takes forever, but it does eventually work.

[Seifer]

That's just about as bad as the bobbleheads on Fox screaming about Obama playing golf more than doing his job.

Didn't know the guy wasn't allowed any free time.

They also conveniently forget that every president ever has farted around at some point during their presidency. Shit, George Bush stayed on his ranch for something like 3 months at one point, and no one at Fox seemed to care about that. But Obama playing a few rounds of golf? FORBIDDEN!