This happened a few days ago when I was going to do my taxes with my mom and stepdad. We were talking about my home life and school and whatnot, and they asked me what I wanted to do once I got my credentials. I was vague about it and just straight up told them I don’t like to talk about my future endeavours, but what I did tell them was that I was following in the footsteps of people I admire and hope to achieve what they have. They understood this and thought that was a fine thing to do, although they don’t know the people I admire so maybe their opinions would change, then again I don’t think they’d mind either. Anyway this conversation led to my mother saying how she was talking to my stepdad about me being a communist (I “came out” to her a month ago) and my ideals and how now she believes she might be a communist too.
Her reasoning was that she believes in equality, hates how wealth is currently distributed, and stuff like that. She then said she doesn't believe a waitress should be paid more than a doctor but the wealth disparity should not be as large as it is. My stepdad then brought up Cuba as an example, they both recently (ish) visited and said that waitresses in Cuba get paid more than doctors because they receive tips. He also said that their tour guide was an engineer who did tours on the side to make tips.
He’s made comments about Cuba before a while back during a conversation about how doctors who immigrate to Canada can’t work as doctors, I then brought up how amazing Cuban doctors are and how they are exported to help in other countries. My stepdad then said that Cuban doctors aren’t allowed to leave Cuba and are essentially extorted by the government (something about how the doctor’s family will be “held hostage” in Cuba if the doctor tries to leave). I was confused by this comment but just brushed it off because what? I’ve never heard of this before and I was not about to entertain it.
Anyway, back to the present, while my mom calls herself a full communist my stepdad says he thinks he’s in the middle because he likes the freedom capitalism grants but hates the inequality. I didn’t say anything but in my head all I could think was “that is an inherent trait of capitalism, though.” My mom says she wants people to be equal and my stepdad made a weird comment about the “Great Reset,” which I don’t know much about but isn’t it a conspiracy theory? He said something about how they are trying to make everyone “equal” so they can’t own property or something like that. I didn’t say anything to this, I didn’t even push him to tell me more. This was just weird all around haha. Again, I didn’t push them on any of this because I am trying to pick and choose my battles very carefully.
I know my stepdad has apparently been doing research into how rich people actually get rich (my immediate thought was “exploitation”) and he is trying to do just that. He is very “obsessed” with becoming rich and with that he is trying to pursue real estate… Like become a landlord company. I have talked about this quite a while ago, maybe a year? And it still bothers me. I don’t feel personally at fault for this and I don't feel like a hypocrite anymore but this endeavour does mess with me. Thankfully my negative feelings are not lingering, not as much as they used to, but whenever it is talked about I can’t help but feel bad. They told me one day I would inherit this business and I straight up said I don’t think I was interested in that, like at all. They are fine with that, thankfully. I know they want to buy a property close to whichever schools I end up going to for my masters and PhD as they want to both help me as much as they can and do their business thing.
In any case I love my parents but sometimes they confuse the hell out of me.
I thought this would be interesting to share with everyone on the Grad. My school life and family life are weird as hell.
Fun Fact! My mom also loves history documentaries and seems to have a vested and sympathetic interest in the Romanovs (she said Nick was a great dad and how they died was so sad), so her calling herself a communist is a little funny to me but I am more than happy giving her the benefit of the doubt considering all the docs she watches are super western and propagandized to hell. Maybe I can find a documentary that tells the true story about the Romanovs and share it with her.
He says he’s a mix between capitalism and communism (which is impossible but whatever) so I don’t know. My stepdad wants to get rich but I don’t think he realizes that it requires exploitation. His comment about the Great Reset made me uncomfortable but I don’t know enough about it to say much. My mom is definitely not a theory reader or anything but she likes what I have to say. It is a weird dynamic they are building.
Between the fact that he's brought up the Great Reset conspiracy and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Position I think he's just going into fascist ideology.
Oh god, my worst fear! This is very unfortunate and I don’t even think he realizes it which makes this so much worse… I don’t know anything about the Great Reset except that its a crazy conspiracy so thats not ideal… I remember him mentioning a “controlling the food” conspiracy once as well. So this fucking sucks…
If you can find a way to make changes in his media appetite and algorithmic suggestion profile, you can probably help direct him away from the content that’s pushing him towards these things. No one starts out believing in these things, and it sounds like he’s likely being radicalized by conspiracy media.
YouTube et al are tuned to push people further down these rabbit holes because it increases consumption, so even something like cleaning out his watched history and priming it with less reactionary content could help if he’s not too tech savvy and just relies upon the recommendations he receives.
Well I don’t live with my parents so going through his stuff will be difficult, I also don’t think he’d let me do that at all either. At best I could try to manipulate the algorithm to hopefully steer him away from whatever he’s getting his info from but I also don’t know how to go about facilitating that. I guess next time he brings stuff up I can use it as an opportunity to send him resources under the guise of continuing the discussion. Some of the shit he brings up is just very confusing and nonsensical (I mean, really, Cuba is extorting their own doctors?)…
Fascist ideology is, to me, a more right wing settler ideology
You can not have the former without having the latter, as a goal, or as a objective to be fully accomplished, in my opinion...
And with OP's dad in Canada as a settler... I don't hope for the best
The Fascist occupations of North and East Africa were brutal, and many natives lost their land for the sake of Fascist capital.
The loss or failure to gain land from WWI were major motives behind Europe’s most successful fascist movements, hence the acquisitions of Fiume, the Saar Basin, the Rhineland, Ethiopia, Sudetenland, Austria, Albania, Poland, and so forth… to tell you the truth, your uncertainty about the subject surprises me.
Admittedly I've not read much books on this subject of fascism as it developed historically...
His hesitancy with communism might stem from a lot but I do wonder if it also has to do with him being Ukrainian. He’s not from there, and neither are his parents, but I believe his great grandparents were. I don’t know the timeline of when they left to Canada (and at this point I’m too afraid to ask lol) but if its during the time of the USSR I can’t help but wonder. I know Ukrainian Canadians are sort of split between reactionaries and progressives so it’s hard to say which side his family may have been on, if they chose one in the first place. Its a precarious situation I find myself in.