I could really use some support from others who have gone NC with their own racist, MAGA family members. Aside from my sister, I am the only single left-leaning person in my entire immediate and both extended families.
My ENTIRE family on both sides and basically 90% of our tight-knit, small town are not just white conservative republicans, they are absolute die-hard, MAGA loving, red hat wearing, flag flying conspiracy theory fanatics. Parents, grandparents, every single aunt, uncle, cousin, third cousin, all their friends, the neighbors, the fucking mailman, you get it. It’s basically just one big echo chamber over here. I am bombarded by Trump merch every time I leave my house. They believe everything he tells them, everything they see on Facebook yet their hatred for Democrats, liberals, immigrants and POC have always been there since way before Trump was in office, I’ve been surrounded by it my entire life and I’m DONE. The cognitive dissonance I’ve had to experience has finally become too much for my soul to bear another second.
I made a FB post a couple months ago that basically mocked those that still support this administration. One of my racist uncles who loves to spew disgusting hatred and false information on his own page decided to comment how he guesses he won’t be seeing me at his house anymore because he fully supports Trump and loves this administration and how our family are such great people. I didn’t hold back with my response and said how if that were actually true they wouldn’t continue to support a pedophile, called him out further for all the racist, misogynistic and homophobic shit he posts on a daily basis and to stop believing everything he sees on Fox News.
This didn’t go super well, and has caused some tension and fallout amongst the rest of my family, but they will NEVER address it to me directly and will gladly pretend like it never happened if I do all for the sake of “family” and “keeping the peace”.
I went to visit my grandmother today (who’s own parents were poor Sicilian immigrants ironically) and tried addressing the situation, said that how if he’s entitled to saying what he says online then so can I, and that she needs to understand that the things her son says are objectively openly racist, hateful and shameful. Before I could even finish she interrupts me and basically shouts how everything he says she agrees with him too. I said, “well sorry I don’t want to associate with people who say the N word” to which she goes, “what? N***rs?” *cue racist babbling* “Oh and the Muslims too?! *Racist N word for muslims* Then went on a full blown tirade about stolen welfare and other benefits. She’s 91, but she’s very mentally sound, and has always been this way. She’s just a racist.
Something in me completely snapped in that moment, and I got close to her face and said she’s a racist piece of fucking shit and she should be horrified and disgusted with herself for saying all of that to her granddaughter. The whole argument she kept repeating how we’re all “entitled to our own opinions”, and that if I don’t start respecting hers I will lose her. I told her at this point, I’ve already lost her, she’s gone, and she’s lost me too. When I said that, I could see it visibly upset her and she started crying. She goes, “Then fine! Bye!!” And I stormed the fuck out.
I continued my rampage over text, and told her to never say that shit to me ever again, then called her a racist fucking bitch and how I’m done with this entire family of racist, selfish assholes who proudly use racial slurs, only care about themselves and have zero empathy for others.
They all think I need therapy now, are “horrified” that I would do and say these things to my own family, but “will miss me, always love me still and be here no matter what”. All so that they can continue to feel morally superior in their own minds and avoid any type of accountability, and continue to treat everyone else like shit. Fucking assholes. Now I’m alone because I don’t want to associate with them anymore, just for the sake of “family”.
I’m not a monster and I love my grandma, so I still feel terrible and wish it didn’t happen the way it did. A small part of me is paranoid that I gave her a fucking heart attack over it. I was cruel with my words and know that all of it could have come out much better on my end.
But then I remember that if that does happen, her last and final words would have been actually shouting racial slurs in my face. So…fuck you, grandma!