The irony is, she's the one who taught me never to rely on a husband or compromise myself.

Yeah, it was somewhere around the time where "I don't care if it's true or not, that's not the point" even though it totally is that I gave up.

Hugs right back! I feel the exact same way.

Thanks so much. That's part of why I started arguing, I think — I feel like SOMEONE has to challenge her, to make her think critically about the shit she's saying because I KNOW she's not getting that at home (her husband's similarly opinioned and she only ever hangs out with him and her dogs, who are sweet but not…

I'm so sorry, your family sounds way worse than mine!

Thanks for sharing. It's mind-boggling to me. I made your exact point re: executing people without a trial, but nope. Whereas if that had happened in a Muslim country, for example, it'd be all outrage about their savage behavior! Ugh. I just can't.

Thanks for sharing this. I'm glad I'm not alone, even though it really, really sucks.

Thank you. I guess I can try to break the ice eventually with a gardening question, but I dunno. Every time I see her she seems to make some sort of comment, and this one was just too much. I definitely need to try not to engage.

Thanks, I'm glad (well, not really lol) that you've had a similar experience. It's jarring. I would've avoided the whole thing if I could've but she turned on the news and made the first remark, and I couldn't help but argue, if only for my nieces to see that not everyone thinks that way.

Yeah, it's a very nice response and a nice sentiment. Unfortunately it's less "politics" and more "other people are human beings too" but the idea stands. I love my mom, but it almost feels like the person who was my mom is not the person who said those things... if that makes sense.

And also I'm sorry you're in a similar situation. It really sucks.

No, because I don't think she'd listen. Their marriage is a clusterfuck that's fodder for an entirely different post. His whole family is that way, though, so I'm sure it's proximity to them and geographic isolation (she moved in with him when they married to a more isolated town ~30 minutes south from where I grew…

I'm having a hard time with a fight I got into with my mom over the weekend. She said some pretty horrible things about the Mike Brown case/Missouri in general, and I lost it. Between her blatant racism and her hypocrisy (seriously — "If you break the law, deal with the consequences" followed up with "Cliven Bundy…

That's interesting actually. "Professor of masculinities" sounds sketchy but looking at it as a subgenre of gender makes a lot of sense. I guess because you don't call it "professor of femininities" because that connotes something different from, say, a professor of feminist studies.

professor of sport, masculinities, and sexualities

Dat GIF. I'm imagining them bopping along to "Fuck the Police" and it's amusing me endlessly.

From the tiny little thumbnail and description, I had a near-panic attack that this might have been my mother... now I'm sad that that was my first thought.

I'm glad this is over, but I'm bummed because it seems I lost my approved commenter status on Gawker and I'll never get it here even though I commented here way more often. Sigh. I'll survive. I'm glad the Wild West days are coming to an end.

DANG IT I was fine through all the other sad stuff until this one. Right in the childhood, right in the soul. :(

My reactions, in order, in the form of GIFs: