Wow, I'm sorry you had that experience, Andrea... that's always depressing. :-(
Should you find it disturbing that your grandfather believes talk radio unquestioningly? I think the answer is yes, of course... and I wish there was more we could do about it, that those reactionary voices were a tiny, drowned-out minority instead of the trumpets they are.
An interesting thought, though (and I start with the disclaimer that this is a generalization, and may not apply to you and your family) -- I think in the long run, homophobes are more likely to be swayed in their opinions by the words and behavior of their immediate family members, than by talk radio.
Whether a family is very liberal, very rural, very conservative, very urban, it doesn't matter: the likelihood of somebody in the family turning up gay is the same (and it gets more likely all the time). And once your father, sister, son, aunt, cousin or grandchild is revealed to be gay -- and yet still the same person that you knew and loved underneath -- it becomes that much harder to revile them, to dehumanize them, to reject them.
Of course, I know that it still happens, and how horrible it is when something like that tears a family apart -- but still, it makes it that much harder for the homophobe to continue to believe all the propaganda fed to him or her by talk radio, when the reality is right there before their eyes.
Unfortunately, this doesn't solve the eternal conundrum, that when you have free speech it seems like the bad speech drowns out the good. Nor can I deny the fact that in this country, at least right now, having the reality right before their eyes doesn't seem to noticeably affect people's ability to distinguish propaganda from truth. I wish there was some solution. All I can do is keep talking about the truth as I perceive it, and hope that people listen.
Perhaps the key is something you said earlier in the post, that your grandfather was never really taught to think critically. The key is education. But then, we knew that, didn't we? And the news isn't any better on the education front than any other...
Man, I have way too much time on my hands these days!
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momijizukamori
no subject
Date: 2004-01-15 10:43 am (UTC)Should you find it disturbing that your grandfather believes talk radio unquestioningly? I think the answer is yes, of course... and I wish there was more we could do about it, that those reactionary voices were a tiny, drowned-out minority instead of the trumpets they are.
An interesting thought, though (and I start with the disclaimer that this is a generalization, and may not apply to you and your family) -- I think in the long run, homophobes are more likely to be swayed in their opinions by the words and behavior of their immediate family members, than by talk radio.
Whether a family is very liberal, very rural, very conservative, very urban, it doesn't matter: the likelihood of somebody in the family turning up gay is the same (and it gets more likely all the time). And once your father, sister, son, aunt, cousin or grandchild is revealed to be gay -- and yet still the same person that you knew and loved underneath -- it becomes that much harder to revile them, to dehumanize them, to reject them.
Of course, I know that it still happens, and how horrible it is when something like that tears a family apart -- but still, it makes it that much harder for the homophobe to continue to believe all the propaganda fed to him or her by talk radio, when the reality is right there before their eyes.
Unfortunately, this doesn't solve the eternal conundrum, that when you have free speech it seems like the bad speech drowns out the good. Nor can I deny the fact that in this country, at least right now, having the reality right before their eyes doesn't seem to noticeably affect people's ability to distinguish propaganda from truth. I wish there was some solution. All I can do is keep talking about the truth as I perceive it, and hope that people listen.
Perhaps the key is something you said earlier in the post, that your grandfather was never really taught to think critically. The key is education. But then, we knew that, didn't we? And the news isn't any better on the education front than any other...
Man, I have way too much time on my hands these days!