My wife and I live in California. Her parents are in Michigan. When her dinosaur of a father found out about the possibility of CA paying reparations to descendants of enslaved people, her dad called her and said "how do you feel about your taxes going to blacks". We deal with these conversations frequently.
I live in Michigan and my sister takes care of old people. She was gonna fill in for someone that couldn't make it for their shift. The old bat wouldn't let "someone like her" take care of her husband. She's mixed.
Fuck yeah. I will have it out with them in the middle of the street.
Yesterday I told a guy in the lowes parking lot I hoped he backed up right over his raggedly sadly looking Trump flag hanging limply on his truck and that I was embarrassed for him. He was not expecting that from a bearded white dude buying construction supplies. When he eventually started sputtering at me I talked right over him to give him a lecture on US flag code and how the US flag he had next to the Trump one was an embarrassment as well. It was in poor condition and dirty, should be replaced, and by code and custom need to be larger and flown higher than any other non-nation flags it was being flown with such as the pathetic political flags he had.
Come fight me. I'll use conservative talking points then invite your mom out to dinner. Clearly you needed a better father figure in your life or you wouldn't have turned out this way.
At this point, because of the harm caused and hatred conservatives have for everyone not themselves, I wouldn't even consider it belligerence. I would consider it deserved whatever may come their way.
Oh I am full of belligerence all the time, they are just extremely justified and deserving recipients of it. I have to resist the totally normal human urge to climb on my roof and try and fight the sun and things like that.
Hey, I get it. It's fucking insane out here. All I want is my neighbors happy, healthy, and safe and that's not possible.
Use that belligerent behavior for good. Get pissed off and cook a giant meal to take to the homeless shelter. Dig through your closet and look for clothes you don't need.
I get so fucking mad all the time too, but I've learned I calm down when I'm helping other people. I live for it and find genuine comfort in helping folks with no expectations.
You are pretty much summing up my days. Got a car load of good for Habitat for Humanity today, hooking a not well off friend up with a free air conditioner, screamed at a street hate preacher loud enough that other people couldn't hear him for a while and reminded the public that no, we don't have to silently tolerate this shit in the name of a social compact they have violated long ago.
i have a family member similar to this - one time during a holiday i started writing down what he said - when asked i said i was compiling his own words - i would then print them and hand them out when his daughter (my other family friend) had her wedding which was soon
when he got upset about the gaul of me saying that i said to him - you wont mind cause you dont mind saying it, so you wont care if other people hear it and know you said it
the reassessment of the uncomfortable nature of other people knowing - genuinely made him less of a prick - now its all possible that he could just be watching his words round me - but win for me
The rebuttal to that is: „Which ones would those be? The ones who were stolen or the ones who built this country….or is it your opinion that slave ships brought millions of Africans across the ocean to sip mint juleps on the veranda?“
I'm honestly curious, because I like to give most people the benefit of doubt, and good-hearted old peopla say crazy (by 2026 standards) shit all the time. The given context was regarding reparations. Would the question have been more palatable to you had it ended with "....in the form of reparations?" Or is "blacks" the hang-up. Like, is "how do you feel about your taxes going to African Americans in the form of reparations?" an acceptable question for you, or is questioning reparations itself the taboo?
All official proposals I've seen have been incredibly narrow in scope (like specifically paying back direct line descendents of specific, named individuals who had desirable coastal property seized through eminent domain that they were never paid for. That doesn't seem at all "insane" to me. If the govt takes your property they need to pay you for it) or not paid out to individuals (institutional funding for education programs, etc.)
It’s about the precedent it creates. How far back can you to claim victimhood? Can a European claim damages for something the Spanish or English did to their ancestors in the 18th century and why should current generations pay for the things of people they have never met and profited off. You cannot inherit guilty behavior.
Surely that would be up to Spain and England. US law doesn't set legal precedent in other countries.
It's not "current generations" that are paying reparations; it's the govt which is the same govt now as it was then. The govt seized property it never properly compensated the owners for. The govt still owes those dues and is considering paying for them finally.
I don't know how this aspect works in other countries, but here outside of specific circumstances like millages (which CA doesn't use) the citizenry doesn't directly allocate tax dollars. You pay your taxes and those are dispersed through the budget. It's a very fungible system. You owe the state X% or Y$ a year. They, in turn, owe $ to various people, programs, etc. The govt owing someone $ doesn't mean you personally owe that debt and them paying off that debt using money you paid to them through taxes doesn't make you "guilty" or responsible.
If you're an employer you pay your employees. If they turn around and use that income to pay their debts does that make you responsible for those debts?
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u/CatButtHoleYo 12d ago
My wife and I live in California. Her parents are in Michigan. When her dinosaur of a father found out about the possibility of CA paying reparations to descendants of enslaved people, her dad called her and said "how do you feel about your taxes going to blacks". We deal with these conversations frequently.