Discussing political disagreements with parents/relatives?

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Who here has had, or tried to have, conversations with parents or other relatives about one or more disagreements you've had with them on political or social issues?

If so, what are your thoughts on how to make such conversations productive and not harmful to family relationships?

I was inspired to ask this question by the following post here:


To depressedmiddleage:

Have you ever made any attempts to educate your parents about the Israel/Palestine situation? If so, what happened?

I myself did challenge my parents' beliefs on some other social and political issues years ago, with limited success. I'll share some of the details later.

(I will also add that I was born near the end of the baby boom, but I managed eventually to change my mind about the Israel/Palestine situation, in a series of phases, including a long period of confusion when I felt that I just didn't have enough information to take any kind of stand. So please don't generalize about all boomers.)

In a way we have done that here on WP, haven’t we?

Just for fun, you could pretend that you had seen the light and turned hard conservative.

Make statements such as

"We'll show Putin just how quickly we can take Canada, Greenland and Panama. Imagine, 3 years in Ukraine, and nothing to show for it. What a loser!"

"it is too bad that there aren't any Norwegians who want to move here."

"After we've deported everyone, we can send Blacks to work on the farms."

"We need to round up all of the liberals, and people who voted for Harris, and consign them to interment camps! Put them to work, building the Wall! And our wall will be a Great Wall! Way better than Chyna's! Mexico will pay for it, and we'll be so proud of it, for centuries to come!"

I just found this article that seems to have some decent advice about how to deal with folks that have disagreements. Especially stupid positions like vaccines causing autism and whatever else. Basically just bypass the position and try to reference something good, like that vaccines do actually prevent polio and polio rather than telling them that vaccines don't cause autism, which is unlikely to move the needle for anybody that still believes that.

https://bigthink.com/neuropsych/dont-wa ... technique/

There are limitations to what the team at APPC has concluded. Their study into bypassing was largely about attitudes to policies, not about belief change or belief correction. So, for example, your dad might still believe that GMOs cause allergies, but, thanks to your bypassing, be okay with their widespread use worldwide. “Fair play, son,” he’ll say, “I’m happy they’re helping prevent world hunger.” Someone might still believe that 5G kills birds or that aluminium causes bone problems but admit that those are necessary evils set against the positive outcomes you present them with.

So, bypassing isn’t the only tool available, and it might not even be the best if your concern is belief change. Changing someone’s belief is a complicated psychological topic, and there is definitely no one-size-fits-all strategy.

As this article also says, though:


The article then contains a link to Everyday Philosophy: When should you try to change your friend’s beliefs?