This happened a few days ago when I was going to do my taxes with my mom and stepdad. We were talking about my home life and school and whatnot, and they asked me what I wanted to do once I got my credentials. I was vague about it and just straight up told them I donāt like to talk about my future endeavours, but what I did tell them was that I was following in the footsteps of people I admire and hope to achieve what they have. They understood this and thought that was a fine thing to do, although they donāt know the people I admire so maybe their opinions would change, then again I donāt think theyād mind either. Anyway this conversation led to my mother saying how she was talking to my stepdad about me being a communist (I ācame outā to her a month ago) and my ideals and how now she believes she might be a communist too.
Her reasoning was that she believes in equality, hates how wealth is currently distributed, and stuff like that. She then said she doesnāt believe a waitress should be paid more than a doctor but the wealth disparity should not be as large as it is. My stepdad then brought up Cuba as an example, they both recently (ish) visited and said that waitresses in Cuba get paid more than doctors because they receive tips. He also said that their tour guide was an engineer who did tours on the side to make tips.
Heās made comments about Cuba before a while back during a conversation about how doctors who immigrate to Canada canāt work as doctors, I then brought up how amazing Cuban doctors are and how they are exported to help in other countries. My stepdad then said that Cuban doctors arenāt allowed to leave Cuba and are essentially extorted by the government (something about how the doctorās family will be āheld hostageā in Cuba if the doctor tries to leave). I was confused by this comment but just brushed it off because what? Iāve never heard of this before and I was not about to entertain it.
Anyway, back to the present, while my mom calls herself a full communist my stepdad says he thinks heās in the middle because he likes the freedom capitalism grants but hates the inequality. I didnāt say anything but in my head all I could think was āthat is an inherent trait of capitalism, though.ā My mom says she wants people to be equal and my stepdad made a weird comment about the āGreat Reset,ā which I donāt know much about but isnāt it a conspiracy theory? He said something about how they are trying to make everyone āequalā so they canāt own property or something like that. I didnāt say anything to this, I didnāt even push him to tell me more. This was just weird all around haha. Again, I didnāt push them on any of this because I am trying to pick and choose my battles very carefully.
I know my stepdad has apparently been doing research into how rich people actually get rich (my immediate thought was āexploitationā) and he is trying to do just that. He is very āobsessedā with becoming rich and with that he is trying to pursue real estateā¦ Like become a landlord company. I have talked about this quite a while ago, maybe a year? And it still bothers me. I donāt feel personally at fault for this and I donāt feel like a hypocrite anymore but this endeavour does mess with me. Thankfully my negative feelings are not lingering, not as much as they used to, but whenever it is talked about I canāt help but feel bad. They told me one day I would inherit this business and I straight up said I donāt think I was interested in that, like at all. They are fine with that, thankfully. I know they want to buy a property close to whichever schools I end up going to for my masters and PhD as they want to both help me as much as they can and do their business thing.
In any case I love my parents but sometimes they confuse the hell out of me.
I thought this would be interesting to share with everyone on the Grad. My school life and family life are weird as hell.
Fun Fact! My mom also loves history documentaries and seems to have a vested and sympathetic interest in the Romanovs (she said Nick was a great dad and how they died was so sad), so her calling herself a communist is a little funny to me but I am more than happy giving her the benefit of the doubt considering all the docs she watches are super western and propagandized to hell. Maybe I can find a documentary that tells the true story about the Romanovs and share it with her.
Yay for your mom, now sheās passed a test in the willingness to inquire about socialism!
But still, good for yāallā¦
A few notes though
Upon an advanced point, tho, you must ask them about the Global South, imperialism and unequal exchange, then lead it to historical national liberation struggles and then eventually modern geopolitics and the concept of critical supportā¦
That, and the progressive intersection between cultural, economic, and foreign Marxist policy
That being said, good hopes for progressā¦ tis like reading Chapter 1 of Das Kapitalā¦ one small step for man, one giant leap for man kind
So, your mom is dipping her feet into socialism, but your dad is plunging headfirst into fascism.
He says heās a mix between capitalism and communism (which is impossible but whatever) so I donāt know. My stepdad wants to get rich but I donāt think he realizes that it requires exploitation. His comment about the Great Reset made me uncomfortable but I donāt know enough about it to say much. My mom is definitely not a theory reader or anything but she likes what I have to say. It is a weird dynamic they are building.
Between the fact that heās brought up the Great Reset conspiracy and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Position I think heās just going into fascist ideology.
Fascist ideology is, to me, a more right wing settler ideology
You can not have the former without having the latter, as a goal, or as a objective to be fully accomplished, in my opinionā¦
And with OPās dad in Canada as a settlerā¦ I donāt hope for the best
The Fascist occupations of North and East Africa were brutal, and many natives lost their land for the sake of Fascist capital.
The loss or failure to gain land from WWI were major motives behind Europeās most successful fascist movements, hence the acquisitions of Fiume, the Saar Basin, the Rhineland, Ethiopia, Sudetenland, Austria, Albania, Poland, and so forthā¦ to tell you the truth, your uncertainty about the subject surprises me.
