I'm at a family dinner and my dipshit winger sister launches

into an elaborate story about her daughter's teacher explaining socialism while she snarkily mocks the Obama administration. there were about twenty of us at dinner and about 4 of the twenty are wingers. Then she looks at me and says that she isn't trying to start anything so we shouldn't talk about it. The same snarky story two gatherings in a row and I unfortunately took the bait and responded emotionally by telling her that if she wants to have a discussion (they always get heated) that she should bring it.

I wish that I had not responded emotionally but rather logically. Her example was that since her daughter earned great grades socialism would be if she had to share her success with her classmates that didn't work as hard and instead of her getting an A they would all get Cs. I hope that she brings it up again next time because I would like to compare it to unbridled capitalism. In capitalism one child's family owns the school. All of the children bust there butts and the owners daughter gets an A and everyone else gets a D. Ownership reaps the rewards. If the students band together to demand fair treatment for there work that is known as unionizing. The owner responds by telling the students that if they don't like the grading system they can go to a different school. Only the other schools are not taking new students. Furthermore if they do not stop asking for their due the school will be shipped overseas where students will attend for a d- or an F just because they are happy to be in school.

I also have to ask if her daughter goes to a private school. I would be pissed if a public school teacher was taking cheap talking head inspired shots at the President.

lemme at her

But the help isn't needed. I guess I got a little frustrated with the her approach of spouting her BS and then saying that "she doesn't want to start anything". Somehow just telling her not to start seems to be an inadequate response. After the 2004 election at Thanksgiving I did tell her to shut the fuck up, loudly during dinner. (that Thanksgiving is still my kids' favorite.)

And we do not second guess the President of the United States.

I had a few of them when 12 years ago.

others, almost as good as going into the ministry.

Not that all teachers are like that, of course, just a significant minority.

As in all things RW, the truth is the opposite of what they say.

and a few socialists. Catholics and their whole Francis of Assisi thing....~sigh~

ask her point blank why she wants to get rid of Medicare and Social Security...
that's the whole point of this bullshit "socialist" argument

hypothetical success is a reward in itself.

Also, your sister has little or no personal knowledge of capitalist corporate leadership in the U.S.; the highest paid positions are not the ones who know the most about anything.

Think of her as the "crazy" one. She can't help it. Find it amusing that she is so needy of your attention. And then don't give it to her.
Innocent retribution. The best kind.

You don't ignore because nothing ever changes. Once you bring logic and put them in their place, when they are faced with a similar situation and they are paying the price they'd be better equipped to notice how wrong they were.

way. Then refuse to discuss it. It'll drive them bonkers trying to figure out why someone laughed at them - derision is something they aren't able to deal with.

I would just reply, "You were always pretty stupid, weren't you? Why do you have to continue to demonstrate to us that you're too stupid to have your own kids? And it seems you've now found some friends that you can go group stupid with.", but that's me. I tormented my sister when we were little.

Zing.

Thank Gov. Edwin Edwards for that one.

Well except for my aunt Caroline, who not only left the Democratic Party, but the Catholic Church to become Methodist.

And as my grandma told her back then, "you were born a Democrat and baptized a Catholic and now you're neither...I am very disappointed in you."

:o

and it is little, if a child is getting A's and is ahead of the others, they don't slash the grade and average it out over the class - they take the kid and advance him. They send the kid to college...some who aren't are suited to college were/are trained in the arts, factory work, carpentry, or whatever, even sports. And they get medical care while they're learning and after.

Biggest problem with the commies was their not allowing dissension, information from outside their countries, religion - and they jailed dissenters. Also, one could not own property.

Too much was spent on defense and the people were not able to buy TV's, appliances, etc...

There's a lot of difference between European socialism and communism, but

"..since her daughter earned great grades socialism would be if she had to share her success with her classmates that didn't work as hard and instead of her getting an A they would all get Cs."

This isn't socialism, capitalism or communism. This is made-up bullshit.

in the US. All children are competing on a level playing field (not perfect but the best we can think of) and children don't share their grades with anyone. And it is ALL socialist!

You might also tell her that social security is socialism, as is Medicare. Tell her if she is really against socialism she can opt out of all of it. She can take her children out of public schools and when she retires she can return her social security checks and not accept free health care. Of course, that means that she must also accept responsibility for her parents as it would be socialist for her to not provide for them as well. She can tear up their social security checks and pay their medical bills. She can also band together with others and hire a private fire fighting company (like we used to do in this country) and police (which we still do to some extent) and if her house burns down she should tell the gov't fire fighters to go away and if she gets robbed she should not report it to the police. The list is pretty endless.

We already live in a socialist country, Rush just won't admit it. Or, because he is mega rich, would rather we didn't because then he wouldn't have to pay taxes for something he can afford on his own. But very few of us can shoulder the costs of our parents' final years.

....bring up a touchy subject, have their say, then say "Oh I'm not trying to start anything, we better not talk about it". Of course not, why should she want anyone else to have their say? She already had hers! What a handy way to shut down others' opinions!

Far be it from me to tell you what to do, especially where family is involved. However, in my experience, letting that kind of bullshit go unchallenged merely means you will be dealing with more of the same.

I think it is good that you are preparing your rebuttals. If it was me, I'd be preparing some offensive maneuvers too -- tit for tat. She started it, so next time I'd just bring it to her and start it. And I would be sure to end whatever remarks I made with "Oh, but I'm not trying to start anything -- best if we just don't talk about it, I'm sure you agree."

Just my $.02

(of course I am just a random person on a discussion board -- so please filter through your own personal and family situation :-) )

(on the other hand, I stand by my remarks about her manipulative behavior -- and IMO the only way to combat that kind of behavior is to break the pattern -- even if it ruffles some feathers -- usually there is some sort of family dynamic involved and everyone expects her to go for the jugular and others to keep the peace -- so when others refuse to go along anymore, it will ruffle more feathers than just hers)

It's fair and clever, but then she'll probably wrack her brain cell trying to come up with a rejoinder; this will never end. If it were I in this situation, as I've no mercy in this regard, I'd scoff, jeer, and taunt her that the current ancient right-wingers aren't going to get anywhere by bringing back the tired old Communism/Socialism bugbear with the kids, because children and young adults have no experience of what it was like to grow up under Cold War sentiment. Gen X-ers were the last to witness that, under Raygun and his ilk, who beat the Red Scare drum until it collapsed.

No I do not. Having 4 sisters and 4 brothers spread over 7 states it is hard to keep track of all of them.

is a wide spread email that the right wing nuts love to pass on.Call her on it,it's one of their many urban legends.

A quickie search at snopes uncovered http://www.snopes.com/college/exam/socialism.asp - not identical to your sister's story, but pretty similar. I have a brother-in-law who sends me such tripe - I've sent more snopes references to debunk his claims than I can remember...

"Stay off the roads if you don't like socialism". If that doesn't take I ask if they'd rather have private fire departments that charge up front before they put out your house fire. By the time I get to the socialism of having police and courts they usually shut up.

Bill

that hard work does not equal good pay. Ask her if she thinks when we had slaves if the slaves just weren't working hard enough and if that is why they were slaves?

Socialism is not about making everyone share everything. That is just more RW garbage told to the sheeple to make them feel afraid of it. To use their own greed against them.