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Watching two elderly Australians of 100% Asian descent agree that, yes, these new people who come to our country shouldn't be 'pandered' to, or allowed to change our culture. (My stepfather, and my paternal aunt.)
TBH, my reply to the racistwhistling post (anti-Islam page: "they're now chocolate eggs rather than easter eggs? OUTRAGE! How dare these people come in and take our Christian culture from us!") which drew their attention was actually intended more for a third elderly party (my father's cousin, a lovely family friend) who 'liked' the post.
She liked it from the "concern about Christian culture" aspect (which, TBH, is going to be the "well, I don't quite agree with it but they have a point about how the Christian aspect of these celebrations are being erased" that's familiar to the people who both too closely connect western culture with Christianity, and yet will also unironically talk about 'the world' when describing opposition to Christianity.
I'm pretty sure I could have a discussion with my dad's cousin about it, but my stepfather and my paternal aunt will just dismiss anything I said. My stepfather in particular.
I love my stepdad, but I am DESPERATELY PRAYING that he dies before my mum. Because he has two sons and three stepdaughters, the more responsible of his sons has moved to Europe with his wife, the less responsible one is flakey when it comes to their relationship (and there's issue there), which leaves us stepdaughters doing the emotional labour.
Does that sound selfish? I mean, I'm not going to abandon him on the street, but dealing with him into old age will be a tax on our time and energies that neither of the Bs will survive without great emotional effort on their part (and guilt), and which I'm bitch enough and rich enough to pay someone else to do with only mild qualms of conscience. But, honestly, that's just making it someone else's problem.
Mum will doubtless be a querulous demanding old lady as she ages. We can see hints of it now, and there will probably come a day when it'll be more annoying than directable, but at least I figure she'll be malleable and arguable. There'll be neither roping nor tying of the stepfather once he starts losing it.
Speaking of 'Christian culture' you will be unsurprised to hear that our Deputy PM (kind of the VP) is split from his wife after using her as a prop in his 2016 election and his bid to get re-elected in 2017 (after discovering that he was actually a dual citizen at the time of his election and therefore unelectable according to Australian law until he'd renounced his other citizenship), leaving her and their four daughters for a junior staffer perhaps a dozen years older than his eldest - a lady who's pregnant with his kid and due in April.
YOU CANNOT MAKE THIS SHIT UP.
Oh? And the icing on the cake? He was the one bellowing and snorting about 'decency standards' in our 'gay marriage survey' last year - the sanctity of marriage and so forth.
Australia has it's own set of political issues right now. One of the less fortunate things about our democracy, however, is that we're a cynical bunch. We vote, but I suspect it's mostly for whoever's in power, because better the devil you know and they're all burning fiery assholes.
*sigh*
TBH, my reply to the racistwhistling post (anti-Islam page: "they're now chocolate eggs rather than easter eggs? OUTRAGE! How dare these people come in and take our Christian culture from us!") which drew their attention was actually intended more for a third elderly party (my father's cousin, a lovely family friend) who 'liked' the post.
She liked it from the "concern about Christian culture" aspect (which, TBH, is going to be the "well, I don't quite agree with it but they have a point about how the Christian aspect of these celebrations are being erased" that's familiar to the people who both too closely connect western culture with Christianity, and yet will also unironically talk about 'the world' when describing opposition to Christianity.
I'm pretty sure I could have a discussion with my dad's cousin about it, but my stepfather and my paternal aunt will just dismiss anything I said. My stepfather in particular.
I love my stepdad, but I am DESPERATELY PRAYING that he dies before my mum. Because he has two sons and three stepdaughters, the more responsible of his sons has moved to Europe with his wife, the less responsible one is flakey when it comes to their relationship (and there's issue there), which leaves us stepdaughters doing the emotional labour.
Does that sound selfish? I mean, I'm not going to abandon him on the street, but dealing with him into old age will be a tax on our time and energies that neither of the Bs will survive without great emotional effort on their part (and guilt), and which I'm bitch enough and rich enough to pay someone else to do with only mild qualms of conscience. But, honestly, that's just making it someone else's problem.
Mum will doubtless be a querulous demanding old lady as she ages. We can see hints of it now, and there will probably come a day when it'll be more annoying than directable, but at least I figure she'll be malleable and arguable. There'll be neither roping nor tying of the stepfather once he starts losing it.
Speaking of 'Christian culture' you will be unsurprised to hear that our Deputy PM (kind of the VP) is split from his wife after using her as a prop in his 2016 election and his bid to get re-elected in 2017 (after discovering that he was actually a dual citizen at the time of his election and therefore unelectable according to Australian law until he'd renounced his other citizenship), leaving her and their four daughters for a junior staffer perhaps a dozen years older than his eldest - a lady who's pregnant with his kid and due in April.
YOU CANNOT MAKE THIS SHIT UP.
Oh? And the icing on the cake? He was the one bellowing and snorting about 'decency standards' in our 'gay marriage survey' last year - the sanctity of marriage and so forth.
Australia has it's own set of political issues right now. One of the less fortunate things about our democracy, however, is that we're a cynical bunch. We vote, but I suspect it's mostly for whoever's in power, because better the devil you know and they're all burning fiery assholes.
*sigh*
no subject
Still I'd like to point out that my father married for the wrong reason three times. My mother was the first, and they had me eleven months after the wedding, when she was not quite twenty, and he was not quite twenty-two. Two years later it was all done. Fast forward through the other two failed marriages, and he finally meets the right woman for him, a former student fifteen years his junior, which made her only seven years older than me. He met her when he was still married to wife number three. Sounds pretty scandalous, and with a nasty power dynamic and a cradle robbing aspect, doesn't it?
She was, finally, the right one, and they married for the right reasons, after many years of living together because Dad feared failing at marriage yet again. He was by her side as she had my youngest brother and as she fought off breast cancer. She was by his as he lost his battle with pancreatic cancer. They genuinely loved each other deeply, wholly, and freely. It was a beautiful thing.
That said, Dad was not flaunting his morality on the national stage, or using that to deny others the right to enjoy what he had. If you asked him, my Dad would be the first to tell you he was a royal mess, and not a shining example for youth.
As women we see the pattern where a man leaves a wife of many years, with whom he has raised a family, for a younger fresher woman all too often. We become cynical about it, and assume that the younger woman offers youth and vibrancy as her only stock in trade. Sometimes it is a matter of her gaining security in trade for that, but not always.
I just had to point that out. For Dad.
no subject
But, if you have the money to make him someone else's problem (and no, that isn't a bad thing to think) then remember, he wouldn't be there problem he'd be their job. Like, something they do for money and were trained for and everything. Stimulating the economy is what I'm saying. ;)
♥
no subject
I can't see the stepdad vanishing; that's not his thing at all.
The big 'danger' I perceive is my sister B1, who is trained in aged care, etc. as an Occupational Therapist, who will get stuck with the stepdad b/c guilt (B1 can feel guilty about anything with very little provocation) and even if we pay someone to look after him will take on a lot of the care herself. Or else, he'll demand the care.