Staying with my mom for a couple months before I do this study abroad thing. She is obsessed with George Soros, but not other billionaires. Keeps saying things that are halfway antisemitic tropes, but let’s be real. She’s super religious and thinks some things about jews she’s afraid to say.
Today was the classic, “paid protestors” where she kept going on and on. Showed me a fake job listing and a christian blog post as proof. I said that’s not proof, so agree to disagree right?
How would y’all handle this? Do I just give up on refuting this crap? I have a lot of jewish friends, and this shit really drives my anger/anxiety through the roof, so I do not think I can just have a rational convo. But I also don’t wanna sit next to racist crap being spewed and say nothing.
I could find another living situation, but it’s like an hour away from where all my friends/other fam live and I have already asked these people for a ton of favors.
Your mom is not in a state where she is going to even listen to anything you have to say. You could come up with the most perfect materialist understanding of what’s going on, and it’s gonna go in one ear and out the other. It’s akin to people who are sold on Young Earth Creationism or a flat earth… you can show them the science but they will simply hand wave it away as “biased scientists” or some conspiracy theory they hold on to to protect their ego. People have to be in a position where they are questioning their existing understanding or open to new ways of thinking about things.
I suggest looking into a technique called “gray rock”. Basically, it comes down to only engaging with people by giving them the most bland, uninteresting responses. Don’t give them a response good or bad, and they’ll eventually get bored of trying to engage with you. Normally I would say antisemitism, racism, etc need to be confronted; but I feel that’s more towards people with influence over others or a public setting. When it’s your mom whose gone off the deep end and you have to live with her, I think that’s a situation where you have to take care of yourself first.
Start wearing a yarmulke around the house.
At this point be calm and polite but direct. Some good phrases are “This isn’t true.” And “Stories like this endanger people in real life.”
Anti semitism from Cristians in 2024 is still one of the most bizarre, manufactured behaviors observable
i don’t know if it’s advice, because i don’t know if i endorse it, but in my life when i’ve been in those situations i just grit my teeth and get through the time that i am stuck there. i would be out of the house as much as possible during non-waking hours, hanging with friends or in those rare free, public places where one can read a book without being disturbed or treated as loitering or trespassing.
i used to do that a lot in bookstores. those like kinda corporate strip mall ones that had random chairs in the back. a lot of those are gone, but sometimes they have a cafe where i would get the cheapest drink and nurse it for 2 hours with free water refills. treated it kind like a library, would put i book i was reading back but in a weird place so i could get it again. no fees, longer hours, open on weekends lol. i read a lot of books doing that over a period of years.
