Tell them your hurt to learn that they are capable of unconditional love and support. Ask them if they'd have loved you more if you raped a few children, or was racist AF.
this post was submitted on 01 Oct 2026
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Get an EV!
Just kidding... unless...? >.>
Since there seems to be a divide between your views and your parent's, ask yourself if you think you could have a constructive discussion about the causes for high gas prices on a level playing field.
If no, do not engage. Maybe ask them to not discuss politics around/ with you to avoid building tension between each other.
If you think you can discuss this with them, go for it, but stay on topic. There's a lot to be upset about in politics no matter where you stand or what you vote. If you realize that you can't close the gap, cut your losses and change topic.
But additionally, ask yourself why it is so important to you to discuss the topic with them. Knowing where you are coming from and what you want out of this might help to protect yourself from stress.
"Shut the fuck up. I'm not playing this game anymore. Goodbye."
Well as a left progressive who has looked into California gas, and also lived there for 4 years, yeah, there are some ridiculous fees, but also some very high standards that cause higher prices, and some of it is to pay for legitimate improvements and upkeep in the state - but tell them that everyone is starting to get high gas prices that the US used to be immune from, largely thanks to oil and gas bribing politicians to keep us addicted to oil and gas and stifle modern energy production, thereby bribing politicians to keep our prices high and climbing ever higher as oil production becomes more problematic, as the world transitions away from gas and moves to electric, causing less demand eventually that would also cause higher prices just like these war related production issues do. If politicians had invested in and encouraged investment in modern energy production we would have increasing numbers of jobs in those energy sectors, not decreasing and seasonal, and prices would be lowering as solar and wind and battery tech get cheaper and cheaper. Solar is now the cheapest, and that includes compared to oil and gas.
Socratic method is the only way, but it's very frustrating.
maybe something like:
"I agree with you guys, gas prices are a complex issue with many different factors affecting how much gas costs. however, gas is currently high due to how supply and demand works. a major port that exports about 20% of the globe's gasoline is now closed, causing supply to go down and demand to go up."
short, concise, factual. first sentence is key cause you agree with them, gas is complicated. but everyone can agree when there is less of something, the price of it goes up.
hope this helps
Tell them that gas prices are based on the laws of supply and demand. Thus they are going to go up faster than inflation for the foreseeable future because no new oil deposits have been found since the 1970s and all known oil deposits are heading towards depletion. Anyone who could find new viable deposits would make trillions but it appears that with over 8 trillion dollars spent on that; for profit businesses have not found any solution.
Recommending an EV and supporting renewable energy sources is the most likely solution to preventing them from dying poor.
It's not going to work, but I'd just show them the data:
- Current gas price divided up into cost of raw material and taxes applied on it
- Timeline of raw material cost and events affecting the costs
Let them decide what to believe.
Sharing DNA does not make you obligated to keep toxic individuals in your life. Your peace of mind is more valuable than arguing with people brainwashed by billionaires. Moving on is always an option.
Tell them to get an electric vehicle.
Tell ‘em to move to Texas where they can have cheap gas as prohibitively expensive property taxes instead!
Why don't you show them gas prices for the rest of the country?
Probably point out that it's cheaper in red states
Which would be true.
Tell them "Don't you understand that they are doing it especially for you. If they didn't do it, the you would not have anything to whine and moan about."
If they still vote Republican, they are probably pretty low on the intelligence bell curve and must be difficult to have coherent conversations with. Option B is that they are extremely hateful and the world is collectively curious why you are still talking to them.
You tell them you want something called “estrangement” because they’re fucking stupid.
Unfortunately, a plurality of Americans actually believe that. There's no helping them; this is the line of bull they're being fed by their leaders and the billionaires who own the media.
Login to their router and block the URLs for Facebook, whatever their TV provider is (since most cable tv runs through the internet nowadays), Twitter, Nextdoor, and any podcasting service you can think of.
Competing with a multi-billion dollar propaganda network as one person who they likely perpetually see as immature and uneducated is going to be like Sisyphus pushing a boulder up a mountain.
Alternatively, if they watch Fox "News", you can create a fake version of Fox with a fake Fox banner and show lefty YouTube political commentators instead. I'm sure there's some way to automate that process.
Nextdoor is a toxic waste dump.
Oh my God you are right - I had no idea because I had an account when I lived in a poor area and it was just people organizing to help repair each other's houses, occasional lost pet alert and stuff like that, nice.
We moved to a more gentrified area and I shit you not, it was "there is a black man in the street" what the actual fuck, that's your neighbor, bitch!
Now we are in a neighborhood in the middle and I tried again, holy crap no. What a mess. Unholy mix of racist rants, political rants, religious rants, people asking for money and people complaining about their health.
All corporate-owned social media is by its very nature. They're designed to make the user angry so they stay on their platforms for longer amounts of time and therefore see more advertisements.
These things do increase the price of gas. Is it more than the increase from war? I don't think so. But that part doesn't matter because they (may) think the war is good and the taxes are bad so they are willing to pay the extra for the war.
Contrasting coverage of American wars and American social programs, you´d think waging war was completely FREE. Nobody every asks, "How are we going to pay for this?"
I'm slightly more pessimistic and thinking people are hoping for a "war economy" as if that's a good thing.
Maybe a war economy would be a good thing if we were sending a bulk of our population to fight a land war while we build out our industrial base. But now we we just run up the deficit buying expensive equipment from bespoke factories that don't need to hire many more people. All we end up doing is raising bond rates and crashing the economy.
(a war economy is bad because that means there is a war)
Yes, I know, but conservatism is so stupid these days that it doesn't even work within its own moral confines. You don't have to convince conservatives that conservatism is immoral, you can convince them that conservatism is counter to its own goals.
For instance, the goal of all the US' military interventions was to maintain our hegemony. You and I, of course, could point out that the wars and sanctions kill millions of innocent people, but conservatives don't give a fuck about anyone but themselves at worst, or their tribe at best, and certainly not the lives of soldiers.
In the case for our war with Iran, all we're doing is accelerating the decline of our Empire. There is literally no valid conservative argument to made, no matter how amoral, that continuing war with Iran is a benefit to the United States. We're moving our troops out of the region, eroding our soft power, the petroyuan is coming into being, our bond rates our rising, we are losing allies, governments that supported us (House of Saud) are in existential danger, etc. Conservativism is making the US objectively a weaker nation.
FWIW,
They seem to be partially correct.
wp:Gasoline and diesel usage and pricing#United States
wp:List of governors of California
wp:Steve Hilton#2026 California gubernatorial election
Xavier Becerra
Steve Hilton
Hilton has pledged to make significant changes to California's economy, including reducing gas prices to just $3 per gallon, lowering utility bills, and abolishing income taxes for individuals earning less than $150,000 per year.
It ain't like it was 40 years ago when a Republican like Reagan won California twice, including the election where he won 49 states back when he was 73 years old, whereas weak Trump couldn't even win 40%.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980_United_States_presidential_election#Results_by_state
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1984_United_States_presidential_election#Results_by_state
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_United_States_presidential_election#Results_by_state
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_United_States_presidential_election#Results_by_state
So sad.
A Ben Garrison cartoon? The fuck?
Once in a while he gets it right.
Nah.
What's inaccurate about the cartoon?