Summary
With Donald Trump’s 2024 election win, young Gen Z voters like Kate, Holly, and Rachel are grappling with deepening divides with their Trump-supporting parents.
For many, these conflicts go beyond policy disagreements, touching on core values and morality. Parents once focused on fiscal conservatism have, in some cases, embraced conspiracy theories, creating painful rifts.
Studies suggest political divisions are increasingly seen as moral judgments, fostering a “mega-identity” where political views signify personal decency.
For these young adults, maintaining family connections amidst such ideological fractures has become challenging.
I’m late 50’s and so is my wife. My parents are gone but hers are all MAGA all the time. She hasn’t talked to them much in years. It’s not just younger adults but older ones as well. I still have trouble comprehending what has happened.
I’m in my 40s and I always wonder “am I still young people?” When these articles come up. Middle age and modern society be weird.
Late 30s here, everyone is getting considered young people until the boomers and Silents die
poor gen x. they’re either boomers or millenials. Gen X doesn’t exist.
(/mild sarcasm)
42 here. I don’t feel old yet, that’s all that matters. I’m still doing the same shit I did in my twenties more or less. Except for needing a bit more caffeine nowadays to get going.
The people 20 years younger than me do seem to be getting weirder and weirder though. I also noticed the old cliques are gone (skaters, emos, ‘gangstas’, jocks, etc.) and everyone just kinda does their own thing now.
Same. What made me feel old as fuck in this article was one of the young women mentioning voting for Obama in her elementary school mock election.
My wife and I are not going to her side of family’s Thanksgiving this year since they are full Trumpers. Not worth seeing them since we don’t like them that much anyhow and they will be insufferable this year. We are in our mid 30s.
It’s not the only reason (they’re just truly terrible people across the board), but no one in my family has talked with my grandparents on my dad’s side in many, many years because of this. Rightwing nutjobs with no grip on reality and no idea how shitty they are. I’m pretty sure they don’t even know that they are great grandparents now (technically, anyway).
I was trying to explain to someone in a forum once - this was someone that was always trying to normalize everything the wingers did. I was trying to explain to him just how often maga people are left out of gatherings and so on. I mean, this is even sometimes other Republicans. It’s like one wife whispers to another wife - “well, we should not invite so and so because their husband is nuts for Trump”, or, “so and so is a complete Karen that’s all in for the conspiracy theory stuff and has Faux on all the time”.
People just don’t want to be around this stuff as a general rule. Maybe a handful of other magas do, but normal Americans do not.
Anyway, this guy thought I was just making this up and asked how do you know you aren’t being cut out of social things for being an “extremist” (everyone not for donvict is an “extremist” in their view), etc…what can you do with these people?
In my 40s and parents are full support of Trump and Cruz (live in Texas). They were always on the conservative side, but since moving there they really went full into being “Texans” and yee-haw America!
I didn’t talk to them for over a year for something else, but totally in line with the politics/evangelical feelings. My grandma died and I went to the funeral where I finally spoke to them. I will text occasionally to say thanks for something they sent, but ultimately I have still pretty much cut them out everywhere else.