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.
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?