For some context, we are first generation immigrants. My parents are Russian, my mother and her husband have been living here for 20 years (even got rid of Russian citizenship couple years ago), my biological father is still living in Russia.
It’s damn exhausting to discuss political topics with them, especially my father. He keeps telling me how great it is to live in Russia, how their economy is doing great and how he’s proud that they are defending their “brothers” in Donezk and Luhansk from the evil bandera regime in Ukraine.
My mom voted far right in the past election. She doesn’t believe she voted for nazis, but the party’s views on economics, climate policy and immigration seem to align with hers. She believes wind farms are harmful for the environment. What the actual fuck.
Whenever I try to argue with them, they tell me that I’ve been brainwashed by “Western propaganda”.
I’m at a loss. I love my parents and I know that nobody’s immune to propaganda, but it’s heartbreaking to see them holding these toxic beliefs. How would you deal with parents like these? Should I just declare to never talk about politics with them again since it’s pointless?
Wind and Solar are just as bad as coal. They require a lot of mining.
The mining isn’t entirely the bad part of coal. Mining can be contained it is a local pollutant. Burning it is the real issue. And fiberglass and solar panels are both made of silicon. One of the most abundant minerals on the planet it isn’t hard to get and mining it doesn’t create the same kind of drainage as coal mining.
But the diesel used to extract it, with the mining equipment, probably makes it a net loss over its lifetime. We’d have to see some studies on the power expended to create a solar panel, and how much it saves over it’s life, to see if solar is truly net savings over hydroelectric.