Reply #11: the only disgusting thing I've heard in my family regarding this

[unpossibles]

was my grandfather telling me "there was not a civil war, there was a second American revolution and we lost." He said worse things that than, and was pretty racist. When I was 14, we were in Savannah, GA and he was letting it all out. I finally told him that he was a bigot, and that while I couldn't change his out-dated, prejudiced opinions, he could at least respect me enough to not be a racist in front of me. I also realized that he was a product of his generation and geography, but that it was a lousy excuse to act like that and not grow up.

He called me a god damned liberal, and I had no idea what that meant. I deduced that it must have something to do with freedom and liberty based on the word roots, and told him as much. He chuckled.

For that among other things, we often did not get along, although we had a grudging respect for each other too despite being so opposite. About 10-20 years later, in the middle of a conversation he asked me if I was still a god damn liberal, and I told him that he could give me whatever label he wanted; that I had many viewpoints and ideals which he would call liberal, but that I did not necessarily define myself any certain way. He was quiet for a moment, then finally told me, "you know, I think you turned out smarter than the other two." He said it in front of my dad and brother, who tended to suck up to him and buy into the patriarch of the family thing, whereas I did not. It was kind of a shitty thing to say, but it also on some level made me feel better, than despite periods of him refusing to talk to me, or him being an ass, he still respected my opinion even if we differed. Maybe because we differed.