I need help in "waking up" a leech!

[eproxy100]

My cousin is in SF - John Dennis' district I think. He's your typical democrat who doesn't have a job and doesn't really care for one. He's disappointed at Obama not because of the war stuff or anything but because he says Obama didn't make the welfare stuff more comprehensive (ie. bigger handouts)!

How do you make a person like that stop being so selfish and look into the future? I've tried starting a conversation with him about welfare but he just gets pissed and shuts off!

The only thing I've been successful with him so far is getting him to use my .22lr so that maybe he'll be more inclined to protect the 2nd amendment.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[dean.engelhardt]

Don't lend him money.

[KCIndy]

Eproxy, no offense to your cousin, but some people simply won't change. Your cousin may be one of these. I've known people like this too, and in my mind, it's almost like they're political sociopaths - they know on some level what they're doing is wrong or detrimental, but they simply don't have the empathy to care.

Right now, you could use the situation in Europe, and Greece in particular, to illustrate Margaret Thacher's line that "socialism is wonderful until you run out of other people's money" but if your cousin is a diehard socialist/communist he'll simply retort that we need to raise the taxes on the "rich" (that's you, if you have a job!) to a higher level.

[dannno]

Well the reason we need welfare is because we have so much poverty. Explain that your guy Ron Paul doesn't want to get rid of welfare right away, he wants to cut down our foreign empire first so we can give our economy and shot in the arm and this will help decrease poverty. There will be far less people dependent on welfare and it will be a lesser issue that states could easily handle.

Explain how poverty comes from the Federal Reserve. Tell him about vast transfers of wealth going from the poor working class to the very very wealthy and how that raises prices on things like housing, energy and education. Keeping interest rates low increases all of our debt and debt is used to enslave the working class. It helps expand the warfare state, and you are sick of supporting a foreign policy that costs a trillion dollars every year and only results in killing innocent people and causing more hatred for our country, making us less safe. The military is just a tool for global corporations. You gotta speak their language, this is how Ron Paul was able to convert so many leftists.

Tell him the same people who control the IMF control the Federal Reserve. Liberals hate the IMF, but they never connect it to the US Federal Reserve. Explain corporatism, and how the corporations put on a show and pretend to like small government and no regulations, but that is simply so they can get society who sees them as the enemy to want regulations.. Then they send in their special interest lobbyists and write all the regulations and this makes big corporations very big and wealthy and not have to compete as much.

[Isaac Bickerstaff]

Start blatantly taking stuff from him. When he gets a "Big Gulp", drink a third of it, when he is sitting on his ass playing a video game, snatch the controller from him and demand to play for a few minutes. When he demands to know WTF you are doing, tell him that you are just taking back what's yours or use the opportunity to explain that he has been doing that to you for years or some other variation of that message.

You might end up with a bloody nose or something, but if he is that much of a slug you will probably be OK.

[Jordan]

Start blatantly taking stuff from him. When he gets a "Big Gulp", drink a third of it, when he is sitting on his ass playing a video game, snatch the controller from him and demand to play for a few minutes. When he demands to know WTF you are doing, tell him that you are just taking back what's yours or use the opportunity to explain that he has been doing that to you for years or some other variation of that message.

You might end up with a bloody nose or something, but if he is that much of a slug you will probably be OK.

LOL

That's actually a great way to explain it.

[squarepusher]

many RPF'ers and people in the liberty movement are like this. They will not support the government by having a job and paying taxes, and use government programs as an excuse to "bring down the system" or help speed up the crash.

[BlackTerrel]

You can have civilized discussions with him about the issues but at a certain point if he won't budge then he won't budge. Most people are pretty set in their ways and there is no magic way to change their views.

If you value the relationship at some point you have to drop it and talk about other things. How would you feel if he was on Huffington Post questioning how to get you to support Obama, and every time you talked to him he wanted to tell you how awesome Obama was and "wake you up" to the cause of the righteous? At some point you'd be pissed off.

I've given this blanket advice to others here as well. You can't just push push push. You can try - but at some point if you want to remain on good terms with this guy you have to back off. I have plenty of friends with whom I disagree politically but we get along just fine.

[eproxy100]

Thank you for the suggestions, guys.

I don't lend him money but unfortunately other relatives feed him plenty.

No offense taken cuz I don't like him much at all hence I'm not worried about not getting along with him. If I can change the way he thinks and he hates me for it I'll be happy.

The problem is that when I even say the word "welfare" he just turns his head and starts ignoring me. So I'll try Isaac's suggestion where I'll take a portion of whatever he has. The problem is that whatever he has is usually given to him for free anyway :(

Right on the mark about slugs btw - they're pathetic in terms of physical capacity.

[Brett]

Take a 1/3 of his welfare check and explain how that happens to other people too.

[MelissaWV]

Thank you for the suggestions, guys.

I don't lend him money but unfortunately other relatives feed him plenty.

No offense taken cuz I don't like him much at all hence I'm not worried about not getting along with him. If I can change the way he thinks and he hates me for it I'll be happy.

The problem is that when I even say the word "welfare" he just turns his head and starts ignoring me. So I'll try Isaac's suggestion where I'll take a portion of whatever he has. The problem is that whatever he has is usually given to him for free anyway :(

Right on the mark about slugs btw - they're pathetic in terms of physical capacity.

It's not given to him/free. You paid for it.