Argumentative

[poliphilo]

We took my mother-in-law to Sainsburys yesterday, where we met her next door neighbour and had to give her a lift home. This next-door neighbour is an aggrieved person whose father used to be a communist shop steward- and she started talking about how Asians should have their own bathhouses and not pollute "ours" and I called her a racist and we both became spluttering and incoherent. I wish I could be Buddhalike about these provocations, but it appears I can't. Afterwards I said to Ailz that I seem to have a thing about getting into arguments with shrill and opinionated old ladies and she pointed out that this particular old lady is approximately the same age as me- and might even be younger. Oh.

Comments

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Usually, personal contact with a person in the despised category. I've seen a number of cases where middle-aged or elderly people HAVE changed their views to be more inclusive and accepting.

I've seen many more cases of elderly people who actually were nowhere near as bigoted as people assumed they would be -- I know of more than one person of my generation who came out to their grandparents, only to have them respond with something like, "I served with a couple gay people in WWII; they were fine soldiers, and I always thought it was unfair that they couldn't get married. . . "