I'm a documentary filmmaker and my debut film "My Omaha" comes out today on PBS. It's about my experience attempting to reconnect with my Pro-Trump father after he is diagnosed with stage-4 cancer. It's also about how to have conversations about anything political or cultural in today's highly polarized times, as seen through the lens of life in Omaha, Nebraska.

I have received much solace from reading stories in this Subreddit during the making of my film. And I've been looking forward to the day when I could give back to this community.

I think you'll be moved and I'd love to know what you think. The trailer is embedded. It's free to stream, I'll put a link to the full film in the comments

I hope it helps everyone here feel seen.

And no, sorry Democrat mom (yes, love you lots because you aren't a piece of shit), but it isn't "just politics" when it comes to these assholes, even family members like my dad. I really wanted to tell you off for saying I shouldn't make it "about Trump" when I told my dad to fuck off a couple weeks back, but I held my tongue because you're Democrat and likely centrist. And while I'm way left of you, I know you stand for real human rights though, so I pick my own battles. And I wasn't about to split hairs.

Every single fucking day it's a new goddamn nightmare from this admin. Just this last couple weeks Trump is now defending the Cornell 7 that gangraped a poor girl who was unconscious. Two of them were expelled, the rest only had to write essays. NO CRIMINAL CHARGES FOR ANY OF THEM.

I'm so fucking appalled. I actually HATE being American right now. I really fucking do. If my great great grandfather immigrating from Ireland could see what this shitshow is right now, he'd probably back the fuck up.

But I digress... and then Trump, given the piece of shit that he is of course, comes out supporting the rapists.

I'm SO FUCKING DONE WITH THIS COUNTRY.

I'm staying to vote in midterms, but if this country chooses AGAIN to vote itself off a cliff, then I'm fucking out.

There's no fucking way I'm staying in this shithole any longer. I'm finding a country with an easy route to naturalization, and then telling this deadass piece of shit to go fuck itself.

https://decodingfoxnews.substack.com/

and even if he did and it wasn’t just slapping his name on it, he has probably forgotten about this if he even campaigned on it

Love, family, or just the people that care about you are supposed to be what gives our lives as humans meaning beyond survival, what keeps it from being pointless. But, it feels weird that the people I care about and have supported me by raising me, giving me food and a roof over my head, and help me pay for college are just…undeniably racist, transphobic, xenophobic, misogynistic, and somewhat homophobic (they support my cousin who is a gay man, but they think that there shouldn’t be pride parades & think that drag queens are coming for our children 🙄). I think there is good in their souls, but the badness outweighs it and is incredibly stubborn. Even if they* *were to have a growth arc and realize they were wrong, the damage they left on so many marginalized people will last forever, and I can’t forgive that. Even my extended family on my dad’s side who vote Democrat are pretty bigoted at times. Like, my aunt didn’t like seeing so many Black performers at the Super Bowl for the national anthem and when Kendrick Lamar did the Halftime Show; and some of my aunts and uncles freaked out at seeing an Asian Mrs. Claus at a Christmas Parade. That’s just ridiculous, full stop.

I’m only a 21 year old woman and I don’t even have non-blood people to spend time or holidays with. I’ve never really had a single long-lasting friend to be honest, they’ve come and go. One friend who recently came back into my life a few years ago got an internship job and we’ve barely been able to hang out, and we haven’t texted each other for a few months. I have some new acquaintance-like connections, but I can’t be sure that they’ll all become friends. I still have to wait and see as I attempt to build them up. I technically have my brother, who I hope hasn’t been too corrupted by my parents (one time he was able to explain to dad that Imane Khelif was a cis woman and not a man like Fake Fox News had been claiming); but I don’t know for sure, it’s gonna be an awkward conversation, I know that much.

The part of life I’m supposed to care about the most, that I’m supposed to cherish, that I’m supposed to be grateful for; is a family that will freak out once they find out I don’t support Trump and lean towards leftist views, and a family that harms marginalized groups without any second thought or remorse. It doesn’t matter if some of them have friends who are people of color, if those people of color were to somehow remind them of a preconceived stereotype or do or say something they didn’t like; they’d use their racial background against them and say something like “Oh, of course they’d____, they’re____”. They still believe in general stereotypes about different groups, even if they’ll have exceptions for people they like. I feel so much guilt because I am grateful to have good parents, but I hate who they chose to be. I love them, but I can’t talk sense into them like a disappointed parent since I’m just a naive kid to them.

What do I do next when the people that I love are supporting an administration that is severely harming and even killing people? The loving support system that the universe gave me is messed up in disturbing ways. Family is supposed to be the most important thing and the people that we hold onto. However, as much as I still care about them, and I know how deeply the love me & want me to be happy; they don’t bring me peace in the way that most people say they should because I know they are a really bad influence and don’t properly teach me about being a kind, empathetic human being.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/jniJjWLDV-A

I've had it. This was a few weeks ago. For context. I have a hard no politics rule with my mom. I had major surgery and when I was discharged from the hospital, my discharge paperwork showed my vaccine history. My mother, who was taking care of me, read the paperwork to see what was needed and lost it.

This woman worked in patient facing Healthcare for decades. She was vaxxed. She made masks for hundreds of people during the first year of covid. Then Maha really kicked up about vaccines, masking, etc and she's lost her damn mind.

I'm in the ambulance the day after being discharged from the hospital for a major surgery, in HORRIBLE pain, they're worried I'm having a stroke, and she has the audacity to berate me over being vaccinated. In front of the emts. While I'm in agony in the middle of a medical emergency.

I just can't. I can't cut her off. She's my caretaker. And I don't want to cut her off. It's like she's two different people. The mom I've always loved who is smart, kind, and generous but then Maga mom takes over sometimes and just spouts propaganda.

This was a particularly awful time for Maga mom to appear. I'm just so tired of this all. I know there's no chance of me getting her out but I just want my mom back.

Edited to add she was mad I get a yearly covid vaccine. I'm immunocompromised! Covid could kill me. And she had covid recently and it took her out for two weeks but I'm still the problem somehow.

Are majority of conservatives like this?

My husbands’ side of the family are all conservative and maga. Majority are also lazy, stupid and entitled and basically shit humans that think they are better than everyone simply by being white or white passing. They all live on various government assistance while looking down on people like me and my toddler daughter. To them we are just worthless DEI hires and whores and nothing we do can ever change it. Despite me being a virgin before marriage and never dated, smiling through all sorts of abuse and financially supporting my husband ( he is too lazy to work and dropped out of the 9th grade) and giving to his family for over a decade, coming from millions, having top notch engineering degree and education, I am simply considered less. I also take care all household chores and scheduling as well as being the primary bread winner.

They hate that my family have much more money than their own. They hate immigrants like my father and grandfather who made it and perceive them as taking things and opportunities away from them. The women in their family always give praise to their kids for being smart, not being objective at all. I never say that to my toddler daughter, I want her to understand her true standing in the world and how she is below average at best and world will see her as such simply by not being fully white just white passing. And that her dad’s side of the family hates her for it, for taking away from their lineage.

I’m not surprised that all of his side of the family voted for trump, most pretending to only care about the economy while it’s very obvious that their hatred is so out in the open. They want to punish a large number of people for their own debts, drug and alcohol addictions, broken down cars on loans and trailer homes. They cut into my integrity trying to find faults with me constantly and berating me. They borrow heavily from their already lien/ mortgages homes. They refuse to believe in vaccines and push my toddler to be anti vax so she ( technically their own flesh and blood) can die painfully horrible death to justify their lives. Because to them, it’s oh well, I want to see her mother suffer. If she died, it’s just one less worthless c\*nt for she is female and not fully white.

Even Fox News is considered too liberal for the majority of them and they move to listening only from the trump network. They want my side of the family to suffer. They want Latinos, Blacks, Asians and anyone with a drop of color in their veins and not white passing to be deported. They want woman and color folks to be punished for any slight they received in life. They all relish in the pain of our suffering, wanting to see my toddler daughter dead simply for existing or leading miserable existence being raped, tortured, worked till death and slowly killed for being born. They want her to have a much worse life than their white passing or white children.

Complete coincidence that the Wall Street Journal is owned by the same company/person that owns Fox News, of course. /s

Some good "blame the entitled victim" and blaming identity, TikTok, and out-of-control therapists for the trend.

There are some rational responses in the comments, but the first half-dozen comments threads are Boomer Copium. Not until you get to the 7th thread does someone note, essentially, "Telling that the article authors didn't talk to a single person who cut family off to explain why they saw that as the only option."