All the shows, podcasts and books you mention make my head spin--it would be like a whole new hobby to get into current culture.
I really liked your first paragraphs about artifice generating hope: With our families, the artifice is that relation breeds intimacy, or that we can really know the strangers in our own homes.
Dating a Republican man, I will say that some of the above is true. But there are also benefits:
it is ridiculously easy to win a political debate with a Republican, because liberals tend to rely on facts, while Republicans rely on sort of an abstract "make my day" logic. If your Republican is reasonable, he will take up some of your ideas.
in a more Republican community, my relationship with him was like an alliance: people that might have otherwise dismissed me took a distant respect, because they knew him and liked him.
All the shows, podcasts and books you mention make my head spin--it would be like a whole new hobby to get into current culture.
I really liked your first paragraphs about artifice generating hope: With our families, the artifice is that relation breeds intimacy, or that we can really know the strangers in our own homes.
Dating a Republican man, I will say that some of the above is true. But there are also benefits:
it is ridiculously easy to win a political debate with a Republican, because liberals tend to rely on facts, while Republicans rely on sort of an abstract "make my day" logic. If your Republican is reasonable, he will take up some of your ideas.
in a more Republican community, my relationship with him was like an alliance: people that might have otherwise dismissed me took a distant respect, because they knew him and liked him.
Lyz has a great point.