collapse

My parents are not rich in the typical sense of the word. They do very well, and they have a degree of comfort and financial stability that the vast majority of people can't even imagine*. There are significant indications that they don't really understand how the majority of people struggle.

They are very clearly in the "I got mine, fuck you" mindset.

I asked them about the climate crisis and their response was, "we'll be dead before it happens"

I asked about their children (including me) and their grandchildren and great-grandchildren and all the pain and suffering they'll go through. The response was to ask me if I believe in God.

They said if they believe in God, they'll get to go to heaven when they die.

That's it.

They've abdicated any responsibility for anything and they are leaving it up to God to deal with.

* Full disclosure: I do pretty well myself considering. I'm in debt, and every week I panic about paying my bills, but I have a home, a job, very good health insurance, and no food anxiety. There are probably an enormous number of people who can't imagine having it as well as I have it. However, I strangely managed to get empathy. I don't want people to suffer. I think the problem is I actually paid attention to what was being taught in the church I was forced to attend. I don't believe in God, but I believe in a lot of the philosophy of Jesus. Compassion, mercy, empathy, etc. It turns out that wasn't the lesson I was supposed to get from Church.