Surely it’s a misunderstanding and it has nothing to do with his politics? He’s MAGA in case anyone was wondering, a huge Trump defender. Anyway, whenever I tell Grandpa (who I live with) that I want to see the world or go to Germany or Norway on a school trip, or see Norway when I get older with my dad perhaps, he says “Why can’t you just stay here?” or “Why can’t you visit this country first?”
Then he goes on about how people speak English in America and in Germany and Norway, they speak other languages when I want to learn another language. I want to be fluent in my second and heritage language Norwegian and in German, which I will hopefully become a polyglot in English, Spanish, German, Norwegian and Toki Pona by 2029.
Also, I’ve told him that I know several monolingual English speakers who went to other non-English speaking countries like Mexico, but he still won’t listen and help me save up. (I don’t have a job yet and I’m only 15).
Not only this, as much as I love him due to him being family, I don’t love his views. He doesn’t really like immigrants due to his thinking they all can’t speak English. If they speak accented English, he still tells them to “speak English”. Maybe he doesn’t want to “BECOME the immigrant” (in quotes, because well… we’re not Native). Also, I will forever not understand people’s hatred towards immigrants and their desire to embrace their home culture in a better country.
Conservatives often have two key defining characteristics that they build their entire belief system around:
A lack of empathy, and a fear of “other” individuals and cultures.
These lead to a whole host of outcomes, and vary by individual. When it comes to travel I often see it expressed in how vacation is viewed.
Many conservatives I know view vacation as being 100% about them - relaxing, eating their favorite food, seeing their favorite sights, doing their favorite things. They do not care about leaning about someone else’s experience or culture because they cannot empathize with them, and the xenophobia means they’re scared of how to even broach the subject.