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[bluwolfie]

Sometimes you gotta cut people off. I'm not one who believes "Blood is thicker than water" it's a meaningless sentiment. The concept of family is meaningful if you want it to be, I've always had a rocky relationship with my blood relations and I don't even talk to most of them. I only talk to the people I actually care about and would be FRIENDS with if I wasn't related to them.

It's a far more honest approach and you don't have to pretend to care when you really, truly, don't.

[lordcooper]

People unlikely to change their views or actions: dead people, old people, extremely conservative people, angry people, drunk people.

All you can do is humour him, zone him out or cut ties with him.  Either way, you'd be best off giving up on any idea of changing him.  Nothing good would come of it.

[TheBiggerFish]

Yaaeeeeiii.  Good grief.

Everyone else has said anything I could possibly say.

[Reelya]

As for the fossil fuels and climate change, it's a mixed bag.

The bad news is that oil is predicted to run out in 53 years, natural gas in 55, and coal in 110. The good side to that is that it just might put a cap on how much CO2 we can emit from those sources. My guess is that it will become uneconomical to extract those fuels well before they actually "run out", since the cost of extraction will rise, whereas alternate energies are only dropping in price.
http://bze.org.au/media/newswire/australia-wind-power-already-cheaper-fossil-fuels-and-solar-right-behind-130211

So grandpa might be right not to worry about climate change, but for the wrong reasons.

Seriously, let grandpa know that his rants are upsetting you though.

[Bumber]

As for the fossil fuels and climate change, it's a mixed bag.

The bad news is that oil is predicted to run out in 53 years, natural gas in 55, and coal in 110. The good side to that is that it just might put a cap on how much CO2 we can emit from those sources. My guess is that it will become uneconomical to extract those fuels well before they actually "run out", since the cost of extraction will rise, whereas alternate energies are only dropping in price.

The US recently (2013) discovered a carpload of oil in Texas (pretty much wrecking the world's oil economy.) If the 53-year prediction is old, it's now outdated.

[Reelya]

The 53 years was an estimate given by BP in June of 2014, but it assumes current rates of production and consumption.

For the Texas discoveries, it depends on whether they were made before or after December 2013, which is the point in time for which BP estimated reserves. The total reserves used in BP's report come to 1687.9 billion barrels. If you have a figure for the extra amount in barrels added for Texas we can add a number of years as an estimate. 32 billion barrels adds 1 year to supply at current extraction rates.

[Bumber]

It's accounted for, then. A NASDAQ article mentions the oil boom as early as October 2013.

[sluissa]

Arguing with elderly family is useless. If it's too painful to listen to, limit how much you have to listen to them. But flat out arguing with them will usually end up with hurt feelings and broken bonds and if they're old enough, you may never have time to have those bonds heal. I can't say any of that for sure because everyone is different. I had one family member who loved to argue, just the act of arguing. Sometimes it seemed like he didn't even care which side he was on, just wanted to be contrary. And it wasn't mean, he didn't love any of us any less. He just wanted the back and forth.

Also, despite what I said earlier about limiting your contact. I do think that's a dangerous habit. Shutting yourself away from people who have opinions you don't like is not a proper or healthy way of dealing with things. The world is full of free thinking people with differing opinions and if you only ever interact with the people you agree with you tend to lose sight of that. People are people, not their opinions, not the mark they put on a ballot or a sticker they put on a car. They're people and much more complicated than just a distilled opinion that makes you place them somewhere on a political gradient.

Edit: wow... I got lost in my tabs again... didn't mean to necro this topic. Sorry.

[Antioch]

I also know someone who deflects anything remotely political to all kinds of conspiracy stuff, arguing in basically pointless since it just goes on and on.

Usually I just try to avoid the subjects and deflect them to something else when they come up.

[Shazbot]

Accept that he has been observing the world for five or six times your political life.

Accept that he knows more about the world than you do by sheer volume of experience.

Accept that you are probably as wrong about the true nature of the world as he is.

Accept that in fifty years you'll have a grand-kid who's a smartass and who's wrong, wrong, wrong.

[Bumber]

Accept that he has been observing the world for five or six times your political life.

Accept that he knows more about the world than you do by sheer volume of experience.

Accept that you are probably as wrong about the true nature of the world as he is.

Accept that in fifty years you'll have a grand-kid who's a smartass and who's wrong, wrong, wrong.

The world wide web didn't exist until the 1990's. The observable world has gotten bigger since, for someone who's looking.

[Flying Dice]

Sometimes you gotta cut people off. I'm not one who believes "Blood is thicker than water" it's a meaningless sentiment. The concept of family is meaningful if you want it to be, I've always had a rocky relationship with my blood relations and I don't even talk to most of them. I only talk to the people I actually care about and would be FRIENDS with if I wasn't related to them.

It's a far more honest approach and you don't have to pretend to care when you really, truly, don't.

"The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb."

Perhaps the most perfect example of why pure descriptivism is loony and common usage isn't a good basis for meaning.

[penguinofhonor]

Except "blood is thicker than water" has always had that same meaning, and the expanded version is centuries newer.

It is a great example of how prescriptivism is often used to attack the language used to express an idea in lieu of engaging with the idea itself.

[Flying Dice]

Except "blood is thicker than water" has always had that same meaning, and the expanded version is centuries newer.

It is a great example of how prescriptivism is often used to attack the language used to express an idea in lieu of engaging with the idea itself.

Bzzt. The original German proverb translates, roughly, as "Water does not spoil the blood of familial relation." In other words, the blood of kinship is no thicker than water.

The modern version I quoted above is a response to (relatively) more modern misuse by Englishmen and Americans, and perpetuation of that misinterpretation which was canonized. It's doubly amusing because even the misused version was applied incorrectly, and the other would actually have been more accurately representative of what occurred.

[DragonDePlatino]

Don't let your grandpa's viewpoints get to you. I have to put up with it in my family (only person that isn't hard conservative) and I do admit it gets annoying at times. Just remember: As long as someone's viewpoint isn't an immediate danger to people, there's no point in trying to change their mind. If someone has a deeply-ingrained belief that the world is flat, climate change is a hoax and homosexuals are poop-smearing troublemakers, fine. If they're not in a place of power or policy-making, their silly beliefs are not going to hurt anyone.

In contrast, if someone has an unvaccinated child and believes that vaccinations cause autism, that can be an example of a very dangerous belief. In a case like that I'd recommend trying to change their mind so they don't put anyone in serious danger...

Anyways, just say "Yes grandpa, you're right" and leave it at that. He just wants to ingrain his beliefs on the next generation so if he believes he's done that, he'll be satisfied.