Devin, wearing his sweatshirt, braced himself for the outside heat before walking out the front door.

What could possibly be a worse combination than a thick hoodie and the summer sun?

As he was walking toward Elise’s car, he was struck with more nervousness than he initially anticipated, mainly because a few minutes earlier, Ronald and Julie said that they weren’t going to be coming with them.

They said they thought it would be best if Devin and Elise handled this interaction alone, considering that getting Devin to talk to Elise’s grandparents in the first place was not their idea. Why they didn’t say this earlier was beyond the young couple. It was a frustrating move, to say the least.

Devin wasn’t quite sure why not having Elise’s parents with them during the interaction made him nervous. Perhaps it was a remnant of his early childhood that never fully went away, one that made him more comfortable around supporting adults.

Or maybe it was because Emma’s transphobia really had gotten to him more than he wanted to admit.

Regardless, he walked into the passenger’s seat of Elise’s car, buckled his seatbelt, and tried to relax as much as he could.

“I can’t believe them.” Elise said from the driver’s seat. “Telling us at the very last minute. What’s their deal?”

“I don’t know.” Devin replied.

“It pisses me off. We’re not even at my grandparent’s house and I’m already pissed off.”

Devin sighed as Elise pulled out of the driveway and began the journey to her grandparent’s house. He stared out the window and watched the trees and scenery go by.

***

Elise’s grandparents didn’t live very far away. It was only about a forty minute drive to their house. In this way, Devin envied her. Even if both of their grandparents had very backwards beliefs, she at least got to see them more. Devin’s grandparents had moved to Florida years ago, and he hadn’t been able to see them since.

As Elise pulled her car into their driveway, Devin gulped and failed to hide his nervousness.

“You okay?” Elise asked.

“Yeah.” Devin said. “I get nervous a lot. It’s no big deal. I’m still prepared.”

“Good.” Elise parked her car. “We’re going to need you to bring your A-game today.”

“Yeah, I will. I’m sure of it.”

Devin and Elise got out of the car and began making their way to the front door of the grandparent’s house. Devin closed his eyes once Elise rang the doorbell.

“Focus”. “Be calm”. “You can do this”.

He had numerous conversations involving politics with other students in school in the past year. He knew he wasn’t the best, and could sometimes come across as very irate, but he was able to convince people of some of his views.

He just had to steer these two off a bad path. To prevent them from becoming too crazy. There was no way he’d instantly make them leftists in one conversation, and he didn’t even want to do that anyway.

Just go in, talk with them, and explain why their views are wrong.

The door eventually opened to reveal an old woman in a t-shirt and jeans.

“Oh, Elise. I didn’t know you were coming over.” She said. “And you brought Devin over too. Here to show him off?” She grinned.

Elise gave a half forced smile. “No, he just wanted to visit. You know he can barely see his own grandparents these days.”

“Of course.” The grandmother replied.

Devin followed Elise into the house and to the living room. They both took a seat on one of the large couches.

“If you’re hungry.” The grandmother said. “Then there’s plenty of stuff in the kitchen.”

“We’re good.” Elise said.

From the living room, the young couple heard the grandmother take a few frustrated steps out of the kitchen.

“Where is that old man?” They heard her say angrily. “Can’t even greet our guests.”

She went into one of the rooms at the end of the hall.

Devin leaned back into the couch and breathed loudly. Elise gave him a hug and a kiss on the lips.

“Consider that your good luck kiss.”

Devin smiled before the door to that room opened and the two grandparents came out walking to the living room.

“Man, why don’t you ever announce yourselves.” The grandfather complained.

“We wanted a surprise visit.” Elise said.

“Yeah, well, I’ve had it with these surprises.”

Internally, Devin groaned. Great, he was in a bad mood. Now this was going to be even harder. Well, it wasn’t too big a deal, he just needed to talk about something other than politics to start off, in order to lighten him up and build some trust.

The grandfather took a seat on a couch in the living room while the grandmother chose one of the seats to the right of him.

Devin almost let out a forced cough before he stopped himself. “So…” he said. “How has your day been?”

“Listen kid, I know why you’re here.” The grandfather replied.

“You… do?” Devin asked, surprised.

“Yeah, my daughter’s worried I’m too extreme. I’ve heard you have some strong political beliefs. I bet you’re here to set me straight.”

“I… uh…” Devin stumbled over his words. Wow, this was not off to a good start at all, they knew exactly why he was here and they were not happy about it. Shit.

Devin was only worried for a few seconds before he collected himself and remembered what he thought to himself earlier.

“Focus”. “Be calm”. “You can do this.”

“Yes. That’s what I’m here for.” Devin said in a very straightforward tone.

“Alright then. Now I know I’m right.” The grandfather said. “You know, I really gotta tell you, those parents of your girlfriend don’t know what they’re talking about. If not having the same opinion as the liberal media means ‘I’m too extreme’, then so be it.”

Devin nodded. “Okay.” He said. He wanted to start this off by having the grandfather explain his perspective.

“I’ve been around a long time and what I know is that the left is ruining this country. You look at what the democrats are doing, freeing criminals, giving immigrants everything in the world while not paying attention at all to actual Americans, and trying to take down Trump for four years. All they’ve been doing is trying to get Trump out of office, getting rid of everything he’s done. Trump actually gets things done and they don’t like that.”

Wow, Devin thought, this guy is even more predictable than I thought.

The grandfather’s perspective was basically everything you’d expect from the average boomer republican. A completely delusional idea of what the democrats are? Check. Thinking Donald Trump was the savior of the nation? Check. Thinking that there’s a giant conspiracy to get Trump out of office? Check.

How could these people believe the democrats are part of the left? What do they think the left even is?

“I think you have a very warped perception of what the Democratic Party is. They are not ‘freeing criminals’, nor have they really made any big moves to get Trump out of office.” Devin said. “There isn’t a giant conspiracy to get Trump out of office. There simply isn’t.”

“How can you say that knowing what the democrats are doing? Are you even paying attention? They said they wanted to ‘defund the police’.” The grandfather argued. “They’ve been trying to get rid of Trump for years. There is no way in hell Biden won the 2020 election. They stole the election from Trump.”

“There is no evidence of any mass voter fraud. Multiple investigations have proved this. Nothing has turned up. It’s simply the truth that Trump did not win the 2020 election.”

“And who did those investigations? The democrats who wanted to make sure Trump lost? There have been a ton of cases where dead people have filled in ballots for Joe Biden, and they’re still being counted.”

“Except there… isn’t. The amount of ballots casted by ‘dead people’ is extremely insignificant, and the idea that they all vote democrat is just false.”

“If you ask me, I think the fact that the media is preventing us from knowing the truth about 2020 is fascism. Democrats call republicans fascist while participating in a fascist takeover of government against Trump.”

“I don’t think you understand what fascism is. Fascism is not just anything you don’t like or anything you think ‘the left’ is doing.” Devin stated. “Fascism is a far right, authoritarian, ultranationalist ideology that is built on social hierarchy and suppression of opposition.”

“Fascism does not have to be far right.” The grandfather said. “Do you really believe google has the best definition of fascism? That they’re not lying to serve an agenda?”

“That is the definition of fascism. If you don’t like it then that’s your problem. It’s certainly not vaccine mandates or critical race theory or anything else you complain about.”

“Now, hold on, I said the government is trying to control us with that stuff. The vaccines and critical race theory are things that the democrats are trying to push to fulfill an agenda. To make us hate white people and this country.”

“Vaccine mandates have literally been a thing since the 1800s. People keep saying ‘what about the rights of people who don’t want the vaccine’? Well, what about the rights of immunocompromised people who can’t share a workplace with people afraid of a needle? The vaccine is free anyway, and statistically most people who don’t want to get it think vaccines are useless and dangerous. These people have no reason not to get the vaccine.”

“Why should I be forced to make a medical decision I don’t want to? Aren’t you the people who say ‘my body, my choice’?”

“That’s not even close to the same thing and you know it.” Devin said sternly.

“If you want to say so.” The grandfather countered harshly. “But people have been getting arrested for not getting the vaccine and now you need vaccine passports to travel cause the government wants to enforce their agenda onto you.”

“Yes, vaccine passports have been a thing for a long time, how else do you think we beat smallpox?”

“Is that really all you have to say? That these things have actually been around for a long time and it doesn’t matter that the government is now suddenly starting to push them?”

“I mean, yeah.” Devin answered. “The last time we’ve had a worldwide pandemic was like a hundred years ago.”

“I swear all you libs are all the same. It’s like you’re not even looking at what’s happening right in front of your eyes. They’re trying to demonize people who don’t want the vaccine and ‘other’ them. It’s insane. They want us to hate each other.”

Devin took a breath before making his next point. “Would you give someone who refuses to put a seatbelt on a driver’s license?”

“How is that even relevant to this?”

“Answer the question.”

“No, I won’t, because you just want to make some comparison that isn’t there.”

“I wanted to use another example to prove why some safety measures need to be mandatory.”

“Yeah, except one doesn’t affect your body and one does.”

“Seatbelts do affect your body, how can you-” Devin paused. He then took a deep breath and suppressed a groan. “Whatever, you seem to think you know more about vaccines than doctors and scientists, which is just-”

“When did I ever say that?” The grandfather interrupted.

“You certainly implied it by what you were saying, arguing against mandates, perfectly normal public health measures.”

“I think you have tunnel vision, you only see what you want to. Anything that goes against your narrative, you ignore. It’s why you’re okay with critical race theory.”

“Do you know what critical race theory is?”

“I…” The grandfather hesitated. “Okay, I admit I don’t know exactly what it is.”

Elise turned her head away to hide her laughing as Devin continued. “So why are you complaining about it?”

“Because I know it’s being used to serve an agenda against America. The left wants to say everything is racist. It’s making white kids hate themselves. There was a story about a little white girl who came home from school crying asking why people hated her. It’s dividing America and making us hate white people.”

“There is no evidence that any white kid was severely distressed by any lessons regarding racism. But do you know who has been distressed by issues involving race? People of color. They don’t get the luxury of not having to learn about race as kids. It’s something that’s forced upon them. So why don’t we make it so white kids also learn about race at a young age? It would be helpful for everyone.”

“Why don’t we preach love, and loving each other? That’s what MLK wanted. For people to be judged by the content of their character and not the color of their skin.”

“Yeah, MLK’s legacy has been severely whitewashed. He was much more radical than conservatives believe.” Devin said. “He publicly denounced capitalism and imperialism, and wanted white people to examine themselves and their actions more. The ‘I have a dream’ speech was mostly just a far off goal he knew couldn’t be reached any time soon. That’s why he called it a dream.”

“None of that means that he would’ve supported Critical Race Theory if it was around back then. He never said to hate white people.”

“Actually, Critical Race Theory was a thing back in the 60s, and MLK would’ve absolutely supported it.” Devin explained. “An analysis of how racism is ingrained in legal institutions, even in cases where no law is explicitly racist, is something he would’ve agreed with. In fact, he likely did say something about that, but I don’t know for sure. I’m not an expert on MLK.”

“I don’t know where you get all this stuff from, MLK supported loving each other, he would not have agreed with lessons telling white people to hate themselves. That’s fascism.”

“It’s not fascism, and honestly it’s really funny that you of all people are complaining about fascism so much.”

“What are you trying to say?”

“I mean, you complain about fascism when you literally parrot fascist conspiracy theories and lies.”

“What ‘fascist lies’ have I parroted?”

“That Jewish people control banks.”

“What? That?” The grandfather asked. “It’s just true that the Jews controlled the banks in Germany. Shouldn’t be wrong to say that. I don’t get why everyone’s freaking out.”

“Maybe it’s because that line of thinking was used to push the idea that Jewish people needed to be systemically murdered?” Devin said. “And no, it isn’t a fact. It’s not true. Where did you find that, anyway? What’s the statistic?”

The grandfather stood still with a bit of a puzzled expression for a bit. “I mean… I don’t have the exact statistic right now, but yes there were more Jews controlling banks than other groups.”

“Alright, it’s actually fine that you don’t have a statistic right now because I have one. Jewish people controlled less than one percent of the banks in the Weimar Republic. That is the fact. There was no ‘Jewish control of banks’. It was a nazi lie and an antisemitic conspiracy theory.”

“And where did you find that?”

“A report called ‘Gentile-Jewish Relations’.”

“Really? One source over a bunch of scholars and historians agreeing with me? Do you even-”

“Why does it matter?” Devin asked, harshly.

“What?”

“Why does it matter?” Devin repeated, slowly stating each word for emphasis.

“Why does it matter?” The grandfather was stumped. “Well… I mean…”

“Why are you trying to push this claim so much? What are you gaining? ‘Owning the libs’? Why are you spreading something that was used as a justification for mass murder?”

“I…”

“Does it actually matter if Jewish people had more control of banks, which they didn’t, but would it have mattered if they did? Would it have made the holocaust justified? Have you even thought about-”

“Okay fine I admit that was a stupid thing to go on about.”

“Good, I’m glad we agree.”

“And before you ask about it, I’ll say I don’t believe in that QAnon stuff either.”

“That’s good too.”

“Yeah, I don’t think the democrats are sucking the blood out of children in some satanic cult or whatever, but you can not deny that they want Trump gone and will destroy this country to get rid of him.”

Devin sighed. This was going to be a long conversation.

***

The conversation had been going on for about forty minutes at this point. The grandmother still hadn’t said a word, instead choosing to listen on with what looked like a face of slight disappointment.

Elise sighed and held her head in her hand. This was not going well. Not even remotely. They had long since passed talking about anything that her parents originally mentioned. Now they were just bouncing from topic to topic, seemingly going nowhere. The grandfather was still angry and even Devin was starting to get agitated but was trying to keep cool.

“Didn’t you see those people? Looting and burning buildings.” The grandfather said. “A bunch of criminals! How is that supposed to help the cause of ‘fighting racism’?”

“Okay, first off, over ninety percent of those protests were peaceful.” Devin countered. “And second, you’re really missing the point of what a protest is. They’re supposed to bring attention to an issue. And now people are talking about the issue here, police brutality. And you know, maybe after decades, centuries even, of black people facing violent oppression, and the police and U.S. government being violent, I can’t really find it in me to care about any protestors being violent. I don’t care about the looting either. Decades of deliberate underfunding of black communities, not to mention the billions of dollars stolen each year in wage theft is what I’d consider the real looting.”

“Those people were rich college kids that were opportunists. They just wanted to steal shit, that was it. And in some black businesses too.” The grandfather said. “These people think everything is unfair. They do shit because they want to. They said they only wanted to tear down the statues of confederates, and then they tore down George Washington. Even Abraham Lincoln! The man who freed the slaves!”

“I actually saw that Lincoln statue they wanted to take down and honestly I understand why. It presents Abraham Lincoln as some kind of ‘white savior’ who was worshiped by all former slaves. Someone who single handedly led black people to freedom.” Devin explained. “It’s racist as hell, especially when you realize Lincoln wasn’t actually all that concerned with ending slavery, and was even willing to keep it.”

“These people are destroying our country. People like George Washington wanted to make a great nation and now people are trying to destroy it!”

“I mean… a few people taking down a statue is not really going to do that much to this country overall. What real power do these people have? Nothing really happened because of this.” Devin pointed out. “And besides, George Washington was a slave owner who killed countless indigenous people. Literally forty entire indigenous villages were destroyed on his orders. It makes total sense why people would want to tear his statue down.”

“You really want to judge people from two hundred years ago with the standards of today? That’s what so many people from your generation are doing and they don’t know what the fuck they’re talking about.” The grandfather argued. “George Washington founded this country and gave you the right to bicker about all this shit. How the hell are you going to complain about slavery when you have a fucking cell phone!?”

“I’ve heard this so many times and it is just not a good argument.”

“Oh really!?” The grandfather asked, angrily. “Oh okay then educate me. Tell me why what I said was stupid.”

“Well, first off, I appreciate the admission that capitalism requires slave labor to exist. Anyway…” The grandfather tried to interrupt but Devin shut him down. “There is a huge difference between buying something that is basically necessary to life that was made with slave labor, and literally being a slave owner. Especially… especially when all your other options were also made with slave labor. What you’re saying is like comparing a random person who buys a phone to the CEOs of those phone companies profiting off slave labor. You think the people who bought crops made by slaves back in the 1800s are condemned as much as the slave owners themselves nowadays? No, they’re not.”

The grandfather continued to try to talk over Devin, but Devin still forced out his point. “And what’s all this stuff about ‘you can’t judge people in the past for their actions’? What about all the slaves that Washington worked to death and whipped and tortured? The ones that weren’t freed after his death like some history books state? What about them? Why don’t we ever consider the oppressed’s perspective when ‘judging people from the past’?”

“You people always act like slavery was a uniquely American thing. It happened before America formed and it happened after. People always forget about the Arab slave trade and all that. Lasted centuries longer and millions more people enslaved.”

Devin groaned. “Every time. Every single time we do a little introspection on the U.S. and talk about its crimes, people always pivot back to some other thing. It’s annoying.”

“So you’re proving to me that you have no real answer? That there’s nothing that America has done that’s worse than any other country and you just want to hate on America. Shut up and enjoy your freedom that millions have died fighting for.”

At that moment, something inside Devin snapped. He had been relatively able to contain his anger before, but now the floodgates had opened and he could not stop the out-pouring waterfall. Elise sighed as she realized what he was about to do.

“You want to know what I think?” Devin stood up. “You want to know what I think about the United States? I’ll tell you what I think. I fucking hate the U.S. and everything it stands for. This awful fucking country has done barely any good and has shrouded the world in terror for years. We start out by genociding a bunch of indigenous people. Every few years we said, ‘we won’t take any more of your land, we promise’. And then we take more of their land. Hell, we took one of their beautiful mountains and carved our own leaders’ fucking faces into it. And we didn’t even finish the project and you can tell because it looks like dogshit. And of course, then there was the slavery. One of the largest slave trades in history. So much of this land was built on fucking slave labor.”

Devin continued. “And then you flash forward a bit and what do you get? The U.S. overthrowing socialist governments all around the world and installing brutal dictatorships that killed millions. Salvador Allende killed in Chile and then replaced with Augusto Pinochet. All in the fight against communism, they said. We fucking decimated North Korea and Vietnam. All in the fight against communism, they said. We illegally occupied Hawai’i for decades and then forced them to be a state where they depend on tourism. We spread so much shit about the USSR when we were torturing our own immigrants and promoting the segregation and oppression of black people at home. We made their lives hell.”

“And now you have today, where the U.S. is funding the shit out of Saudi Arabia and Israel and helping them genocide Yemen and Palestine. We drone strike weddings and hospitals. We’ve killed a million Iraqis in that invasion based on a fucking lie. We run a torture camp in Cuba and also have an embargo against them. We hit countries with so many fucking sanctions that their citizens starve to death. Fuck, just earlier this year we took a shit ton of money away from Afghanistan after destabilizing their country for years, causing a huge famine. Fuck America! This country is fucking shit and the day it dies will be one of grand celebration!”

At this point Devin was red faced and his hoodie was almost making him sweat. There was a silence that hung in the room after his long, passionate rant.

Elise cringed and shook her head. Devin may have been correct in many of his assertions, but her grandfather was a devout patriot who loved his country. There was no way he’d be swayed by such harsh criticism of it.

Unfortunately, just as Elise had predicted, the grandfather did not take well to what Devin said. His face turned into one of pure disgust and contempt. From his perspective, what he thought was the greatest country in history was shat on by someone he thought was uneducated. And he was going to have none of it.

“I challenge you to find any country in history that has a better history.” He said. “If you want to live in a socialist country, then go there and starve to death. Now get the hell out of my house.”

He said nothing more after that.

Devin looked around the room silently for a bit, then got up and walked out. Elise soon followed him and the front door was shut with a quiet creak, one that almost sounded like a whimper.

Elise stared at Devin with furrowed eyebrows. It took a while before she was finally able to form words.

“What was that?”

“What?” Devin asked. “Oh, don’t tell me you’re siding with him.”

“No, he’s insane, but what was your plan? Just bash America knowing that he loves this country? How was that supposed to convince him of anything?”

“Look, if he can’t handle criticism of the U.S. then that’s his problem. He’s been blinded by propaganda. And besides, he doesn’t believe the nazi stuff anymore, that’s enough for me.”

Devin turned and began walking toward the car.

“He was kind of right about that last point, you know.”

Devin stopped and turned around, seeing Elise hadn’t moved.

“What?”

“I mean, can you think of a single country that hasn’t committed genocide? That hasn’t enslaved people? That hasn’t overthrown governments?”

Devin didn’t respond at first, instead choosing to stand there in silence. It took some time before the words finally came out.

“Can you think of a single country in the last few centuries that’s done it as much as us? Maybe the U.K. and some other European countries, and also Japan, but that’s irrelevant. People around the world were polled and they said the U.S. was the greatest threat to world peace. It’s just the truth that we’re really bad, and the rest of the developed world supports us in spite of it.”

Elise, not wanting to argue any more, simply began walking with Devin toward the car. The young couple was not especially happy to give mostly bad news to Elise’s parents, but it was what needed to be done.

Just as Elise was about to enter the driveway, the front door opened and a voice called out, “hey, could you two come over here for a bit?”

Devin and Elise turned around to see Elise’s grandmother, whose face had an expression of empathy, almost pity.

The two teenagers walked toward the grandmother curiously.

“I wanted to talk to you two. My husband’s mad and doesn’t want to come out of his room.”

“What is it?” Elise asked her.

“Well, I wanted to thank you two for your talk.”

Devin and Elise were in shock at this reply. “Really?” Devin asked, puzzled.

“What you said were things I never really considered before. It was… interesting. I think you made some pretty good points.”

Devin’s face reddened. “Oh, well, you know, it was just some stuff I read up on the internet.”

“You did a pretty good job at stating all your points. I think you have a good future in politics ahead of you.”

“I mean…” Devin was nearly stunned by the praise he was getting. “I did kind of… lose my temper at the end there…”

“Trust me, I’ve heard way worse, even from my husband.” She replied. “When you get to my age you’ll have heard a ton of people scream their heads off about politics.”

Devin nodded his head with a chuckle.

“Okay, I’ll let you two go now. I’ll try to calm my husband down. Have a nice day, and oh, Elise? Keep this boy under control. Don’t let him say anything too crazy.”

Elise looked over to Devin, and laughed. “Oh, I will. Don’t worry.”

The grandmother smiled, said “good bye”, then shut the door. Elise had an odd and somewhat confused expression as Devin turned to face her.

“Well, I’d say that was a success.”

“This could also just result in them arguing more.” Elise said. “Putting a dent in their marriage.”

“Look, do you know how many boomers make jokes about hating their wife?” Devin asked. “These two have been married for what? Forty years or something? They’ll be fine.”

“I still think you could’ve handled that better. Treated it more like a discussion than a debate. Would’ve done some good.”

Devin sighed as he and Elise began walking back to the car. “I wish it could’ve been like that too. But politics is just… it’s not a very civil thing. It’s usually pretty violent. And I’m not just talking about people yelling in debates, I’m talking about real world events. Oppression, war, famine, these are not peaceful things. They’re violent, brutal acts that cause millions to suffer every day. The world, the terror brought upon by imperialist rich countries, all revolves around violence. Maybe in a just world, we could have politics without violence, but in our current society it is simply impossible. True peace will never be achieved without some major changes.”

Elise chuckled. “So profound.” She nudged Devin’s shoulder. “Maybe you could be a famous philosopher.”

“Oh Christ, don’t say that. If my ego gets too big it will be insufferable for everyone.”

Devin and Elise both laughed at that statement.

As the two lovers got into the car and began the drive home, Devin began reminiscing on his conversation with the grandparents. At first, it had seemed like a complete failure and waste of time, but he came away with an unexpected victory. Was it luck? Perhaps. But he liked to think that he had some form of rhetorical skills. After all, he had heard someone say debates were more about convincing the audience than your opponent.

Elise was probably right though, he should’ve handled that talk differently. But what was done was done.

Maybe he could learn from this, when the time came to tell his parents about Sierra.