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In reply to the discussion: Things that made you a liberal [View all]hunter
(38,311 posts)My parents are artists who always had day jobs. They were working in Hollywood when they met. They had LGBT friends.
My grandma and her sister as young women partied in the speakeasies and homes of movie stars in Prohibition Hollywood. My grandma's sister went through several husbands, Hollywood style, until she found one worth keeping, my grandma held onto my grandpa, an engineering type.
My grandma got me on television a couple of times as a kid but I was a complete failure as a child actor. Apparently I'd stare at Very Important People in a very unnerving way, as if they were somewhat interesting insects unworthy of conversation. It's been diagnosed as autism now but in those days they just blamed the mother. My engineer grandfather was clearly on the spectrum too, and there's little doubt I inherited it from him.
Political and religious discussion are never discouraged at our dinner tables; they are sport. Some folks play bloody bruising games of rugby for fun...
It would have been a perverse act of rebellion or indication of serious head injury had I grown up to be a Republican. There was zero tolerance for any sort of anti-intellectualism in our family and children were not expected to be silent.