A Fight

So, tonight I had a big fight with my dad.

I usually try to stay away from situations like this, but the best place to get wireless Internet connection is within 10 feet of the main computer. It happens that they had rented Shenandoah (a Civil War movie). When there are two lines shooting at eachother, the children ask: “Which ones are the bad guys?”
I personally hate that question. Both sides are PEOPLE willing to die for something they believe in. Real life war is no batman movie with some dark, evil, brooding side and a hero side!!! And esp. when it comes to the Civil War!!

Well, there I was, doing online stuff, reading the forum, chatting with people on FB when the movie ended. My father decided to launch into a discussion, and sat down in the chair opposite.

Now, history discussions between us are not a pretty sight to see....and never to hear. I have read and I firmly believe/agree with some of the things I have read. He must have studied history at some point in time, but I am not sure of what extent (and he claims to have lived so much of it...). My ideas are usually strange to him, and he is always right.

Tonight, it was our old standby, the Civil War. He is firm in the belief that the South only wanted to enslave countless millions of human beings for their carnal monetary gain and abuse. I believe that (although many people might have fought for such things) it was one of the “other” issues that got thrown into the big cacophony that surrounds the actual events.
I made the case (based on economic principles and logic) that wars are not fought over morals. War is fought over land, money, or power. He said that I had no base and because some random economists (he consistently mis-pronounced that word, I think to annoy me) said so did not mean that it was true. After circling this topic for a while, he suddenly came out with the idea that if economists study human nature and how they work in terms of business (something I said) than he was just as qualified as any of them because he had a theological degree and knowledge of the Bible contained enough anthropology to make him so.
(I wanted to ROTFL...hem)
I told him that was quite a large mental jump, and that it didn't really make sense.
After more circling, he said that God had something to do with the principles and I told him to to get Vision Forum-y on my and start dominion mandate and “God's Providential Nation America” me.
He doesn't like that aspect of VF very much, so he dropped the topic.

Then, we happened upon the topic of the Gettysburg Address. I remember a well-written article my sister read to me about it being very much propaganda and not much history, and was unConstitutional. My father reacted strongly to that and asked me to quote it. It has been a year at least, and I told him frankly that I did not know where it was, and that I would have to google search it or something. He jumped on that and began egging me that I made unfounded comments and said that until I could pull up something concrete I was making it all up.
WHHHHHHAAAAATTTTT????!?!?!?!?!?!?
I told him to his face that that statement was hypocritical because he makes reference to books and things he read to base his leaps into historical analysis (He once said that Hitler was out to “resurrect the Roman Empire a third time—therefore bringing about the end times). I referenced this exact time, and he brushed it off saying that “common knowledge” did not count as being a baseless-made-up statement. I kept pushing the word hypocrite. He was doing it, it was true. He said I was being disrespectful, and that I should not use that word to him. I said “Is it true?” He said “No, but even if it were you should not be disrespectful to me.”
I proceeded to ignore him. It is the only way I can get out of a discussion like this one.

He finally stopped and asked “.....Yes, sir?” (that means yes, Daddy, you are right, I should not say anything negative about you and I should agree with you and everything else you said that I tuned out for)
I waited to see if I could get out of it...but I should have known better than that. No one gets out of a “Yes, sir” in this house. I said “I'm sorry, you said that: 'To accuse me of being hypocritical, besides being disrespectful, is....' something and I didn't catch it.” (in my most carefree voice possible)

He scoffed at me and got up from the chair. He walked out of the room, paced, and then came back and told me to pack up the laptop and go down to my room. I was grounded. I said that I would go, but I had to help mother with coupons. He began yelling and told me to GO NOW. I did, calmly. Not slowly, but deliberately. My siblings were all watching me (they had been for a while) and tried to see if I was disappointed or anything. I smiled at the 6yo, walked by the 11yo calmly and walked downstairs.

As I headed down the hall to my room (which does not have signal, ugh. Sometimes I can't even get cell signal) I heard him yelling at my mom when she begged that I be allowed to help her. “She can't just get away with putting her nose in the air....calling me a hypocrite...who does she think she is...” etc.