Political after the kid show

Quite often we do a kid show and then afterwards the kids play while us grownups talk.
 It can turn into a tiny town hall meeting. Today was like that. This discussion moved around between our gig, a coffee shop and a nearby park as we all drank coffee and ate bagels.
One of the parents had just got back from Austin Texas.
We were all fawning over how wonderful the city of Austin smells, the natural beauty of the landscape and the abundance of progressive ideas.
She was jealous of how Austin has a lovely river that people could actually swim in while our river is a sewage and industrial waste dump.
They stopped fawning though when they gave an account of seeing a group of Latino people protesting working conditions.
 She said the people in the cars in front and behind her were yelling epithets and cursing at them. So much for progressive humanity.
That led to folks talking about how many of them have conservative relatives who are awful to anyone who isn't white but pick a few people of color to "Forgive" so they can say they aren't racist. We see that a lot too. It's hard to understand since we live and work with people from all over the world. Our friends come from all walks of life and we can't imagine living in a mono-culture. 
I sometimes forget how much time and money is spent keeping people divided and looking at each other as the cause of their problems.
Also mentioned: family members who buy into Fox news and like to think everyone on welfare is getting a free ride (while ignoring corporate welfare, subsidies and corruption that is a much larger metric. People needed to mention how hard it is to see people they love so deluded. They actually think homelessness is some kind of good life. They give anyone grief for getting government help. That is until someone in their family needs public assistance. People are screwed in the head, part by the lack of good investigative reporters (internet killed the newsman) and people who seek out bad answers rather than allowing facts in. Such a nightmare.
 We don't ever hear opposing views because we all care about the future, we care about water, jobs, the climate, the schools, all those things that the conservative beta humans throw under the bus to follow a racist, authoritarian, plastic, alpha-ding-dong.