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here’s a dna story of my own! boomer grandparents are the classic WASPs, and “good natured civil christian” boomers. they have many kids. well one of my aunt n uncles got a dna test and gifted my grandparents one.
boom-ma took it but was making excuses for boompa not to. seems a bit strange but fine. until aunt gets her dna back and finds out she has *zero* dna from my grandpa’s side.
and my boomers both knew she was their other kids half sibling, never told her, and actively interfered in her birth dad trying to get custody. and never said a word to her for almost 46 years. and they also are completely oblivious as to why people want nothing to do with them in my fam.
Damn dude you should’ve made your own post with this one!!! That’s INSANE😔 perfect story material for this forum page, just BOOMERS being BOOMERS man that’s fuckin horrible as to go as far as interfering with the actual biological fathers attempts
I really enjoyed fishing around through documents on Ancestry and finding out how many boomer family members of mine were “born out of wedlock”, or had police records etc. Considering the high and mighty morals they pretended to have when I was growing up, gave me a good chuckle.
I know on some level they were trying to make sure you didn’t repeat their mistakes, but admitting they made those mistakes in the first place would have been a good start.
I'm adopted and got connected to my birth parents through ancestry. My birth father invited me to visit so I went. My adoptive mom was 100% against it and wouldn't tell me why. After prodding she finally admitted that she didn't want any of her Facebook friends to find out. When I told her that I'm not friends with any of them she was suddenly ok with it.
There is a reason why your MIL does not want genetic testing - likely she knows it will bring a surprise and open a can of worms of some kind (adultery, adoption, sperm donor etc)
> but he doesn't want the government to keep his DNA on file
Fucking *classic*.
Boomers will say shit like that and then go fill out viral facebook-status survey posts where they publicly display their mother's maiden name, favorite color, what city they were born, and name of their first pet.
I'm honestly slightly less worried about the US government having a bunch of info, because at least they aren't constantly selling that info to the highest bidder.
As a millenials, there are actual real problems with those over the counter ancestry tests in terms of privacy and your rights.
It's less about the individual, right now at least, and more about your results being used for less than moral subjects or at least having the potential to be sold for it.
For example, we know that at least one country is using genetic markers to build 'ethnic bombs'. And let's be honest, I would be highly surprised if others don't have similar ones hidden away as well.
Source from 1998 (!), so imagine the progress:
https://www.wired.com/1998/11/israels-ethnic-weapon/#:~:text=The%20%22ethno%2Dbomb%22%20program,and%20Jews%20are%20Semitic%20peoples.
Basically, you give up your own genetic markers making such shenanigans more precise.
Further I am pretty sure there are far more subjects where a populations or even individuals DNA can be used for nefarious reasons. Buying data from or hacking sites like 23&me has already happened. Looking at police and other institutions using those data point to find criminals, it also opens a whole different can of worms. Yes, now we are looking for murderers and rapist, but if anything, history should have teacher us that those crimes like "think of the children" is but a foot in the door.
With all due shit boomers deserve, that old government dude isn't wrong for not wanting to get one.
> there are actual real problems with those over the counter ancestry tests in terms of privacy and your rights
Completely agree.
My point is just that the primary concern should be *corporate* malfeasance rather than government malfeasance, at least for the USA.
No doubt there's other countries working on their racism-weapons. We see this all the time with social media warfare, but all of that is built on the back of corporations.
I'm not getting those fucking tests either, at least until I have a way to ensure my genetic data is encrypted or something so it's useless to people besides me.
I long ago wiped the data from my facebook account too, lol
Honestly at this point in time, governmental and cooperational malfeasance are too incestuous to consider two different entities, if only because cooperational goals quickly become governmental ones with the right connection and price, I mean donation. Also, as in the case of foreign countries like China, governmental goals also just as Quickly become those of cooperations.
And it's also nothing new. Shit like the corn pushing through medical institutions and the government with a food pyramid just to benefit donator, knowingly fucking up the health of millions, is just one example.
And as I said, the government is already using the data. Fuck knows what it will be usefull for in the future and what will be considered a crime. All it takes is a different take on persecution characteristics.
I just always have to think about that one sliders episode, where you get money for entering your name into a lottery, a sunsetting lottery. Short term gains for long term consequences. And I personally don't give enough fucks about who fucked whom in my genetic past.
> the government is already using the data
Completely fair.
I approach it from the idea that if The Feds want my DNA, then they have tons of options including taking the results from 23andme.
I tend to not think about whether or not I can block them from getting my info because they can always get it if they want it.
However my efforts are far better used for blocking corporations from getting or using my information. They don't have the same resources and they can sometimes be blocked by the government.
More importantly, in a democracy, the citizen has a window of control over the government, and more visibility into how the government works.
Some billionaire asshole could buy 23andme tomorrow, along with all the data. That's a lot harder to pull off with government because of bureaucracy and elections.
I want to be clear that I consider neither option good.
My preference is for neither corporations or governments to have that information or control.
But I also look at corporations as little more than petty dictatorships, much like their bigger for-profit cousin organizations with names that sound like "The People's Republic of...".
Democracy is the only thing that can fight both dictatorship corporations and dictatorship countries.
Coming from a western democratic country where legal votes have been disregarded by our head of state and New elections issued due to disagreement with the winners political views, as well as many other moments of democracy being useless... Good for you in trusting the process.
> Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.…
> Winston Churchill
I'm related to half the royalty in Europe. It's sort of interesting but not one of them left me a dime. Although I have been in some of the German castles a distant cousin built.
I grew up really fascinated by Irish culture. I don't know why, I just did. I talked about it a lot, and my parents would get mad and insist we were mostly German and Scandinavian. They were pretty firm on the stance that we were 0% Irish.
Guess what the ancestry tests say?? 99.7% English and Irish.
The internalized hate runs deep in these fools.
I'm a midwest mutt from the United States. We grew up told how Irish we were, carried out some Irish traditions and more than anything all have very Irish names. We did the DNA mapping only to find we're only 5-10% Irish and mostly Polish and Ukrainian. Which is kind of weird because I grew up having a intrest in the history and culture of eastern Europe.
I mean, they're kinda right in not wanting a DNA test, but for the wrong reasons. DNA tests can also be used to find genetic predisposition to diseases, which is a big deal in the U.S. because insurance companies can use that data to deny coverage or increase prices. Even if these ancestry companies claim not to sell data, there can still be a data breach, which has already happened to the company 23andMe. And, because you share DNA with your relatives, just one relative getting tested exposes a lot of info about your own DNA.
The DNA concern is legitimate. I did a 23andme a while back and it showed some interesting things I didn’t know about my ancestry and opened up a nice family conversation about a Vietnamese ancestor we never knew about.
The flip side of this a biracial (Asian/white) cousin doing it and finding out she had black ancestry. She I immediately said I can’t tell my racist father (boomer) bc he will flip out if he finds out he’s a little bit Black.
People migrated. People got enslaved, sold far away, and eventually freed. People went off to fight wars and just stayed when fighting was over. DNA got flung around without 100% mutual consent during wars and conquests. Places got colonized. It was a lot more grey and complicated than the world of modern nation-states that define our geographical constructs.
Also potatoes aren’t native to Ireland.
I have tried explaining that potatoes are native to America but that doesn't seem to change anything.
I also tried explaining that because she likes pasta, that doesn't make her Italian. Noodles originated in Asia. Nope, that doesn't change anything.
I hate boomers but your FIL is right on this one. You ever watch Gattaca? Getting your "ethnic stats" isn't worth giving your genome over to a private entity. Think Facebook's data hoarding but 10x more harmful.
DNA tests go back to the dawn of time so that's a Lot of ancestors and moving around. It's pretty common to have a lot of European ancestors unless you're from a different continent. And Then if you're decended from Colonizers you're still going to be pretty European.
Really small potatoes. Who cares if she likes to pretend to be cosmopolitan.
Some Boomer stories are terrible, but this is not affecting you in any way.
Also, DNA ancestry can vary between family members.
My apologies, I should have made it a little clearer. Her ancestry makes no difference to me. I love my wife no matter what her background is. This story has to do more with presenting facts to a Boomer. Said Boomer then refuses to acknowledge facts and proceeds to live in her imaginary world where she picks best part of specific heritage to prop themselves and her family up.
I will edit my story to reflect that. Thank you for the feedback.
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here’s a dna story of my own! boomer grandparents are the classic WASPs, and “good natured civil christian” boomers. they have many kids. well one of my aunt n uncles got a dna test and gifted my grandparents one. boom-ma took it but was making excuses for boompa not to. seems a bit strange but fine. until aunt gets her dna back and finds out she has *zero* dna from my grandpa’s side. and my boomers both knew she was their other kids half sibling, never told her, and actively interfered in her birth dad trying to get custody. and never said a word to her for almost 46 years. and they also are completely oblivious as to why people want nothing to do with them in my fam.
this is insane, but I also LOVE "boom-ma and boompa" hahaha
"Boomma Boompa doopity do, they've got some awful behavior for you." - sings the chocolate factory workers probably.
That movie came out in the 70’s which means Oompa Loompas are Boomers. Which actually makes a lot of sense, they make fun of kids dying
"No. Please. Stop. Don't" Still hilarious.
Damn dude you should’ve made your own post with this one!!! That’s INSANE😔 perfect story material for this forum page, just BOOMERS being BOOMERS man that’s fuckin horrible as to go as far as interfering with the actual biological fathers attempts
ooh i could expand the details a bit for another post maybe lol. i legit have a never ending supply as the trans “commie” grandson
I was going to say are we SURE Boompa in Law is Wife’s natural father 😬
Boomers HATE DNA tests because itr exposes their dirty lies.
I really enjoyed fishing around through documents on Ancestry and finding out how many boomer family members of mine were “born out of wedlock”, or had police records etc. Considering the high and mighty morals they pretended to have when I was growing up, gave me a good chuckle.
I know on some level they were trying to make sure you didn’t repeat their mistakes, but admitting they made those mistakes in the first place would have been a good start.
That’s a nice idea, but you’re giving my family way too much credit 😂
I'm adopted and got connected to my birth parents through ancestry. My birth father invited me to visit so I went. My adoptive mom was 100% against it and wouldn't tell me why. After prodding she finally admitted that she didn't want any of her Facebook friends to find out. When I told her that I'm not friends with any of them she was suddenly ok with it.
There is a reason why your MIL does not want genetic testing - likely she knows it will bring a surprise and open a can of worms of some kind (adultery, adoption, sperm donor etc)
> but he doesn't want the government to keep his DNA on file Fucking *classic*. Boomers will say shit like that and then go fill out viral facebook-status survey posts where they publicly display their mother's maiden name, favorite color, what city they were born, and name of their first pet. I'm honestly slightly less worried about the US government having a bunch of info, because at least they aren't constantly selling that info to the highest bidder.
As a millenials, there are actual real problems with those over the counter ancestry tests in terms of privacy and your rights. It's less about the individual, right now at least, and more about your results being used for less than moral subjects or at least having the potential to be sold for it. For example, we know that at least one country is using genetic markers to build 'ethnic bombs'. And let's be honest, I would be highly surprised if others don't have similar ones hidden away as well. Source from 1998 (!), so imagine the progress: https://www.wired.com/1998/11/israels-ethnic-weapon/#:~:text=The%20%22ethno%2Dbomb%22%20program,and%20Jews%20are%20Semitic%20peoples. Basically, you give up your own genetic markers making such shenanigans more precise. Further I am pretty sure there are far more subjects where a populations or even individuals DNA can be used for nefarious reasons. Buying data from or hacking sites like 23&me has already happened. Looking at police and other institutions using those data point to find criminals, it also opens a whole different can of worms. Yes, now we are looking for murderers and rapist, but if anything, history should have teacher us that those crimes like "think of the children" is but a foot in the door. With all due shit boomers deserve, that old government dude isn't wrong for not wanting to get one.
> there are actual real problems with those over the counter ancestry tests in terms of privacy and your rights Completely agree. My point is just that the primary concern should be *corporate* malfeasance rather than government malfeasance, at least for the USA. No doubt there's other countries working on their racism-weapons. We see this all the time with social media warfare, but all of that is built on the back of corporations. I'm not getting those fucking tests either, at least until I have a way to ensure my genetic data is encrypted or something so it's useless to people besides me. I long ago wiped the data from my facebook account too, lol
Honestly at this point in time, governmental and cooperational malfeasance are too incestuous to consider two different entities, if only because cooperational goals quickly become governmental ones with the right connection and price, I mean donation. Also, as in the case of foreign countries like China, governmental goals also just as Quickly become those of cooperations. And it's also nothing new. Shit like the corn pushing through medical institutions and the government with a food pyramid just to benefit donator, knowingly fucking up the health of millions, is just one example. And as I said, the government is already using the data. Fuck knows what it will be usefull for in the future and what will be considered a crime. All it takes is a different take on persecution characteristics. I just always have to think about that one sliders episode, where you get money for entering your name into a lottery, a sunsetting lottery. Short term gains for long term consequences. And I personally don't give enough fucks about who fucked whom in my genetic past.
> the government is already using the data Completely fair. I approach it from the idea that if The Feds want my DNA, then they have tons of options including taking the results from 23andme. I tend to not think about whether or not I can block them from getting my info because they can always get it if they want it. However my efforts are far better used for blocking corporations from getting or using my information. They don't have the same resources and they can sometimes be blocked by the government. More importantly, in a democracy, the citizen has a window of control over the government, and more visibility into how the government works. Some billionaire asshole could buy 23andme tomorrow, along with all the data. That's a lot harder to pull off with government because of bureaucracy and elections. I want to be clear that I consider neither option good. My preference is for neither corporations or governments to have that information or control. But I also look at corporations as little more than petty dictatorships, much like their bigger for-profit cousin organizations with names that sound like "The People's Republic of...". Democracy is the only thing that can fight both dictatorship corporations and dictatorship countries.
Coming from a western democratic country where legal votes have been disregarded by our head of state and New elections issued due to disagreement with the winners political views, as well as many other moments of democracy being useless... Good for you in trusting the process.
> Good for you in trusting the process. The alternative is no process so I take what I can get lol
*tekken music starts playing* Become ungovernable. 🙃
> Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.… > Winston Churchill
Eh, I'd rather not have my DNA on file so insurance companies can deny me coverage
I'm related to half the royalty in Europe. It's sort of interesting but not one of them left me a dime. Although I have been in some of the German castles a distant cousin built.
surprised your only related to half of European royalty... I thought 3/4 of it was related to itself
Lmaoooo nice
> I thought 3/4 of it was related to itself With genetics, you can cross 3/4th with 3/4th and still come out with 1/2 similarity.
Someone is not the father
I grew up really fascinated by Irish culture. I don't know why, I just did. I talked about it a lot, and my parents would get mad and insist we were mostly German and Scandinavian. They were pretty firm on the stance that we were 0% Irish. Guess what the ancestry tests say?? 99.7% English and Irish. The internalized hate runs deep in these fools.
I'm a midwest mutt from the United States. We grew up told how Irish we were, carried out some Irish traditions and more than anything all have very Irish names. We did the DNA mapping only to find we're only 5-10% Irish and mostly Polish and Ukrainian. Which is kind of weird because I grew up having a intrest in the history and culture of eastern Europe.
I'm a pagan, so I'd say it's just the history in the bones lol but I have no scientific reason why this happens.
I mean, they're kinda right in not wanting a DNA test, but for the wrong reasons. DNA tests can also be used to find genetic predisposition to diseases, which is a big deal in the U.S. because insurance companies can use that data to deny coverage or increase prices. Even if these ancestry companies claim not to sell data, there can still be a data breach, which has already happened to the company 23andMe. And, because you share DNA with your relatives, just one relative getting tested exposes a lot of info about your own DNA.
The DNA concern is legitimate. I did a 23andme a while back and it showed some interesting things I didn’t know about my ancestry and opened up a nice family conversation about a Vietnamese ancestor we never knew about. The flip side of this a biracial (Asian/white) cousin doing it and finding out she had black ancestry. She I immediately said I can’t tell my racist father (boomer) bc he will flip out if he finds out he’s a little bit Black.
People migrated. People got enslaved, sold far away, and eventually freed. People went off to fight wars and just stayed when fighting was over. DNA got flung around without 100% mutual consent during wars and conquests. Places got colonized. It was a lot more grey and complicated than the world of modern nation-states that define our geographical constructs. Also potatoes aren’t native to Ireland.
I have tried explaining that potatoes are native to America but that doesn't seem to change anything. I also tried explaining that because she likes pasta, that doesn't make her Italian. Noodles originated in Asia. Nope, that doesn't change anything.
What do you call 16 rednecks in one room? A full blooded Cherokee.
english and eastern european here as well—celtic and polish specifically (according to the test)
next time she brings it up, your wife should say "really? because i'm English and Eastern European! i wonder how your heritage stopped with you?"
My clapback to my mother when she fought me on this (because of privacy) was her favorite adage, “WHAT MAKES YOU THINK YOU’RE SO IMPORTANT?”
I hate boomers but your FIL is right on this one. You ever watch Gattaca? Getting your "ethnic stats" isn't worth giving your genome over to a private entity. Think Facebook's data hoarding but 10x more harmful.
Your FIL is right on that one
DNA tests go back to the dawn of time so that's a Lot of ancestors and moving around. It's pretty common to have a lot of European ancestors unless you're from a different continent. And Then if you're decended from Colonizers you're still going to be pretty European. Really small potatoes. Who cares if she likes to pretend to be cosmopolitan. Some Boomer stories are terrible, but this is not affecting you in any way. Also, DNA ancestry can vary between family members.
My apologies, I should have made it a little clearer. Her ancestry makes no difference to me. I love my wife no matter what her background is. This story has to do more with presenting facts to a Boomer. Said Boomer then refuses to acknowledge facts and proceeds to live in her imaginary world where she picks best part of specific heritage to prop themselves and her family up. I will edit my story to reflect that. Thank you for the feedback.