When I used to confront my grandma about the things she was spouting she would start to withdraw and then just not share her opinions as much so you have to be careful how you approach it. Just my experience. I think in retrospect I'd just try to get her to share and then, calmly but systematically try to disprove whatever it is that she read.
... That must be frustrating. Fighting misinformation and engaging the real world would be my idea for solution. But in practice, cause of lack of time and failed attempts to reason, I just told my dad to either shut up about politics or "lose" a son. So we are just hoping/trying to survive the Trump era. As childish as that is, there is no good solution, unless one is willing to invest a ton of time and emotion and be willing to fail despite it. I actually think, this depoliticized my dad after a while. Never thought of weed brownies - curious how that goes!
My wife gets anxious. Does CBF work pretty well? I am sorry to hear that about your mom. From the little I have heard about Qnon, they are dumb.
I've been saying well before Trump got COVID-19 that there will be violence so whether Trump lives or dies I think we're in tough times. If Trump dies though we're already seeing rhetoric claiming that Trump has been deliberately infected. As CCorn noted his family is scared that this is all a plot by the Deep State to kill Trump supporters. If Trump dies those fears will only get magnified. The xenophobic movement that Trump now heads existed before he got into politics. The worst case of domestic terrorism was in 1994 and this movement will likely survive Trump. Trump dying might deflate a lot but it also might make him a martyr to many.
Of all the possibilities, the one most people can see through as being ridiculous would be a targeted deep state virus plot that only infects republican officials. The one most are likely to believe is that the election was stolen from them. Both nonsense but one more likely to be believed by "rational" republicans. The reason you hear chatter about this now is because it's the flavor of the day. Whatever is going on, they will morph their rhetoric and conspiracy to fit that news. There's no escape from these loons so you have to hope for the one scenario that would be most manageable because take your pick, they will turn it into a deep state conspiracy. There will be no clean break or aha moment for them as a collective but we can hope for a scenario where the more reasonable of the lot will jump ship and try to bring some back to reality.
No joke, do not go over to their house and knock on the door or try go use your key to get in without calling them first from your car, parked outside. That's the scariest thing you've posted so far.
They were watching my youngest dog. I dropped by to grab him and they mentioned they were going to the gun range to learn how to shoot their new gun. I was like... welp. Not drinking here again.
Remember when we were kids and our parents told us not to believe everything from the internet and now they get their news from Facebook meme pages
I'm sorry about your situation, and really don't know what advice to give. I find excuses to not hang around certain relatives, which sucks because the others there I'd love to talk to. That's got to be terribly tough when it's you parents. I taught my dad what snopes.com was ~15 years ago when he got a little crazy with the email forwards, if he was still around I'd like to think he would have learned by now.
@CCorn Just read this in one of my 100s of unread bookmarks. The book might be more interesting on how to change a mind since there’s no way most people would join a cult and suffer through what the article wrote. All about the Web of Trust... https://forge.medium.com/how-to-change-a-mind-1774681b9369
yikes Conspiracy driven, and just purchased a gun? That is a terrible mix I honestly don’t know what I’d do...I don’t have the patience to constantly try and reason with people who’ve plunged to a QAnon level it’s 1 thing if they’re just trolling to “own the libs,” but genuinely believing and immersing yourself in it....I don’t have the patience there are a few people I know from back in college that exposed themselves as Trumpers and were saying wild sh*t...I just cut them off, but they weren’t family
Maybe wear a "birds aren't real" t-shirt at your next family gathering. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/09/technology/birds-arent-real-gen-z-misinformation.html
