I had an awkward talk with my father earlier. I rarely talk to him, between COVID-19 and also the fact politically we are like oil and water, and he's been blathering on more and more about politics lately, instead of more pleasant subjects.
But tonight he called and suggested I need to go out and update my passport because my old one was out of date (I have 4 years to renew it, though... so I'm baffled why it has to be done now, even though both me and my S.O. consider ourselves at higher risk from COVID). And then he started talking about how "You know, masks have been giving people strep infections and they really don't work... blah blah blah". And I just sort of rolled my eyes and wasn't willing to argue with him. But it's awkward because I don't want to have to confront my own dad and argue with him, but he's flat out wrong.
Just who is dealing in this kind of crazy disinformation? Where does it come from? Is there something in the drinking water that suddenly makes people gullible fools (if so, I'm glad mine is filtered)? Every time I talk to him, it's some new crazy thing he says. And it's getting old real fast- I'm just not one to want to argue with my own father, and my mother believes this stuff, too.
I don't know exactly but in the case of my aunt and uncle it's a combination of right-wing media and, sad to say, their religious circles, which I'm not sure exactly what they are but pretty sure it's a combination of a church they go to and various televangelists and radio evangelists.
Now they are 80-ish and recently my uncle is in bad shape with heard problems and other problems (please keep him in your prayers if you could). But what saddens me most is that this particular uncle, who for most of my life was one of my favorites because he always had a positive outlook all the time in a true Christian spirit has now become angry all the time and depressed and I would say paranoid.
It's not the illness that made him this way - it had been happening over the last 5 to 10 years, very slowly at first, very quickly ever since Trump was elected. Why I bring it up with his illness is because his negativity is directly affecting his health. Mainly he refuses to take medications and is angry at the doctors because he is mistrustful of any of them. He is depressed which would be understandable given his health but he far beyond the expected depression.
My aunt tells us (and it's unclear if it's her or him saying this but I think they both kind of agree) that Biden is to blame for his problems. In her words, "Everything was fine with Trump, Biden has ruined everything." She believes that "the Lord is punishing us for taking Biden" (she means all of us but also her husband and her in particular).
We (my other family members and I) don't know what to say to her. Her son knows that this is irrational but I don't know if he really tries to convince them their political views are being detrimental - maybe he doesn't necessarily even think so.
But this is why I take the new right-wing propaganda and Trump-related movement so personally; I have never seen such politics affect people in this way before, not in my lifetime.
I used to argue with both of them about politics but gave up 10 or so years ago. It only made them really mad and sometimes made me mad. Since then I try to just impart positivity and Christian values but they will literally just bring the conversation back around to politics. I didn't even realize it affected them this badly until these most recent developments, and it's maddening to see it.
Wherever the lies come from directly to their ears I know they originate from the father of lies, Satan, in hell.
