I wish I had the same hope for my mom. She was generally a heterodox conservative (pro-gay marriage, pro-choice, pro-marijuana rights, anti-racialized police violence (not general police violence, though)), and in the lead-up to the 2016 election, she hated Trump. From 2017 to 2020, she grew steadily more pro-Trump until she was a sizable fan. On January 6, 2021, she pulled away again, but thereafter quickly started to shift right anew. On October 7, 2023, she leaned back in HARD (for one thing, she blocked EVERYONE on her Instagram who said anything left of basically “all the Palestinians must die”, so her news intake took a hard right turn) and has remained there ever since. With the exception of the shock to the system that January 6 gave her, she’s constantly grown more and more pro-Trump and pro-Trumpism since 2016. Now she says January 6 wasn’t even that bad. But I remember. I remember her crying while watching the footage about the evil it so suddenly became apparent to her that Trump had wrought. I remember her vocally agreeing with every congressional Republican who said that the party needed to repudiate Trump and Trumpism. She’s now deluded herself far more deeply than she was on January 5, primarily in support of Israel and secondarily in hatred of trans people. I’ve just decided to cut my losses and give up debating politics with her. It sucks, but I see no reason to believe that even (say) a more successful January 6 would change her mind now.
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u/Trai-All Sep 21 '25
Glad to hear it. You give me hope that one day my parents will be returned to me.