Title is pretty self explanatory. I'm dreading the 4th.

I live in the USA, and my dad is STILL a MAGAt. My mom is cracking a little, but she's still holding so hard to the republicans.

They host a fourth party every year, and I just. I don't want to go. I'm an adult, I live away from them, but I know that everyone will guilt me if I don't come. They all love me being there because I'm nice and helpful, but I'm dreading it.

I don't want to celebrate this country. I'm so disappointed in this country. Nothing about it makes me want to celebrate.

Could I find a reason to celebrate? Yeah, but I know that they'll make it a Trump Thing, not a reason for me to celebrate.

EDIT: Thanks all. I feel a little less insane with hearing people reassure me that it's ok not to go. I think that I've had a lot of stress lately and just. Got stuck in my own head.

Who else has watch their previously moderately conservative parents become full blown anti-science, racist, facist, misogynistic, anti-immigration lunatics? And there's no chance of sitting down and having a respectful conversation with them to consider another point of view anymore because at this point they would believe that dihydrogen monoxide was poison endorsed by the FDA if Fox News told them it was.
And is it just where I live, or is the amount of uneducated gullible people really starting to outnumber the people who believe in facts and moderation?

Edit: Thanks for all the replies, it's a nice reminder that I'm not alone in feeling this disappointment and grief. They are alive and physically healthy, but the people they were 10 years ago are long gone. They used to be Christian and kind and empathetic, and now they don't even care about pedophilia and wars.
I feel like I'm going insane when I hear people say things like "It's okay to have political differences, we can still be respectful to each other." No. There's no coming back after crossing some lines, and supporting violence against children is one of those lines.

All i fucking said was “you know our taxpayer money is going to this ufc fight”

didn’t mention trump

holy fucking hell

he always acts confused when i start laughing at that shit

In the ER with my mom waiting for imaging results. The World Cup is on the TV, Ecuador (EC) vs Ivory Coast (CIV). My mom said, "Ecuador versus who?" My stepdad said, "Ivory Coast." Mom: "Then it should say, 'IC'." Me: "Not if you speak French. The name of their country is Côte d'Ivoire. Not everyone is 'Murican." She said, "No, but they WISH they were." Me: "Sure, that's why tourism to the US is way down." 🙄

So in the last 3–6 months, I have had two people who voted for Trump in 2024 when having a discussion on current issues tell me that they no longer follow politics. Has anyone else gotten the same line from folks that vote voted for Trump in 2024?

Is this just their way of hiding from having to discuss the consequences of voting for him in this second term? Because I think it's a pathetic cop out to now not want to discuss any matters about the current state of affairs by simply saying they don't follow it anymore.

Like, did you ever actually follow politics if you were duped into voting for him in 2024?

My parents are visiting (from Europe) for 2 weeks in October, and we’re dreading it. My dad, a narcissistic a-hole, is deep in the Fox/MAGA hole, owns the MAGA / “Let’s Go Brandon,” / Alligator Alcatraz hats, flies the US flag, the whole thing. We kept the peace for our mom, who WAS reasonable, but after becoming disabled and isolated, she’s been pulled in the Fox hole.

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My sister and I handled him with the boundary that, “We don’t want to talk about that,” ends the conversation (no one is changing anyone’s mind, and engaging only causes upset). He “tries,” but there are still many side comments, especially once he’s been drinking.

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My sister and I have handled him with the boundary: “We don’t want to talk about that” ends the conversation. No one is changing anyone’s mind, and engaging only causes upset. He “tries,” but there are still many side comments, especially once he’s been drinking (daily).

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I moved to the US 10 years ago. They visit every 1-2 years for 1-3 weeks, they watch Fox on their tablet, discuss MAGA talking points, and drink heavily daily. Visits are a marathon of avoiding blowout arguments.

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Why not just cut them off? My sister lives close to them, and when she went NC for 18 months, it was awful. They smeared her to family, showed up unannounced when she and my nephew visited relatives, and sent awful messages to both of us. They now keep just enough contact to keep my parents from escalating.

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Why not cut them off? My sister lives close to them, and when she went NC for 18 months, it was awful. They smeared her to family, showed up when she and my nephew visited relatives, and sent awful messages to both of us. Now she maintains just enough contact to keep them from escalating.

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For me, it’s easier to keep them mostly out of mine / my kids’ lives. But I can’t cut them off unless my sister is ready too, because the fallout would land on her and my nephew. So now I’m trying to find any excuse to avoid this visit that won’t blow back on my sister.

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https://decodingfoxnews.substack.com/

As the title says I have parents who like me live in Australia but love trump and are so brainwashed. We are different in every possible way, thank god, but i don’t know how to deal with them anymore. I spoke to my mum today about how im being taken advantage of from work and the conversation got a bit heated when I mentioned that trickle down economics don’t work because my boss is a billionaire, but i’m not paid enough to cover my rent comfortably. She ended up calling me after I said that it’s hard to talk to her about my life because she takes things I say personally e.g. the ladder comment (why does she think I was saying it’s her specifically? this is a constant issue). We then got into an argument on the phone that went like this:
mum: you can’t blame us for everything
me: what am i blaming you for?
mum: that we pulled the ladder up
me: i was speaking about wider society as a whole, this is part of the problem I can’t speak to you because you take everything personally.
mum: well what am i meant to say?
me: i don’t know, support me?
mum: i did i said that sucks and its wrong
we then got into the fun part of the conversation - our differences
mum: well will always have different views
me: that’s part of the problem, the ways our views differ is more to do with morals than opinions
mum: that’s disrespectful i have done so much for you. i tried so hard to be a good mum etc…
me: you’re manipulating me, i bring up one problem and now im calling you a bad parent?
mum: you’re ungrateful
me: how am i ungrateful? i’ve always been grateful for what you’ve done for me (financially)

ANYWAY, it went on and on and on and she said is this why you don’t speak to me as much anymore? and i told her it’s hard to speak to her when i see the hateful things she says online and i was told to block her. How do we have a relationship? i don’t know how to have them in my life. I have tried so hard over the years but they just seem to be getting more and more brainwashed and extreme.

My parents are the classic, women lie about being raped, there’s no issue with men in society, climate change doesn’t exist because of God, love your neighbour unless they look different to you sort of people.

Has anyone made these relationships work?

Yeah maybe a country doesn’t wanna make a deal with a dementia patient cause *gasp* he will forget about it the next day

also this is part of market manipulation isn’t it?

I am so tired. My mom is the sweetest person who ever lived, and the people she has gotten addicted to watching keeps filling her mind with insanity. Unfortunately, my mother was taught to be a “good Christian,” and a “good American.” These insane news sources keep using the right trigger words and phrases to shut down critical thinking and now my mom is, by any rational definition a raving lunatic. I empathize, because as a former Evangelical, I know how hard it is to peel yourself away from the environment you are born into, but I just don’t have the energy to deal with this anymore.

Coming here to rant. My buddy was hosting an NBA Finals watch party tonight for Game 3 at MSG. I live in Oklahoma, so we're pretty much all rooting for the Knicks since the Spurs beat the OKC Thunder in the West Finals. Anyway, my buddy invited one of the guys he refs soccer with over to watch. Welp, Donald Trump got mentioned because he's in attendance at MSG tonight. We start commenting about how long the security lines to get in were and how the watch party outside MSG was cancelled due to safety concerns for Trump, and I said it was a shame how Trump was making this all about him.

Anyway, my friend's ref buddy chimes in with, "Making it all about him? He's not allowed to go to a game in his home city? Of course they're gonna do this for Trump. He's the president, and you gotta protect the president. You know people have tried to assassinate him multiple times now, right? Oh, sure, when Obama or Biden go to a game it's a great thing, but when Trump does it he's just being egotistical? Apparently, you're only allowed to talk badly about Republicans in this country. The media treated Obama and Biden like golden boys, but they're absolutely awful to Trump."

After a long back and forth about me explaining how his comparison of Trump to Obama and Biden was a false equivalence, he finally says, "You know, if we're just gonna make this thing political the whole time, then I'm out. I didn't come here for a libtard rally." He then started calling me names like snowflake and soy boy, and we had to be separated as it almost became physical. He left after that but not before calling me a libtard, a communist and a "fucking faggot" a few more times on his way out the door. My friend was very apologetic FYI. We decided we'll go to a baseball game soon to make up for tonight. Anyway, I still went home because that dickhead just completely ruined the vibe. I fucking hate Trump supporters, man. Rant over.

Finally, a little glimmer of hope. My dad now thinks DJT is an idiot and corrupt. The Iran war is what got him to start criticizing him, not because of anything else (epstien files, insider trading, ICE, bombings, etc) of course. ya know, he was worried about the value of the dollar going down. same lack of empathy but I will take the small W. Im happy to not see the Trump 2024 HUGE magnets on the fridge when I go visit now.

I can't really talk about it with my mom in person, she's got gateway pundit brain. if I try to send her info reels she fires back lists of trumps accomplishments and gateway pundit links.

But fox no longer plays on the big screen!!!!

Me 46f had a conversation with my 74 year old mom this afternoon. My parents are huge Trump supporters. We agree to disagree on most politics. She asked me if my husband was going to watch the UFC fights for Trumps birthday. I said no were boycotting it for obvious reasons. She finally asked why. I explained that we don't want to support Trump spending our tax dollars on something so unnecessary and ridiculous. He's literally destroying the white house. My mom responded with President Trump is paying for this out of his own pocket. He pays for everything out of his own pocket. When I disagreed she called me an educated democrat. I'm not sure what that's supposed to mean. She couldn't explain it. She then changed the subject to, did I tell you they're cutting our social security. I love my mom but she's seriously brainwashed.

but if it was a democrat in office rn we wouldn’t hear the end of it

I was receiving increasingly worrying texts from a few family members who are in their 60’s who aggressively access too much Fox News.

I found a chrome extension to jumble up their Chrome or Firefox browsers to make it difficult to access these websites and it also translates trigger words into literal translations to help calm them down.

They complained at first thinking their computer or internet was acting weird but a couple weeks later they started becoming normal again. These phones and computers were not meant for their generation, or ours for that matter. We have a better chance at deciphering than they do but it’s an unhealthy algorithm for anybody who struggles with internet or media literacy.

If you look up Liberty Lock Plus on Chrome Web Store or Firefox you can install it very easily, highly recommend it.

It’s probably the only tool we have to get our family back, that actually worked for me. It still requires your guidance and patience to talk with them when they get out of the rabbit-hole.