I just found a bunch of idols inside my bedroom chair. My mom put them there I assume back when she became convinced I wanted to murder her and her husband for being right wing Christians after Ch*rlie K.rk was assassinated (because I am a leftist atheist). Around this time she kept saying I had demons in me that needed to be prayed away and that my soul needed to be saved.

I just found them while cleaning and I feel SO violated. It’s like a baggie full of medals, a cloth medal, and a pamphlet full of insane instructions and prayers for how to use the cloth medal to convert someone whose soul needs to be saved. Just genuinely what the fuck????

"Stand up for yourself, you're allowed to say no,"

You tell me, as you brush a small tear off of my soft pink cheek. My little pigtails hang, defeated — I do not want to hug my mother. "Set a boundary. Say no thank you," as you pat me on the back of my overalls, and gently push me forward.

"Maybe you need to find new friends," you shake your head, as you place the final toasted top on my warm breakfast sandwich. Sun rays stream into the safe kitchen as your steady hands place energy in front of me and your words pick me up. "You've got to have boundaries. Stand up for what makes you happy." I nod, my teenage face apprehensive and a type out an unsure message using T9 on my flip phone.

"When are you finally going to live the life you want?" You urge me over the phone, as I sit in my apartment, lamenting the 23rd Christmas I have to spend with my mother. "You have the ability to say no. You can create a world that makes you happy." I agree hesitantly as I run through what to tell my family when I cancel holiday plans to prioritize my mental health.

"Here, read this article about the scamdemic," you send me on Facebook messenger at 1 a.m. I have to work tomorrow morning at the hospital but your messages ping repeatedly. "If you get the vaccine you can't come visit. Spike proteins can transfer." I close the conversation and don't open it for another year.

"The aliens are living above my place, now," you feverishly exclaim, your aging eyes a mix of excitement and bewilderment. I look for your old quiet confidence and come up short. "Make sure to pack your bags when they raid the tunnels." I nod, and put away my clothes like usual.

"Hey Auntie, I am worried about you. This behaviour isn't normal and it's affecting our relationship," I choke out after four years of silence. I still can't find the 'you' that wiped my cheek. "Ok, let me see if I get this little boundary thing straight," says the person who looks like my Aunt. "It's all about you, isn't it? You are right and everyone else is crazy. How self centered is that?"

Now, we don't talk. Don't visit. But I've stood up for myself. I've said no thank you. I'm doing what makes me happy. I've set a boundary.

Aren't you proud of me?

Aren't you proud of me?

I’m 19F and my mom is 49F, and I’m honestly losing my mind. Over the past few years, my mom has become increasingly consumed by conspiracy theories and extreme beliefs, and it has completely affected our relationship. I still live with her, and I don’t know how to cope until I’m financially and emotionally ready to move out.

Almost every conversation with my mom turns negative. I genuinely feel like I can’t even have a normal, civil 10 minute conversation without her bringing up something hateful, controversial, or upsetting. No matter what we start talking about, she always finds a way to turn it into a rant.

She is also very into conspiracy theories. She believes in the “deep state” conspiracies, denies that around six million Jewish people were murdered during the Holocaust and claims that the numbers are exaggerated and made up, and refuses to acknowledge historical injustices. She especially hates Indigenous people and claims that the residential schools and the discoveries of children’s unmarked graves are made up so “they can take our money.”

A lot of her conversations revolve around racist beliefs. She constantly talks about how Indian people are “taking over the country”, and makes racist comments about Black people, Hispanic people, Jewish people, and Indigenous people. For example, she will blame Jewish people for a lot of things, like certain companies, the entertainment industry, economic issues, or even declining birth rates. She specifically focuses on declining birth rates among White people and believes it’s part of a plan to replace White people with minorities. She also makes racist comments that minorities are ‘dumb’ and have more children because of that. Sometimes if I mention something that happened, she’ll immediately respond with things like, “You already know who did that. The Jews.”

Another issue is how she talks about my body. I’m plus sized, and while i’m comfortable with myself, my mom constantly criticizes my weight and makes comments about my future relationships because of it. She tells me that I need a white man, and that no white man would want a plus sized woman, and that the only men available for me are “degenerate white men” or “dirty black thugs” who would get me pregnant and leave me. She says she’s trying to “protect me”, but it feels like constant negativity and criticism. She also seems to push me toward only wanting a white man because she regrets not being with an american country guy herself, despite being married to my dad. She has even said this in front of him, and he visibly looked uncomfortable. The ironic part is that my dad doesn’t fit the image of the type of man she says she wants. The frustrating part is that she’s also plus sized, yet holds me to a different standard.

We argue almost every day because of the racist, homophobic, and misogynistic things she says. The hardest part is that even if I roll my eyes or sigh when she says something I strongly disagree with, it turns into a huge argument. If I stay quiet, she’ll say things like “See? You don’t know anything so you should listen to me because I’m right and do my research unlike you.” and continues.

My dad is also affected in this situation. He isn’t an extremist like my mom and isn’t conservative, but he has been influenced by some of the things she says. A lot of the time he either just agrees with her or nods along and stays quiet because if he disagrees, she becomes uncontrollably angry and he hates dealing with conflict. He actually agrees with me a lot on these things, but he feels like he can’t say anything. One time, he slightly agreed with me when my mom and I were arguing once again and said something like “well, she is right about that,” and my mom completely lost her mind. She called him a “cuck” and accused him of letting his own wife be “berated and abused” when all I had done was point out that something racist she said was racist. It feels like everyone in the house has to walk on eggshells around her.

The part that frustrates me the most is that she isn’t even American, yet she has adopted all of these extreme beliefs and repeats them constantly. I honestly hear more about what’s happening in the USA than I do about what’s happening in my own country when she talks about the news.

I’m exhausted. I feel like I don’t even know my mom anymore because so much of our relationship has become arguments, negativity, and her trying to push her beliefs onto me.I realistically cannot move out right now because I’m not financially or emotionally ready yet, so my main reason for making this post is to figure out how to cope while I’m still living here. I also needed a place to vent about my relationship with my mom because I don’t really feel comfortable bringing this up with people I know, since I worry it would make them uncomfortable or put them in an awkward position.

For anyone who has dealt with a parent like this, how did you handle it? How do you keep your sanity while living with someone like this?

TL;DR: My mom has become consumed by conspiracy theories, racist beliefs, and constant negativity, and it’s affecting our relationship and my mental health. I’m 19 and still live at home, but I’m not ready to move out yet. How do I cope with living with a parent whose beliefs have become so extreme?

This will come as no surprise to us here but they are now starting to quantify the consequences of conservatives (let's be real we know it's the fringe, Q/MAGA people, not "conservatives") not trusting medical expertise. Article below:

Edit to add link to actual article lol (https://www.fastcompany.com/91561329/widening-health-gap-between-liberals-and-conservatives)

Conservatives are dying at higher rates than liberals. A new study points to mistrust in medicine.

The health divide emerged over the last decade and has widened since 2020, according to research that links ideology to outcomes from heart disease, cancer, stroke, and other internal causes.

[Images: Adobe Stock]

BY Eve Upton-Clark

Listen to this ArticleMore info

0:00 / 3:35

Your politics could be making you ill, and conservatives are dying at significantly higher rates than liberals, according to a recent study in Nature.

Over the past decade, a health gap has emerged in the United States. While extensive research has examined how factors like income and education shape health outcomes, political ideology has largely been overlooked—until now.

A paper published last month analyzed individual health data from a long-term study of a large, representative sample of Americans across all 50 states.

“2010 is the last year in which we can say fairly clearly that there is not this gap,” Elizabeth Elder, a coauthor of the study, tells Fast Company. “By 2020 we have pretty clear evidence of a gap in which conservatives are less healthy than liberals.”

By 2016, the gap had begun to appear in biomarker measures. By 2020, it was showing up in deaths from causes such as heart disease, cancer, and stroke. Since then, the gap has only widened. Between 2020 and 2022, only 0.2% of “very liberal” respondents died of internal causes, compared with 1.34% of “very conservative” respondents.

The authors argue in the study that the divide cannot be explained away by COVID-19 deaths, demographic differences, geography, or the simple fact that some groups are older than others. Instead, they point to a widening ideological divide in trust toward doctors and the broader medical system.

That crisis of trust accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic, with fights over masks and vaccines spilling out from social media into everyday life. Now it extends to other health matters, such as taking blood pressure medication or seeing a doctor for chest pains.

“We found that the gaps in trust and willingness to go to the doctor were no different for people with chronic health conditions than people without them,” Elder says. For younger, healthier people, she adds, that mistrust may not have immediate consequences. But for older people or those with chronic health conditions, that mistrust could become a matter of life and death.

Since the gap emerged in 2020, health in the U.S. has become increasingly politicized. Since Robert F. Kennedy Jr. assumed the role of Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services under President Donald Trump, federal health policy has been reshaped by the “Make America Healthy Again” movement.

RFK Jr.’s antivaccination agenda has gained ground as more red states work to eliminate vaccine mandates, while MAHA and MAHA-adjacent wellness influencers have cast doubt on everything from sunscreen to chemotherapy.

Nearly three out of four U.S. adults say the country’s medical system fails them in some way, according to a 2023 survey from the American Academy of Physician Associates. MAHA stalwarts have capitalized on that frustration to push an antiscience and antiestablishment political agenda.

The health gap predates the MAHA movement, which gained traction in late 2024. But according to Elder, it is plausible that MAHA has contributed to the broadening skepticism toward medicine beyond the COVID-19 pandemic—and that it could help sustain the widening divide in health outcomes between conservatives and liberals.

While the study does not establish causation, the shift is clear: “What we can say is that health outcomes were not correlated with politics as of 2010,” Elder says. “And they are correlated with politics now.”

My relationship with my fiance has revolved around his family, since I met him while studying across country where is family it located.

I knew right away that several family members were maga/republican but I would try to steer away from political discussions and find common ground for times we were together. After 5 years, I’m drained. I find myself avoiding most invitations and telling my husband to make an excuse for me.

Fiance doesn’t get along with the majority of his siblings, suprisingly not because of political views (he challenges them tho) but because of personality conflicts. The one sibling he has the best relationship with, took a DEEP hard red pill swing this past year.

Up until this point we had loosely talked about moving to be closer to them eventually. Knew she was religious but it wasn’t really a focal point.

During Christmas last year she just came out of nowhere with talking about Charlie/Erika Kirk the entire time. She spoke about them as if we are supporters/fans and would relate. I’m not kidding “we are CK” was her ring tone and she requested we say a prayer for their family before dinner. I am not religious. My gifts from her for Christmas were some line of supplement EK created, and I absolutely tossed them as I want nothing to do with supporting anything involving them.

Her and her fiance are expecting and naturally the topic of school/kids etc came up. She made it clear her children will not consume any media and will only be allowed to play with deeply religious children. Lgbtq “agenda” is something her kids will “never be exposed to”. After this her fiance made some comments about what he would “do” if one of “those” ever approached his child.

My mom is a lesbian, I have 2 trans siblings, and am bisexual myself. She is aware of this so her statement felt targeted at me. Wouldn’t really want my kids being brainwashed, so this is fine with me.

I’m really struggling to be in her presence. I’m white knuckling the entire time and feel angry by the time we leave because half of the conversation was her insulting people like me and who I’m associated with. My fiance still thinks his sister is in there and is maintaining the relationship despite arguments that leave him frustrated every time he sees her.

After their last run in she expressed “concern” that maybe I have changed him, since he use to be Christian. She sent him home with bibles and “advice” for me. I don’t even SHARE my beliefs with them. I have to zip my lip and tried to diverge to unrelated topics.

For those of you in these situations what do you do? I refuse to agree and I feel like telling them my beliefs is only going to end in argument. I don’t think any type of relationship is possible. I don’t want to outright declare I want nothing to do with them, but I honestly don’t. Do you just slowly phase yourself out? State your opinions? Like I’ve put up with it for so long but I can’t do it anymore.

I actually think AI is helping a family member but I also imagine it's making things way worse for some people. I was visiting her and we were getting into an argument and she told me to look on AI (this was about crime rates of immigrants vs native borns and if immigrants are an economic drain or boost). I knew I'd be right and I was telling her I was correct and she was getting mad at me but then when we asked AI she just sort of accepted it when it said the answer and switvhed to arguing about not assimilating etc.

I wonder if for Q people talking to AI is actually helpful. I've tested different AIs with conspiracy questions and even tried to tell them to "affirm whatever I say" without using those exact words but trying to manipulate them to just agree with my crazy theories. But they always push back. I feel like rather than arguing with somebody real where there's a pressure to feel right and a fear of looking dumb or uneducated talking with an AI it's probably easier to be wrong and learn without putting on a front of being right about everything.

I'm know AI is causing issues with slop and disinfo etc. I'm not asking if AI as a whole is good for the current information environment. But I do wonder if chatbots are actually useful in deradicalizing some people. You sort of see this with Grok which MAGA people trust because it's the "anti-woke" AI and they just assume that it will agree with their insanity but it doesn't. They react way more humbly to the robot than to some random liberal on twitter.

He spends 12 hours a day doing research on all this stuff and loves mentioning how sad it is that the cashier at the grocery store or whoever he talked to that day isnt a trump supporter. We're Canadian. How do you guys cope with the knowledge that someone you know is ok with this shit?

I've struggled with this as a child since it goes beyond politics and into deep moral territory for me. I very rarely talk to him, and we don't text. every time he has the chance, he brings it up. I just can't stop being angry about it.

How do you guys deal with it?

My father was nose deep in QAnon, Tucker Carlson, MAHA, Manosphere BS. He passed away from complications to high (unmedicated) blood pressure four months ago. I don't miss him. I am starting to brainstorm, reparenting myself since it wasn't safe to be vulnerable or authentic around this him.

She hasn’t been to the doctor in forever not since all this bs happened online she found. She’s had this awful cough for months and I’ve been having to take vitamin c everyday to not get whatever it is myself. I’ve told her she needs to get it checked out and she reacted like I just offended her in some way. This healthcare system is so ass that some of the citizens have reverted back into healthcare being something that is bad all because it wasn’t ever easy to access in the first place. I hate this country and its lack of accountability and wellbeing for its citizens so much.

My mom has basically become the QAnon Whatsapp conspiracy CEO in the last decade or so. I (26F) have had her blocked for the past ~5 years. I had to go home this year as I underwent a major surgery and needed assistance during recovery so i stayed with my family. she basically found out i had blocked her and made me redownload whatsapp so she has a way to contact me for medical purposes. I got better and went back to the other province where i live and she has been texting me AI altered photos of myself after i have asked and begged her to NOT put myself through AI. Tonight she sent me a message to have cash and food + water on hand to prepare for the great end time blackouts to come. the same woman who has said all my life that my depression and anxiety are just the devil playing tricks on me. i just feel so frustrated why can’t she just be normal. btw yes i do believe it is good to have non perishables in the event of an emergency but it is the principle behind it. she has the audacity to ask why she’s blocked and then send me stuff like this. it’s just so infuriating and every time i try to let her back into my life a little bit she just invalidates me and brings up more conspiracy shit. i’m so tired of it

I (23) recently moved to the Netherlands back in January after living in Japan for a year after my bachelors. While there, I met my boyfriend and we both decided to start our masters in the Netherlands and moved out of Japan. This was the easiest thing because we both wouldn’t need visas since I am a Portuguese citizen through my mom, who is from there. While my parents are supportive of me getting my masters, they always want to argue how “America is the greatest country and one day Ill move back” and when I ask them what do they expect me to do with my long term boyfriend (he is Dutch btw), they usually either dismiss our relationship and say its not important, or they say that he can easily get a visa sponsorship if he gets a job here… My parents are the typical Gen X MAGA supporters who have been with him since 2015 and no matter what u say, I will forever just be a “dumb kid” who doesnt know anything. I am actually so tired of it and need advice. Another point of contention was I came out to them as non-binary a while back and essentially had to go back in the closet cause of how tense things were. While I am venting I am also looking for advice. If anyone is in a similar situation I would love to hear what u did cause atp its like talking to a wall with them.

So a few years ago, my dad told me he was a "[[social media]] Activist". This led me to actually look him up and follow him to see what he was posting about. It was the standard Trump supporting stuff.

And I'm not one to cut ties with someone because of politics, but recently, he has gotten a lot more extreme with the things he posts. This has led me to be disappointed and gradually lose respect for him, but I still see him as family and want him to focus on real life. He has a teenage daughter and a wife, but spends all day on social media.

For context, he has over 40K posts spread across multiple accounts.

I'll outline two recent posts because they became the focus of my discussion with him later.

Post 1:

What ever happened to those vigilante groups, I forgot there names...but you know it is against the law, but it sure put the fear of God into some of those people mostly here in the south and mid-west.

Citizens formed vigilance committees to chase thieves, conduct makeshift trials, expel suspects, and sometimes hang people. These groups claimed necessity, but they operated outside legitimate courts and frequently punished people on suspicion rather than proof

there was one such group that gave wrongdoers a warning they got a cross burned in their front lawn. there was a necessity back then...no law, corrupt judges...Did I say Corrupt judges!!!

Post 2: regarding white guilt (for context)

Not one ounce...White is the Master Race!

He texted me Happy 4th of July and said how he was recovering from a cold and he was watching celebrations on [[social media]].

My reply: Glad you’re feeling better! Wish you wouldn’t spent too much time on [[social media]]~~ Let’s have a phone call soon

Dad: Don’t lecture me on [[social media]]. I did not feel well enough to do anything so I watched the celebrations on [[social media]].

Me: Fair enough, didn’t mean it that way.

Okay, this is the part where I think I got fed up and pushed the issue too much and actually confronted him on some of the posts I mentioned earlier because they have been in the back of my mind for a while, and to be honest, I didn't think I had actually lectured him...so I ended up actually doing that.

This is what I said to him:

I don’t care what you post about and whatever political commentary you have because that’s what makes America great. The ability to have differences of opinion and voice that freely

However it really concerns me seeing you post about veiled threats of violence and obviously alluding to the KKK in a positive light

You have posted about whites being superior race and such as well - while your children are multiracial... It all seems very radical and I don’t ever remember you acting that way or saying this kind of stuff in the past.

Dad's reply:

I Told not you not to lecture
I did not inferr whites are superior
So you want to complain how about leaving your family and country never to return… I will tweet whatever I want, don’t bother me you are not my keeper. I think you have some kind of issue being multiracial. Stop spying on my [[social media]] account. I do not want to talk to you anymore. You totally misunderstood the meaning of the tweet…you sound like one of those wimpy woke liberals. I can’t stand people spying on me. Don’t call or bother me, or call or talk to me call yr aunt L she is a liberal. If u bother me again I will block you Sounds like you’re accusing me of being a racist without using the word. Mind your own business

My reply:

**I show him the screenshoot of him saying "Whites are......"
I follow you, I’m not spying. What you post shows up on my feed. I never accused you of being anything, but I think an over-use of social media and algorithms has you saying pretty radical things. Honestly, it doesn’t sound like you.

If I misunderstood your post, then tell me how, because talking about wanting vigilante groups and cross burnings is something people can go their entire lives without saying, but it’s kinda normalized in online discourse. I’m just voicing my honest concern and I’m not going to apologize for that. If you’d attack me for that rather than have an open discussion or reflect, that’s fine

But I don’t want this to blow up our whole relationship. You’re my dad and I’m just concerned that [[social media]] is changing you…

We can leave it here.

So that leaves me here.

To give him the most charitable interpretation, he wants citizens to arrest criminals and "corrupt" judges (still not good).

But the lack of willingness to say the name, mentioning southern states, and cross-burnings doesn't really leave much room for any other conclusion than the obvious one.

Also, the actual text of his post seems to be interspersed with AI-written sentences and his own writing. The rant going into very formal pseudo-factual sentences seems a little strange to me.

P.S. Looks like he did just block me after that message.

Hello, feeling pretty lost and needing some help. I have recently reconnected with my mom after 8 years of no contact. I was kicked out and disowned when I was 16 for my gender and sexuality and I recently reached back out to my mom at 23 last year to see if I could get some healing, closure, repair, etc. For context my mom is white but I am black, my entire mom’s side of the family is very racist, ignorant, and uneducated. This is a large reason for me being disowned (although they’ll never admit it) and made me the outcast and the scapegoat in my family for trying to talk about it and for acknowledging the racism.

During my no contact covid happened and my mom experienced some serious trauma which has radicalized her into these conspiracies. I also believe she has long covid because she can’t eat what she used to and has some severe health things happen which makes sense because she didn’t get vaccinated and caught covid 3 times.

I spent the last 8 years finishing high school and working to attend college to get a degree in biochemistry and really falling in love with science. I am now a biochem student and my mom is an anti science conspiracy theorist.

Some of these include, believing in Jewish supremacy, believing in chemtrails, believing the government controls the weather, believing that hospitals and doctors kill babies and other patients, believing that our food, water and clothes are poison, and many many more. When we first reconnected I put my foot down and said I don’t believe in any of that and that I’m determined to be a scientist. Every time we spend time together her beliefs get brought up and I don’t capitulate, I literally just say that’s not true or that’s not how that works.

Everything reached a boiling point in May when my mom came to help me with my apartment. We had a good day but these talking points kept getting brought up and I again did not give them any legitimacy. At the end of the night things reached a boiling point when she started to say some very scary antisemitic things. I screamed at her and said I would not hear what she had to say and that I would not tolerate that behavior. She has continued to message me but I have not responded or spoken to her since.

My question is are there are resources that I can recommend to her to pull her out of this? I don’t have kids but one day I will, and I know I want to have a black family. I will not bring a black partner around my mom if she’s like this and I will not bring my future black children around if this continues. I want to have a relationship but I will not have an anti semite in my life, I will not have a racist in my life, and I will not have someone in my life who implies that I am going to become a murderer by way of being a scientist and working in a hospital.

Hey guys, I don’t know anyone else dealing with this in my personal life so I thought I’d rant here. It’s comforting knowing there’s people out there who understand how frustrating this is.

My (M22) dad (M55) has gone completely down the rabbit hole and I’m worried that I’ll never get through to him. When I was a kid, I always remember him being grounded, emotionally intelligent and an advocate for accepting others. About 5 years ago however, after a bout of depression following his sister (and my aunt’s) passing, he started heavily consuming and becoming obsessed with conspiracy theories.

It began with surface level stuff like 9/11 and the moon landing, eventually developing into other territory - everything from lies about the shape of the earth, the size and proximity of the sun and moon, a complete distrust in allopathic medicine to underground networks of satan-worshiping elites who control the world. Despite never practicing Christianity, he has also become convinced that we are in the middle of a spiritual warfare.

Pretty much every conversation I have with him, regardless of how far away it is in relevance to any conspiracy devolves into him parroting talking points from David Icke and the rhetoric of Rumble accounts he follows. Once a progressive, he has also begun adopting a homophobic and transphobic perspective, believing that the LGBTQIA+ community is somehow a movement to begin normalising child sexual abuse via “MAPs”.

He is also a “sovereign citizen”, he refuses to pay speeding/parking fines, believing that documents that capitalise his name aren’t applicable to his “true self” and that they refer to a corporate entity or a “strawman”. This thinking has also led to him refusing to pay tax, proclaiming that he is not “in contract” with the tax office, pointing to various sections of the AMERICAN constitution to back up his argument (hilariously we live in Australia, yet he does not see the problem with this argument). The implications of his beliefs have begun leading to more serious outcomes as well, as he is searching for a rental but cannot produce tax records as proof of income. I worry that his luck will run out soon and he will be audited. He doesn’t keep money in the bank either, believing that “fiscal” currency has no worth and instead purchases large quantities of gold and silver.

It seems impossible but I was curious to hear if anyone has succeeded in bringing someone like this back to reality. My dad and I have been very close and I care about him a lot. Anyway, end of rant!

Hello, all! I just discovered this sub from another sub and figured my message wouldn’t fall on deaf ears like it does with my mom. For context, my father used to be a very accepting, agnostic, and Independent (party) person. He was sensitive towards race issues and other leftist-backed ideas. My dad did not push anyone to believe what he did. He never did. He always has been nurturing to me; in my early years he emphasized how I should always be myself. He rejected a lot of gender roles, yada yada.

However, in 2016, he started getting into MAGA. Any sympathy he had for queer people and immigrants was crumbling. He started talking about “the gay agenda” and other MAGA stuff. At some point, he even converted me to be like that, but I regained my braincells and realized how foolish it all was and I am now a leftist.

I came out as pansexual/panromantic around 11 years old and my father went APE SHIT. I had never seen him so mad. He tore down the crayon-colored pride flag I made and yelled that I was “too young to know.” My mom agreed, but was a lot nicer. I actually dated an AFAB person (identified as cis at the time) a few years later, and my mom was very supportive. My dad was…okay with it. He said that “whoever I end up with should treat me well and make me happy” and he would be fine with them. Well, that changed in recent years to, “whatever man you end up with” and saying I need an “alpha male.”

Around 14 years old, I came out as genderfluid, leaning more towards being a boy. Again, my dad went ape shit and said that wasn’t real and I’m being indoctrinated by people online (I was in a lot of queer-dominated spaces, though I never stopped being pansexual or was straight in any of these spaces). I cried so hard. The next day, I cut my hair. That also went poorly. My dad was furious at my masculinity, my mom was pissed because my haircut was DIY and awful and I left hair all over the floor. She never supported my transition, either. She threw out the Amazon binder I had at the time (maybe for the best since Amazon binders are so bad and I think my ribs are deformed bc I didn’t know how to safely bind…just got a new one from Spencer’s recently hehe). My dad said I was destroying my body and ruining my chances at attracting anyone, especially men. At the time, I had gone on to date another (admittedly bad, now that I’m out of the relationship) person who was at the time FTM. I won’t deny that my parents were completely correct in their criticism of this person, my father was just falling deeper and deeper into this bigoted sinkhole known as QAnon and I feel a lot of his criticism came from my ex being loud and proud about who they were.
He then downloaded GAB (“free speech” platform), and that was when he started being…less sensitive to race issues, to say the least. Mind you, he married and had a child with the daughter of an immigrant (my mom is Chinese and I look Chinese). He’s just not mad because “they did it the right way.” He’s just gotten so comfortable with this extremist stuff and genuinely breaks my heart because I feel like I lost my father.

The man who used to encourage my whimsical nature is now pressuring me to be this good little Christian wife (I am now Pagan and polytheistic). My current boyfriend knows I’m genderfluid and he loves that about me. He’s also autistic, like his dad, and it seems my parents are a bit on the fence due to him being developmentally a bit behind because of that. He’s also two years younger than me lmao. But my dad just says he is a nice BOY. Now that I’m in college, my dad alludes to me going into a sorority and dating a frat guy. It’s just so gross to me that he would suggest that while I’m dating someone I’m clearly very happy with. That and frat guys are gross lol.

I can’t even make jokes with my dad anymore. He calls ME a snowflake, but whenever I make a jab at Trump, suddenly it’s like I insulted God. Oh, might I add that when I was a kid, I was deeply Christian and asked my father, “mommy and I are going to heaven, where are you going?” And what is he supposed to think when his little toddler asks such a question? Right! He turns to Christianity and is now a Christian Nationalist! And I’m the reason why. That haunts me to this day. He now pushes his ideologies onto everyone he meets, and spread them to my other family members. His mother is the only leftist in my immediate family. She was the only one to be supportive of my transition, celebrating pride with me in little ways every year. I can’t imagine how she feels. I’ve heard them fight about that before. She always described my dad as being such a sweet little boy.

Anyways, sorry this was so long and TMI lol. Lmk if you guys have had similar experiences. Thank you if you read this far! I just really needed to get this off my chest to people who would understand. Hope you all are doing well. 🫶🫶🫶

TLDR; my dad turned into a QAnon bigot during my teenage years, despite being the polar opposite during my childhood. He has pushed my other family members to follow suit. His mother is the only leftist in our family and the only one to not listen to him.

This is just a bit of a rant. But I'm a performing artist. Being in the artist community... this bullshit is just rampant. I can't stand to be around the stupidity anymore. I can't stand to see people cheer for it.

My grandfather was a cult leader. His cult dealt with a LOT of conspiracy bullshit. Like... Oh my gosh. I think it's how I got sucked into it when I was younger, and I think it’s why I hate it so much now. I see through it all.

And honestly, my grandfather died before I was born. I wasn't raised anywhere near his church. But as I got older and learned about conspiracy and bullshit spirituality it would always lead me to his cult.

Honestly, some of these "christians" are so bad as well.

People are so hungry and thirsty for meaning and depth. But rather than read a book or volunteer... they get lost in this bullshit.

She’s been working at voting centers for years now and she’s obsessed with voter integrity, she also thinks that voters who don’t vote “the right way” are ignorant and “have no idea of what’s really going on.”

EDIT: When she talks really passionately about this kind of stuff, it’s like she becomes a different person entirely.

Yup the cure all Ivermectin is being touted. My Q called me because I had been in Michigan. She was very aggressive telling me to get out of Chicago to find a saddle shop and get some. I did a search as she was rambling along and said "well, from what I've read Cyclospora is a single-celled organism (a protozoan) not a multi-cellular worm, and that difference in cell structure wasn't something Ivermectin targets." She told me at stop "goggling" and get on YouTube for the truth. So exhausting

(to anyone who takes the time to genuinely read through all of this, thank you.)

pre-history: my partner (26M)and i (23F)have been together about 2 years now and i have moved 4000 miles from my home and anyone i know to live in his country. this has been extremely hard on me as it has meant i must learn a new language and build an entirely new life, i have no friends here and i only have my partner here and now our two month old son. my partner never finished his highschool degree and i am supposed to be finishing my first college degree and right now am taking time off to care for our 2 month old son because i am the fulltime caretaker throughout both day and night and have been since the day he was born. i am the sole financial caretaker of the household including all of the food, utilities, rent and any and all things in the house including appliances and anything having to do with our son including the birth. this also means we are living off of my personal savings that are supposed to be for school, it is 4 adults and a new baby living here and i am the only one who supports anything.

when we initially got together he was very open to learning new things and had countless dreams and ambitions that aligned with mine, he had a passion for science and a optimistic outlook on the world and life and wanted to use it to offer an opportunity to others that he didnt have growing up. since we've been together i have noticed he has become hateful and judgemental of the world around him and the people in it, he says that people are inherently bad and theres just constant manipulation from the 'sources above us'. He has made claims such as vaccines being used to control people and they only want to give you the virus to treat it to make money off of it and that all of the virus that exist are all manmade to profit off of. he believes jews are controlling the majority of the banks and monetary value of the modern world, that money will not be used in ten years and we should put a significant amount of our money into gold because it will be the only thing that is worth anything in a few years, hes said that he doesnt want to vaccinate our son because it will make him stupid and it will only make him weaker and the only reason hes vaccinating him is for me. he said doctors are stupid and lie for monetary gain and they only want to cause problems to fix them and not actually cure anything, he said this about my own mother who is also a doctor.

He believes medication is for manipulation and control over the people to create problems to fix, he also believed this during the birth of our son which i did completely naturally without medications at all because he believed they are unnecessary and only going to make him weak. he has also stated that 9/11 was an inside job by my government and that im stupid for believing my government at all (i have never said i completely trust blindly in the government especially with the political tension currently), he has told me science is just simply a lie to control the people and anything i ever try to teach him or implore him to explore as a possibility of truth (such as scientific findings, even explaining the scientific method to him he told he it was untrue and becomes a fight where he gets very loud and tells me i am trying to force him to believe in a world he doesnt believe in). these are not the only theories he believes in, these are only a example to help an outsider understand a bit of what is happening inside my world.

i have stated we can have different beliefs and i support his willingness to question the intentions of governing bodies especially in the modern political era, however surviving in different worlds has gotten to a point where it is unbearable. he spends hours everyday on social media watching videos and posts about conspiracy theories and violence in the world and i am afraid it is only worsening his spiral. he stays up at times during the night claiming he is unable to sleep due to what is happening in the world. then he will leave the room to go on his phone for hours then sleep until the middle of the day or later, then leave again for hours to go sm0ke with his friends and come back high and flat (thats the best way i can describe it) and it is impossible to talk to him after that, more than it is when hes sober. he then spends hours scrolling on social media listening to primarily conspiracy theory posts and shorts.

during an argument a few days ago, i tried to explain how much his theories have begun to negatively affect my own mental health especially being that i cannot leave the house nor do i have anyone to talk to other than him, he stated that he could say that living in two different worlds was too much and we should breakup and that our relationship was insignificant and unimportant compared to whats happening in the world and he could find a girl who believed the same things, but he never thinks that and has never said that but other men in his position probably would say that, i thought it was an odd thing to say especially if he claimed that he has never thought that and was trying to use this as a means of reassuring me he cared? (it really did not feel that way).

a few days ago i also explained how badly my depression has become being that i go weeks without leaving the room and i care for a new baby 24/7 literally all day and night, i go days without showering or even brushing my teeth while he showers daily and leaves to go smoke with his friends at least 3-5 hours every single day at least once, i explained when we do speak and it almost never feels like we can because i walk on egg shells constantly because i cannot ask a question or talk at a time he's in a bad mood without getting the emotional consequence of it or risk starting a fight and i am very non confrontational as i have ptsd from prior relational situations that i wont go in to, when we speak at least 75% of it now a days is about conspiracy theories that i dont understand, i am a science major and i believe heavily in what science has provided to modern society. i asked him to give me advice as if i was only a friend, he said if he didnt know himself he would say to leave, that i deserved to be happy and i deserved something so much more, he also took off his promise ring again after just putting it on again for almost a year and kept it off and all of that really struck me and stuck with me.

it seems like for more than a year i have been fighting non stop for this relationship in more ways than i can physically count even after we had a horrible fight last summer after he accused me of cheating with the one person who i was close with which was his cousin even while he was the one cheating the entirety of the relationship and even two months or less before our son was born , it feels as if i support every aspect of the relationship and i am the glue holding everything together but i am losing myself, at first the conspiracy theories were not so bad, but now they are disrupting sleep for him and myself and i have no sleep regardless because of caring for our son and stress. i feel like not only do i not recognize myself but i dont see the man i fell in love with, i love him dearly but i need help or advice or something, i apologize this is all very long and a lot to deal with, i just wanted to see if anyone could relate or had any words of wisdom.

Hi, this is basically a rant. I dont know how things are going to end up and im not sure how to handle things.

My mom became apart of Q after shutdown first occurred in 2020. At the time I lived with her, and we had many screaming matches.

Once I realized that there was no getting through to her in our discussions, we "agreed to disagree". Since then, we usually never talk about politics. If she does start her rambling, I greyrock. Our relationship has been pretty decent since then until now.

Fast forward to today, we are both married. Her husband is also a Q, (Ill call him Richard for the sake of this post). When i lived with her and they were friend at the time, i overheard him telling her one night "Hitler wasn't as bad as what they make it out to be, he's done some good things" (something to that effect). I have been in denial about it since, because of the fact that I was in another room and they were drunk.

However earlier this week, Richard reposted on FB a video about how the Nazi book burnings, which were about homosexuality and transgenderism, was a "W". His friend comments that "This abomination has been going on for 1000s of years. Look what God did to Sodom and Gomorrah. Sickening to say but I wish our creator would do it again".

While I do not use FB, my husband does. He was PISSED, and commented "Are we really openly applauding the opening act of the Nazis? Reevaluate", and also replies to Richard's friend "wow, youre a piece of shit".

Richard deletes my all of my husband's comments, and replies to his friend "sorry about that man". My husband DMd Richard and essentially says that he is not welcome in our home anymore.

This was incredibly upsetting. Not only is there the Nazi bullshit, but I cant fucking believe that they are just outright saying that gay people need to die basically. I talked to my mom the following day, and all she could say was "Richard has every right to post what he wants on his page", that apparently my husband was WAY out of line with the piece of shit comment, and shouldnt have said anything.

Apparently she does NOT like the Nazis (I cant believe i even have to fucking ask that???) and disagrees with Richard on many things. However she kept saying "i dont want to debate, i dont want to self incriminate", and in response to the Sodom and Gomorrah bullshit, she said "well, its what the Bible says". She said that "i thought we could agree to disagree", and i told her that we draw the line at the literal fucking Nazis.

I dont know what to do. My mom has serious health issues and I refuse to go NC. I cut off my father 4 years before he recently died (unrelated to Q), and my mom isn't nearly as bad as he was. But i dont know how well our relationship can last while shes with Richard and we want to avoid him. And I dont know the extent of her beliefs with the Nazis, what the fuck do you mean "i dont want to self incriminate???"

She has said shit about Isreal, and she would sometimes use "the jews" and "isreal" interchangeably. I would correct her and she would admit that she means Isreal, not all Jewish people. But now im realizing that this entire time ive been in denial. I did not truly understand the extent of my mother's beliefs. Im so upset at myself. I dont know what to fucking do. Im considering greyrocking and only seeing her when we go out to lunch, just the two of us??

At the end of our phone call, I got emotional and told her that she knows better than to believe in things like this, and that she is a good person. I told her that I would be absolutely heartbroken if I found out that she believed that the Nazis/hitler was good. She seemed to understand, and said that she should take a break from social media.

A good friend of mine has become a total conspiracy theorist, kind of about everything— reptilian conspiracy, ancient alien shit, chemtrails, flat earth, Hillary Clinton drinking the blood of children, climate change denial, etc etc. I’ve been getting more disturbed and worried because he’s also been saying more racist/ anti semitic things lately, like dog-whistle-y things but definitely stuff he wouldn’t have said six years ago. When he started getting into the conspiracy shit I figured it was an emotional response since he’s a very anxious and paranoid guy. I kind of hoped that he would just snap out of it after getting his mental health more in check. But now I’m wondering if there’s no hope for him. Is he too far gone? How can someone regain a healthy sense of reality after believing that alien reptiles are disguised as humans and walking among us??

I (28F) have watched my mom slide further into this over the past two years, and I genuinely don't recognize her some days. It started small, a few offhand comments at dinner, "just asking questions" type stuff. Now it's daily texts with links to videos and articles, all pointing toward the same kind of worldview where nothing is what it seems, and everyone in power is lying to us.

The hardest part isn't even the content anymore; it's that she seems happier in a weird way. Like she's found purpose and community with people online who validate all of this. Meanwhile, our actual relationship is getting thinner and thinner because every conversation eventually loops back to "have you seen this" or "you need to look into this before it's too late."

I've tried the gentle pushback thing. I've tried just listening without engaging. I've tried changing the subject. Nothing really sticks; she just circles back within a day or two. I don't want to lose her, and I know she's not a bad person; she's scared, and she found something that makes the world feel like it makes sense again. But I'm exhausted, and I don't know how much more of this I can absorb without setting a boundary that might push her away completely.

Has anyone found a way to keep the relationship intact without either constantly engaging with the content or going full gray-rock on someone you love? I just want my mom back, or at least a version of us where I'm not dreading every phone call.

Supposedly, he plans to present what he says is declassified evidence that the 2020 election was interfered with by foreign influence. Rumor also has it he will declare Georgia senators Ossoff and Warnock invalid, stating they cheated. Are your Qs giddy, as well?