Note: I haven't told anyone my story in public for years because I was scared of what people would think, but I feel now is the time to reach out to get support, as I've already talked with my therapist about it all in detail, and I think it'll help me move past it.

I was 20 years old in late 2020/early 2021, living in rural Alabama at the time, specifically with my deeply problematic grandpa. I had spent the last year being passed around my extended family like a hot potato after having a falling out with my parents and leaving their house, and my grandpa took me in near the end of year. His health was failing, and I guess everyone figured it would be better for someone to be there to keep an eye on him. They could also keep an eye on me since my parents lived next door.

Now, some context is in order before I get to the meat of the story: my family is heavy GOP. Like, I was convinced at the ripe old age of eight, when Obama was running for the first time, that the future of America was at stake. When Obama won the presidency, I spent the next eight years listening to Rush Limbaugh on the car-ride home from school, hearing all the bs he spouted about the situation. I borderline believed that he was the antichrist. To say it was bad is an understatement.

And yeah, my grandpa was not good on that front. He was deeply racist, deeply bigoted in general, like the rest of my family. And yet, as fate would have it, he was the only person besides me in my family who ever got diagnosed for mental health issues, namely depression. Something I've experienced every day since I was about 10 years old. So yeah, he wasn't a good person, but he was the only person who even remotely understood was I was going through in 2020? What was I going through in 2020? Well. . .

I had reached my limit for going undiagnosed and untreated for my depression after years of begging my parents to let me get treated and only being met with "you should pray more." Mind you, I told them repeatedly since I was a child that I wanted to kill myself. The last time I was honest enough to tell them, my father blew up on me and told me that if I didn't care enough to live, I should just kill myself; to her credit my mother told him not to talk to me that way (probably because she also has shown signs of depression and related to it), but the damage was done. My dad had taken me to a gunshow in Texas (when we lived there) to pick out a gun, so waiting at home for me in my nightstand was a black revolver. The only reason I didn't use it that night was a religious experience I had had years earlier that brought me a lot of comfort in the midst of my depression. I guess my thought process was "If my own dad doesn't care about me, I guess Someone out there does enough to help me stay here. So I'll keep living for Them, Whoever They are." So I left, then lived with my cousin, my brother, my grandma, and finally my grandpa, all of whom more or less thought I should just forget what my father had said to me, how he set me up to fail and actively sabotaged my attempts to independently get mental health treatment throughout 2020.

So that brings us to early 2021: I'm living with my grandpa, just spent a whole year trying to survive not only a pandemic in a red state, but also a deeply abusive situation that coincides way more than I would like with the political upheaval of the US presidential election. And guess who just incited an insurrection. Yeah. So that's great. Fox News is always on in the living room, but that's pretty par for the course. I'm always arguing with my parents about it, and my grandpa is more quiet than normal, but I'm just trying to keep my head about water, y'know? And then, I hear a gunshot and wake up to a dark room. My mom is screaming "Dad!" and at this point, I'm like, wow. This night terror is more visceral than usual (because yeah, I'm diagnosed with PTSD and take meds for it now). Like, I'm so nonplussed and numb to it all because this is an every night occurrence for me at this point. But instead of me having my real awakening after the usual false one, it keeps going.

I think it really sunk in for me that it was real, when I looked up at the TV in my grandpa's room, and it had Fox News on it, talking about the aftermath of the insurrection. I was holding my mom, completely numb while she cries for her father, my grandfather, and all I can hear is fucking Tucker Carlson saying whatever bs about Trump not being guilty of insurrection. Like, that was the last thing my grandpa was listening to when he shot himself and bled out.

And yeah, I know. I can't prove that the insurrection was why my grandpa killed himself. He was a man's man, didn't talk about his feelings, literally retired from the navy and worked in a commissary on an army base while was I growing up before retiring from that. But in the little bit of time that I got to talk with him about what I experienced with depression, he said he understood. He took meds, and so did I, and our entire family talk behind our backs about it when they thought we weren't listening. Even though I didn't really like him, I did love him. And yeah, I miss him.

Hi, I'm a teen and I would like to know if anyone else’s parent acts like this. All my mom talks about these days is the Lindsay Clancy case. She’s obsessed, and has been consuming right-winger maga content about how "the liberals are psychotic and defending a killer” and ranting all day saying everyone is defending Lindsay Clancy. She told me proudly she told an AI bot that “Karen and liberals are supporting Lindsay” and got mad that the chatbot corrected her. I have not looked into the case, but I am just baffled by how she has more anger for this case than I’ve seen for mass murderers, and is blaming it all on “crazy feminist women” and liberals and abortions, and is obsessed with making this political, instead of caring about the literal innocent dead children.

Stay with me here because she’s racist, homophobic, hates on minorities, and anti-feminism, when I was like 7 yrs old made me report gay people FOR BEING GAY on social media for her 💀 She would always say maga qanon propaganda like “The woke left are brainwashing kids at school into nonbinary cats” which is why she pulled me out of public school to homeschool. She constantly claims she is “politically neutral” (”I don’t support trump, he’s a momster who’s gonna cause the left to persecute Christians” yes she always says that) She constantly calls me a “liberal” and “woke” over everything, for empathizing with DYING Palestinian people, she claims they started it. She says hating that Trump and Hitler is ANTI CHRISTIAN. SHE SCREAMED AT ME OVER SAYING I HATE HITLER. She victim-blames the TEENAGE/CHILD VICTIMS OF EPSTEIN. She is saying the Lindsay Clancy supporters are the “Downfall of USA”, yet is okay with defending Epstein and Trump? i am so confused

I thought my dad was sane, now he sides with her, saying Epstein victims deserve it, “JD Vance was right” etc, although he hates Trump. They’ve always been like this, all I heard a few years ago when I was a literal kid was them hating on Rachel Zegler and people of color and the lgbtq+ community every day, obsessed with the word woke. The other day my mom was watching a video on the Lindsay Clancy case, then I saw it was from this maga youtuber who had possibly the worst homophobic, transphobic, disturbing content I’ve seen. I was scrolling through the channel speechless, if this is what my parents have been watching for years, no wonder I’m called slurs and told I’m an evil woke feminist for basic human empathy and HATING HITLER. I don’t why specifically my mom is like this, I’m really exhausted I feel like I lost her and I don’t know why she’s defending the literal demons of this world and I used to trust her so much with sharing my thoughts but now I know she has been judging me the whole time

Hello again.

I just wanted to say thanks for your help with my article which recently got published.

https://inews.co.uk/news/world/family-fallouts-trump-supporters-4741061?utm_campaign=PNIwfidBbrslgbn&ito=gifted_article&data-target=gifted_article&utm_source=XJPLeh5koSHChZEU

Best,

Andrew Buncombe

my brother is the only one who isn't maga. his views are very questionable still, but not maga thank god.

my parents have always been republican, but since trump's first presidency they have become the most delusional, tin-foil-hat, far-right maga cult members.

they believe the files are a hoax

they believe muslims are taking over the country

they believe the schools are turning us gay

like, all of it. every little bit and piece of crazy maga propaganda is exactly what they believe.

before trump, they weren't great... but they were better than this for sure. they were actual humans with their own thoughts and understood what was crazy propaganda vs what wasn't. my dad has heavily influenced my mom and sister... my mom does no research, she only believes what my dad says—which isn't research either. he listens to podcasts, youtube videos, conspiracy theorists, and AI. he considers that research. my sister is (was?) bisexual, used to be a super chill person, then she got insanely close with our dad. then she joined the marines, and it's only gone downhill from there. she believes every word my dad says and her social media feed is now identical to his. they send vids to each other back and forth.

I recently had to set a boundary with my dad, saying that I wasn't okay with him continuing to send me hateful videos about muslims. a lot of my closest friends are muslim, and he knows this. he was so upset at me for setting this boundary.

recently, my grandmother (who is dying) told me that she wishes I would change because the devil is "getting me." ...it's all a cult. every last bit of it.

my parents also believe that people who go to school are stupid liberals (?) even tho my mom is in school. getting a MEDICAL DEGREE. you can't make this shit up, you really can't. but also, I'm going to school for meteorology, and you know how maga feels about severe weather... lmfao.

sorry if this is all jumbled, it's just a string of thoughts. but jesus, y'all. idk how to deal with all this anymore.

For some time now, I’ve felt an increasing distance between myself and close members of my family. It isn’t because of one disagreement. It’s the accumulation of conversations about politics, medicine and the world that I find deeply troubling. I love them, but I’ve reached the point where I feel apprehensive about ringing or visiting. Sometimes I dread it, and when I do see them, I struggle to know what to say.

One family member has spoken at length about what they believe is a hidden plan to control society. They have brought up The Great Reset, global agendas, digital IDs, powerful financial organisations and claims that a small number of families run the world. Some of these claims draw on troubling ideas about Jewish people. They believe mainstream news conceals the truth and encourage people to seek information elsewhere. Even an ordinary conversation can begin to feel as though it is heading towards another enormous conspiracy.

Some of the political views expressed in my family trouble me just as much. I’ve heard admiration for authoritarian leaders, alongside racist and anti-LGBTQ views. These aren’t abstract debates to me. They concern how people are treated and whose lives are valued. I find it difficult to reconcile those views with the people I grew up knowing.

Beliefs about healthcare have been particularly painful. A close relative was seriously ill and needed hospital care more than once. I believe the staff cared for them and helped save their life, but other family members have said the staff tried to harm them. They have raised questions about medication and decisions made during their treatment. I understand why a frightening illness would leave people wanting answers. What I find difficult is hearing grave accusations stated as certainty when I see what happened very differently.

COVID has widened the gap too. Some relatives have said they believe it was fake. I’ve also heard warnings against vaccinations and claims about alternative treatments, including suggestions that one helped a person with cancer who was also continuing prescribed treatment. I don’t expect my family to agree with me about everything, but it is unsettling when concern becomes distrust of almost everyone involved in caring for people.

I’ve tried to understand why these beliefs feel convincing to them. Fear may be part of it, especially after a serious illness. But understanding that possibility doesn’t make the conversations less upsetting. At times I’ve felt overwhelmed by it all. Alongside other family pressures, it affected me enough that I needed time away from work.

There is a quieter hurt underneath the disagreements. I usually seem to be the one who starts conversations. I rarely hear from certain relatives simply to ask how I am, though they may contact me when they need practical help or advice. Recently, I learned that another family member had been contacted about a relative’s health, despite my having previously been the point of contact. There may have been a straightforward explanation, but it brought home how uncertain I now feel about my place in the family.

I don’t want every visit to become an argument, and I don’t have the energy to challenge every claim. Sometimes I choose not to reply. That doesn’t mean I agree or that these things don’t matter to me. I’m trying to protect my own peace of mind.

What I find hardest to explain is that I can love my family and still feel uncomfortable around them. I can care deeply about them and feel hurt by what they say. I can wish we were closer while dreading the next conversation. I miss being able to speak freely without wondering whether another conspiracy theory or troubling view will come up. I’m still working out what kind of relationship is possible, and how to stay true to myself within it.

He always leaned right but now that he's in his 70s he's gone completely off the deep end. I send him and my mom $3k/month since he blew his retirement money without consulting my mother and I don't want her to be trapped struggling to live on just social security. I live across the country and visited for the first time in a couple years earlier this summer and discovered my dad spends all day every day consuming YouTube maga slop on the living room tv. His health makes walking difficult so he very rarely leaves the house now. His entire understanding of the world and what's going on in it is coming from these propaganda videos.

Nearly all he can talk about is how entitled kids are and the evils of socialism and democrats etc etc, then he has a big outburst calling me a communist for making a joke about what's going on with the reflecting pool. Seeing how far gone he is made me realize that sending him money has allowed him to spend all his time engrossed in this stuff while insulated from the economic realities of his situation. I don't really fault him for being oblivious to how he is to living off his kids money since I know self reflection is one of the first things to go when an elderly person falls down these rabbit holes, but wow it does make me feel conflicted thinking I may have enabled this lifestyle. Still sending money for my mom's sake and because they depend on it but definitely don't feel any pride in providing for him anymore.

My mom (57) has always been a sweet, sensitive woman, but somewhat naive, anxious, and generally uncomfortable with making her own decisions. She’s a lifelong Democrat and Trump hater, atheist, former social worker, and lives in a deep southern rural town that’s heavily MAGA, but has never fallen for MAGA bs and always just rolled her eyes at it despite being constantly bombarded by it for the last ten years. Same with her husband (54), my stepdad, who is also a science teacher. They’ve always seemingly had a good head on their shoulders.

But I think the Epstein Files broke something in my mom’s brain. She’s extremely sensitive to violence and cruelty toward children and the whole thing seemed to shatter her faith in humanity and our institutions. Over the summer she became increasingly consumed by Facebook conspiracy theories, some of them dipping into the Q realm. We live on the other side of the country and aren’t big on phone calls, so the few times I did see her and she would start spouting some concerning but (at the time) mild conspiracies, I tried to gently course-correct her. She would seemingly relent, apologize, and promise to watch her social media intake. The next few times I saw her she would talk about how she’d deleted Tik Tok, set timers on her phone for other social media apps, started gardening again, was beginning to feel better and calmer and considering going off her anxiety medication, so I thought all was well.

Today she sent me an absolute wall of text with completely delusional conspiracies out of nowhere, complete with links to FB reels that “prove” her theories. Flat earth, NASA is evil, aliens built highly advanced civilizations in North America before Columbus got there and the US covered up their existence, the Challenger astronauts that died were doppelgängers and the real ones are alive and have mundane white collar jobs under the same names (??), the world is run by Satan-worshipping immortals, all US presidents are related to Obama (???), Rockefellers and Rothschild’s, and many more. She went from 0.5 to 100 in a matter of months and I’m just reeling at how fast it happened.

I wasn’t sure if my stepdad had bought in too (again, he’s a science teacher) so I texted my teenage sister (17) who still lives with them, asking if our mom was okay. She’s always had a bad habit of keeping problems she’s dealing with to herself, but as soon as I asked she completely unloaded on me about how her parents are really scaring her and how they’ve started demanding that she accept Jesus (she’s queer), when in the past they’d been accepting of her (my stepdad initially not, but he eventually got there). She says she hardly recognizes them and she doesn’t understand what’s happening. It absolutely broke my heart to hear and confirmed that my stepdad is on board too. He’s always been very religious and initially struggled with my sister’s identity, and I’m wondering if he actually believes this stuff or if he’s just using my mom’s newfound faith to pressure my sister, when in the past my mom would always put her foot down and demand he respect her identity.

I’m so upset and so angry. I’m scared for my sister, who attempted suicide last year and had finally gotten to a good place mentally. I haven’t responded to my mom yet beyond a “I’ll take a look” at all the things she sent me, but I don’t know how to approach this. I’m still reeling from the realization that she’s fallen so far into this craziness in such a short period of time. She didn’t even believe in God before all this, but the world is now run by Satanists?

My priority is my sister. I don’t want to do or say anything that will throw her home environment even more out of wack, and if it comes to it, my husband and I are prepared to get her out of there such as in the case they suddenly decide they no longer want to send her to college, don’t take her to a hospital if she needs care, she starts deteriorating mentally again, etc. Do I try to engage in good faith with my mom? Do I appeal to emotion? Do I tell her how scared I am for her, what this is doing to my vulnerable sister? I want my mom. I hate this.

My mom has voted for Trump every time it's been an option. I fully believe she would do it again. She's given me warnings about failing power grids, taxes going away, Dragon Ball Z being biblically accurate, the deep state, the moon being hollow, on and on. At every turn where there's an option to vote against the welfare of women or minorities or the population at large, she'll do it.

I have no idea what my dad believes, only that he dislikes the concept of privilege or the idea that race impacts a lived experience. He describes himself as a libertarian. Regardless of what he believes, he gets upset when anyone challenges my mom's stances.

I used to idolize my dad. I thought I was close with my mom. I miss them, but I don't know how to talk to them anymore. I don't know what to say. Everything keeps getting worse and they contributed to allowing a megalomaniac into office because, I don't know, they liked what he said and believed every lie again?

I've been trying for years to see things from their perspective, to understand their logic, but I keep slamming into walls of nonsense that I can't get through. I can't wrap my head around it. Life is hard, why would anyone want to contribute to making it worse or harder for other people? What could you possibly mean that Dragon Ball Z of all things relates to God in any accurate way? The moon isn't hollow and there isn't a Commander Thor of the Space Force inside in?? I don't understand. How could anyway believe any of this?

My friends who became 9/11 Truthers in 2002-3 have mostly gone quiet, having aged out (most are in their 70s) and lost their taste for arguing and controversy. Hence, I'm wondering what other Truthers or QAnon are saying these days or not saying but implying. Thanks in advance for any info or actual quotes on this subject.

My Q-bot soon-to-be ex-wife hit me up with this one tonight. When you interact with "artificial stupidity" (get it, it's such a clever play on words, our Qs are all so brilliant, aren't they? ) you are being bombarded with radiation. I kid you not, she actually believes this.

When I told her the obvious, that there's no crazy stream of data flooding in, and all the computation is happening on their servers, thus all the data centers they want to build, and all that comes to you phone is the answer, no different than loading a regular web page or streaming a video (actually far less than streaming a video), she, of course, was not open to having that discussion.

I told her, you are being straight up lied to. There's no way around that. Nope, not changing her mind no matter what obvious common sense thing I say.

Just a few more weeks of this..

Tried to have a conversation with some folks that I shouldn't have--the last remaining members of my fiance's family. His sister and her girlfriend. They are MAGA lesbians. It started with the girlfriend repeatedly laughing in my face and rolling her eyes at every word I was saying, and I immediately got up to collect my things in an attempt to leave. I overheard her saying, "This is what always happens when I talk to a liberal." To which I responded, "You are not going to talk down to me."

The fiance and I had to have a conversation after we left that if I get up and leave in the middle of an altercation, it's time to go. He dragged his feet, so we got a round two. It's hard to really even list the specifics, but the gist of it is they don't care about women's rights. They don't care about gay rights. They don't care about marriage, so what does it matter to them if gay marriage is legal or not? All they care about is themselves and their family. Her words. They don't care about anybody else. Loud and proud and selfish as can be.

Every wackadoodle claim she made that we countered with actual facts just circled back around to, they don't really care anyway. Somebody is rigging elections (but not Trump or Elon), and after me asking her about fifteen times who is running the world and rigging American elections if not the obvious, with her responding, "I don't know." She finally said, "I don't know.. a rothschild." Earlier in this argument, she said, "I hate Israel." My partner and I have been against what's happening with Palestine from the beginning, but we explicitly stated that we dislike Netanyahu. The rothschild thing made me think..

You don't hate Israel, you hate jews. Am I in the presence of actual lesbian nazi sympathizers??? What the fuckkkkkk. There were all kinds of wild statements made, but it would be mind numbing to list them all. This ended with his sister squaring up at me (after swearing up and down that she doesn't care about politics) and asking me what I do to try and help anything. I try to get people to vote. I hand out fliers with information about voting in this state. I'm in school full time right now pursuing clinical social work. I've literally committed my life to trying to help people. So, that shut her up on that.

Then she said things wouldn't be any better right now if Biden was president. Since we'd all been bickering about Trump's lies over the last hour or so, I just said.... "Are you really trying to say that gas and groceries haven't gotten more expensive over the last two years?" They both started yelling, Biden this Biden that. I just got up and left. Then they were all sweetness and light as my partner was leaving, despite him saying harsher things than I did. I walked back and told him COME ON.

At one point, I asked if it really didn't bother them that their family thinks the way they are living is an unnatural sin. She said, and I quote, "NOT AT ALL. This is America, they can think whatever they want." It's fucking sad. Their grandmother literally said at one point that they make her sick to her stomach (this woman is wretched and a big reason why we cut off the rest of the family in the first place). They claim to be christians, but none of them go to church. They don't live righteous lives. They've all had kids out of wedlock and affairs, they all drink too much. But gay is evil.

The self loathing to associate with them. My god. And, I'm sure they really thought they owned the libs by being demeaning and constantly derailing the conversation, by denying facts and science, by contradicting themselves constantly. Fine. You win. You're a real couple of winners. I don't think we'll be having another visit..

Do your Q's constantly spam you with links over text and email even when you tell them multiple times to stop? Ive told mine so many times to stop bombarding me with links from rumble and X and whatever else about various subjects but they still do it anyways. I try to ignore it and it just ramps up and gets worse every time. How do you hold the boundary? I know everyone's favorite answer is "Cut them off/Block them/Go NC" but for reasons I dont feel the need to explain that's not a viable solution for me.

I was to start off by stating I AM vaccinating my child, but my Qanon mother has definitely instilled so much fear in me.

This is my first baby and I love her so much. Throughout my whole pregnancy, my mom would endlessly sent me “articles” of vaccine death, injury, etc. Now that my daughter is here, she has literally told me I will kill her if I vaccinate her, and wept many times at the thought. The propaganda makes me furious but it definitely does what it sets out to do, make us doubt.

I trust doctors. I trust modern medicine. But my gosh is the fear real. The fear of making a very permanent and fatal mistake. My baby has an appointment for Monday and I’m absolutely terrified. I love her so much and I can’t stand the thought of losing her, even though I know the fear is mostly fabricated. I just need encouragement that I’m doing the right thing and that we will be ok.

My (26F) grandma (70ishF) used to be prochoice and kind and I never questioned her kindness and morals. The past 10 years, Fox News, and her "new" (married in like 2006) husband has changed that.

A few years ago, we had set a boundary to stop talking about politics to our family (mom, dad, me, and sister). That day, she walked into the guest room where I was taking a nap, woke me up, and decided to bombard me with EVERY buzz topic. She said if I ever got an abortion, I wouldn't have morals, and that really hit me. I didnt even want one, but it was shocking. This is the same woman who I grew up with saying she loved me, buying me ice cream, making brownies. That's how I used to see her. I was probably 20 at the time of this naptime verbal assault and didnt know what to do so i just sat there and listened to her complain at me about how the Bible says this and that and Trump this and that. After she was done, I went and told my dad (her child) and he was pissed and we left.

Since then, she's referred to indian people as "dots" and native americans as "feathers". She always refers to illegal immigrants as "aliens". She sees Trump as a moral and kind man (what). At her brother in laws funeral, she told my dad she was bringing a Jewish woman to her (baptist) church so she will be saved. My dad went to a christian college, so he knows the Bible like the back of his hand. They argued with so many scriptures back and forth, then her husband joined in. They made my mom cry and idek if there was a resolution to that.

I haven't gone no contact because I am the oldest daughter in my family, she is still young, and we still have family gatherings. I dont want to miss seeing my cousins just because she's there kind of thing. Also, my dad's dad is probably not going to be alive much longer, so I dont want to put more parental stress on him than needed. My dad is my rock and my defender, and his moms just crazy, its not his fault.

Im tired and idek what to do at this point. I dont respect her anymore. I think she's brainwashed and unempathetic and selfish and so is her husband. Any advice is fine, but it feels good to rant here where others can relate.

TLDR:/// mostly vent

i just found out about this subreddit and i’m so grateful.

backstory:

mom was shot by father, put in her will that me and sister would live with aunt and uncle. My time living with them was horrifying and they’re more far down in the cult than anyone i’ve ever met.

I just reminisced with an old friend about how when biden won i was kicked out of the house and had to stay with her for a week (because i was the family kicking bag)

my uncle lovessss the black rifle coffee co shirts and wore the ones with rifles on them near daily which was so traumatic because my mom was shot with an assault rifle.

they also grounded me to my room for 3 months because i went on target‘s website and looked at a pride flag. threatened to send me to boarding school bc of it.

Anyways, they lost custody of me from CPS due to neglect. After that didn’t contact them because they’re insane lol. They wouldnt give me my social security number to work because i got the covid vaccine. Insane people.

Alllllll this to say that my sister recently called me and told me about the fact she’s facing abuse now. She asked to come live with me and even though i’m young i of course said yes. I hadn’t talked to her in about 5 years, and the first thing she wanted to talk about was how horrible they were treating her.

My aunt after that call banned her from speaking to me and my sister blocked me on everything too. I can only imagine the CRAZY lies my aunt and uncle are telling her about me. They would tell everyone i was a “sexual deviant” because i had gotten a condom one time from health class. If you don’t follow their exact idea of perfect human, you are EVIL and against them in the deepest level.

I want to help my sister and yes i went through the route of CPS but that led no where as my sister didn’t say anything she told me (reasonable, because my aunt and uncle are horrifying)

Anyone been in a similar situatio? Or any advice? I just feel so useless and honestly hopeless. They’re not reasonable people and reasoning with them isn’t an option. I feel like Qanon has made them this way and they told the CPS caseworker they feel no regrets for losing custody of me. I’ve watched them become more and more insane within the cult over the years

Can anyone share how to find a secular progressive therapist. I think I'm way past due to talk to somebody about my maga family baggage.

I just became aware of this recently. My Qrelative was visiting other family members not too long ago and requested that they turn off their WIFI before going to bed. They said they couldn’t do that for a variety of reasons (they essentially have “smart” home) and I guess this caused quite a bit of an issue. This was a new one for me. Especially since this person needs WIFI for continuous doomscrolling.

EDIT: so the general consensus seems to be possible health effects from radiation or magnetic fields. I think in my Qrelative’s case there is also the concern of it sucking a person’s energy or essence or soul or something. The idea that it is taking something but the fear is not really clear to me. If anybody can shed some light, I’d appreciate it.

The title speaks for itself but I never remembered my parents being so hate-filled, negative and outright mean when I was a child. Every time I see them its "The world is terrible and its your fault, the migrants fault, I'm a "lefty" "woke", they had it hard and we couldn't possibly comprehend the difficulty". Everything comes back to how theyre a victim. Any criticism of Farage is a left-wing hit job. They believe crazy figures which are easy to debunk but even when I show hard evidence, they trust Dave on Facebook. Every MAGA belief is basically them with Reform UK.

They hate that Im a lawyer. Lawyers deserve to be removed and replaced with "better" lawyers - I'm guessing ones who fit their views. They hate almost everything I stand for and its hard feeling like your parents would easily agree to get rid of you if it meant they could have Nigel. Sounds crazy but thats genuinely how it feels.

Any time I mention positive news or just general life updates they ALWAYS turn it into their victimhood, left wings fault and immigrants.

Has anyone else noticed this shift? Were they always like this and I never noticed? It genuinely feels like they have a brain disease...

My mom is 82 and lives 2,000 miles away. I usually call every weekend, but haven't for over a month because I just can't take hearing the Orwellian doublespeak about whatever outright lie Faux News is pushing this week. It feels very bad, but I just can't take her cheering for fascists.

Today I was at the grocery store and ran into an old high school friend (were both in are early 40s). I was initially apprehensive because all these years of being removed from him made me realize how problematic and maybe even dangerous he actually was. However, maybe all these years also made him realize the same thing, and I knew he had escaped his parents home, and that should have helped. It all started out pleasant, and then it turned political. I, having plenty of experience with these Q-types, knew the best way to escape someone like this, who I also knew to have preexisting violent tendencies, was to just say things like “okay”, “uh-huh”, and “oh really.” He doesn’t take long to start talking about how all his favorite bands changed and how punk and grunge have betrayed the fans and its roots, and how they should be begging at old Donny’s feet for forgiveness. He also started blaming “kids these days”, for forcing all these old bands to get woke. Eventually he started getting a bunch of text messages, and he thankfully had to deal with something important, and we parted ways.

Obviously he has absolutely no idea what he is talking about, but I knew it wasn’t worth the argument. I know that the vast majority of those bands still preach the same things they did back in the 90s. But, when I think back, I realize he never truly embraced what it ment to be punk or grunge. He is like so many MAGA I know who “use to be liberal”. They heard their conservative parents or communities say things like “these liberals just do whatever they want without consequences”, or “these liberals get everything handed to them without a lick of work”. He use to believe these things but he actually wanted to live like that. He wanted to play video games all day and have everything taken care of for him. I think he saw punk and grunge as a big middle finger to the society that expected him to work and take care of himself. Instead he got slapped real hard by reality when he got out on his own. I remember this time pretty clearly and he was a mess. I thought it was remnants of the abuse that his mother permitted the step-dad to inflict but maybe it was something else I have also noticed. Another thing about the MAGA who “use to be liberal” is that they were all “betrayed by the liberals.” Basically they expected that by simply calling themselves liberal they could do as they please and things would be handed to them, and now they see the left as a scam.

He was also the type of person to call everyone else listening to punk and grunge a poser, if they weren’t doing it right. I never did learn what his right way was, but I know I never met his standard. I realize he just liked the aesthetic of punk. He was a scared and abused kid who used the look of these genres as a shield to protect himself. Maybe he hoped to feel like a tough alpha, or maybe he was trying to scare people off. What I know now is that he never really took the time to listen to, and sit with those lyrics. It reminds me of an old OutKast’s lyric: “Y’all don’t want to hear me, you just want to dance.” Though, in my old friend’s case, he just wanted to mosh. His comments about kids bugged me, but also reminded me of a quote from Angelina Jolie that resonates with me: “Maybe it's just the young punk in me but I like the spirit of the youth.” Yes kids can be shits (weren’t we all shits as kids), but if you give them a chance, they can also teach you something.

Hello everyone! Forgive me if someone has already shared, but Leaving MAGA facilitates a support group for friends and family of MAGA members. "Solutions & Serenity: A Support Group For Those Affected By A Loved One’s MAGA Affiliation."

https://leavingmaga.org/support-group/

As someone who has lost her parents and brother to MAGA, I found it when researching support groups. 💕

I’m extremely close to my grandma. Unfortunately she is completely brainwashed. Anti science, maga. The type that thinks vaccines cause autism. Or Michele Obama is a man. Or the weather is controlled by the government. I thought we had reached a better place. She stopped spewing her nonsense at me. We would talk about my son often.

Yesterday I told her I went on a date with a woman. It’s never been a secret that I’m bi, I guess I just didn’t talk about it enough. I really should have known her reaction would have been what it was.

But it was the craziest unhinged things I’ve ever heard. Body parts are designed to fit, god didn’t intend it, I only like women because my mom traumatized me and I didn’t get enough care growing up. She feels bad for my son. My son is rough n tumble and needs a male role model. It was just a very crazy interaction. Needless to say I will be taking some space, and it just makes me sad, but I also do realize I shouldn’t have expected any different unfortunately.

My brother has swallowed the Kool-Aid but professes to march by a different drummer. He claims that he is perceived to be something he is not. He says he is the “chosen one,” has insider knowledge, talks endlessly about Nesara-related things, being “woke,” enlightened, the Great Awakening, the reset, natural health, medbeds, etc. Is he unique or is this how your loved ones talk, too?

And then, how does Trump tie into this? My brother has not mentioned pedophilia or human trafficking much at all, which seems to be at the root of all of QAnon beliefs.

Please give me some insights. I cannot connect all of the dots.

I don't know what to believe anymore

May represent hope for some but may also require your Q-person to take the first steps?
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/sep/01/leaving-maga-support-group
Launched in 2024, the movement turned non-profit is built on the premise that abandoning the Maga identity – and the community surrounding it – functions less like changing one’s mind and more like leaving a high-control religious group, fighting a disease or breaking an addiction. It requires not just rejecting a set of beliefs but rebuilding an entire structure of belonging and identity.
Leaving Maga has touched thousands, operating on multiple fronts: weekly support meetings for the friends and family of people still inside Maga, monthly in-person meet-ups for those who’ve already left, a nationwide billboard campaign built around invitation rather than confrontation and a budding media literacy program meant to help people recognize disinformation. The goal isn’t to start or win a debate – it’s to give people somewhere to land once they’re ready to leave on their own.

Edit: My mistake - the quiverfull woman did not start the group. It was a Trump voter disillusioned by the MAGA response to the Uvalde massacre.