I have 2 GOP parents, one that voted Trump originally and one that did not. Over the last 9 years, I have watched them both travel down the MAGA pipeline to become visibly fascist. The parents who taught me racism was wrong and to have empathy for others, have become openly hostile about immigrants, Muslims, and even parrot the Nazi “great replacement” theory.
Part and parcel with this, they refuse to have any discussions about the facts – like immigrants not stealing and eating people’s pets. They won’t hear it, they won’t even engage in the conversation…they just get angry and loud the second they hear anything that doesn’t fit into the Fox News narrative. Can you relate? How are you dealing with it in your relationships with your parents?
I stopped arguing which made them dig in and our relationship worse, and asked a thoughtful question or two. Then dropped the matter and moved on to something different or removed myself from immediate proximity. I mean they’re not red/black flag-waving revolutionaries, but people grow at their own pace or not. To use the old idiom, pulling on carrot tops doesn’t make them grow.