Your Maga pizza gate family or friends...what to do....

For me, family is mostly politcally silent, detached from all of it. Except for one Maga nephew in law. I don't see him, too far away. When I've seen him at Xmas prior to covid he's mostly wound up in manosphiere things which I'm not involved with at all. So...not much to talk about.

But what prompts this post is a conversation with a friend who voted T, but hates him and all he turned out to be.
But he still carried a LOT of emotion around Hillary and her emails, Biden and his "influence peddling and corruption"
Never mid that, H's email issues started.in 2000 and have ammounted to a big fat nothing burger. And after 5 years of spending on Hunter and Joe's investigation...no hard evidence of anything aside from Hunter being a fan of crack and prostitution.

Anyway, I was talking to my pal on the phone and unfortunately, I think I mentioned something a little political and omg...I triggered something !
All of a sudden my friend was yelling on the phone, Google is lies all lies ! Only duck duck go is ok ! ?
I mean, Google News just shows me stuff based on algorithms and my previous clicks. The hill, the AP, politico...and some local news about races across the states that mostly mirror the major outlets. So, Google to me isn't lying or suggesting anything at all. And duck duck go doesn't have news suggestions, just search results.

I just kept saying to him, I don't know the info your reading, please share a link with me when you read something important so.i can talk with you, otherwise we can't talk about the same info...logical ? I said, I'll do the same and we can discuss it. But just saying that I had to yell back over him. I wasn't challenging him, just asking for info and offering to share what I've read too. Logical ? I think so.

But he kept yelling. Email, Biden corruption, bengazi,
I just started yelling that, we have to stop. My soup is getting cold, I need to eat. All at the top of my lungs just to get it across.

I was shocked, and still am that he had so much emotion invested in the emails.
I didn't want to start, what aboutisism and go...what about ⁴ years of un secured phones, rampant nepotism, much larger influence peddling via Jerrod and Ivanka...but it's fully valid.

It's really weird. He's a good guy, raised 2 great kids, works a great job, totally reliable. Known him since 6th grade and I'm almost 62.
But he often refers to when our 6th grade teacher read the Coss and the Switchblade to the class to push us all away from drugs, and how that kept him clean. I said, I liked it because it was story time and I didn't need to work for that. He knows I fell into nicotine addiction, that I smoke weed...he doesn't know I took acid 3-4 times as well as mushrooms.. only good things came from that. No addiction or interest in coke or heroin or anything. I've always thought that the effects of drugs become self evident once you learn a bit about them. I definitely don't see them as evil any more than mercury or draino is "evil" it is what it is...

Now, after highschool he went to trade school, married his highschool girl and had kids...
I went to art school for a year and then went to evergreen liberal arts state college. Plenty of opertunity to do drugs and go as far sideways as I wanted but I didn't.
He talks a lot about people I don't remember from early school days and I'm like, how do you even know these people ?? I only knew their name and face back then but that's all and haven't thought of them in years. But he knows who died from drugs even though their family had money, or who became just a useless looser, a needy manipulator or whatever...

Anyway we haven't texted in a week now after this episode. He's always thought I was really great, talented and stuff...that I'm just killing it in life's areana.
I think he may be jealous that I have hair and he has a ball cap glued to his head.
But he makes 2x the money I do, his house is paid for and he's given his kids start money on their house. He's got nothing to be jealous of in my mind. We both do metal fabrication for a living. I do arty farty stuff for wealthy homes and he builds very specialized work platforms for hard to get at construction as well as windmill installation training internationally.

I just wonder how to procede. Let it pass and forget about it ?
So far I'm saving links to a folder so I can share what info I'm reading with him as I mentioned we could do, so w can talk about actual articles of news, and go look at some further links to support the articles like, I'll go read the wiki page on Mike Johnson and his life background when he showed up...stuff like that.
But so far I'm guessing he isn't doing that.

Anyone dealing with a friend or family who's talking points are sort of irrational or triggers a lot of raised voices ? I didn't say he's wrong, I just asked for his news links. I got a screenshot that didn't have any supporting link or any statements of known facts, or lack of facts.

 

Hmm, sorry about your dad. I'm glad my mom never saw this.

I get your point on the emotional basis of it but I don't get why it's so rooted in. I've been somewhat emotional in talks with ppl.on the same page as me but I don't get to a point of yelling.
That's a big part of my surprise, that he had enough emotion to yell about those emails non stop so that I had to yell back to stop so I could eat my dinner. I never yelled at him that he was wrong, I only was asking for links so we could talk about the same articles. But it was almost like I stepped on a religious relic or something. So weird.
I don't think generally that I know anything more just because I went to liberal arts college.
He's not a trump guy now, I don't know how trumpy he was during the election back then.
He's cool with his gay sister. He's not hard right that I've seen otherwise.
I guess it makes me sad to think any friendship is limited. Mainly because it makes me feel like there's something limited about his ability to think.
My view about things is generally changeable with new information. You know like how science leans new things that can make previously settled reality change...that's cool, we all lean new things all the time. But it seems like he has a wall he can't pass and it's not even made of real stuff. Like a wall of fog and once you pass into the fog you flip out !.

Oh well...bottom line I spose is... who takes the next step. Is it on me, or on him to continue any conversation -about anything.
And then, I'll need to converse with this specter of him and his email anger sitting there like an invisible friend we don't talk about.
That is really really weird.
I mean, to me I spose Clinton's have enriched themselves along the way...it is what it is. Didn't cost America 800,000 lives like covid...or even Epstine. It is what it is. My day to day life hasn't changed one little bit to get upset over. Why is he so emotional ?
I'm not really sure that 4 more years of Trump would change.my actual day to day life. Though I could loose social security, but that is walking away as I'm walking toward it. I could loose one co worker I've known for 20+ years.
I'll continue saving links just in case. But I won't initiate conversation and send with a condescending told ya so.

 

This right here is my experience. It's not worth trying to engage them in rational thought or discussion on these topics.

 

Ya...it's very sad. I wouldn't have thought that about this person.

 

I have a sister I refused to discuss politics with. Logic was completely lost on her. Evidence was dismissed as biased liberal news media (her small mind called it fake news); whatever she believes she finds support for on the net. She feels disenfranchised, blames her life failures on immigration, & loves the attention she perceives as receiving as a MAGA supporter.

A great, and very sad example: Her daughter, my niece, was unvaccinated and died from Covid complications. My sister always made the point to to say she didn't die from Covid, she died from post Covid pneumonia (like the pneumonia wasn't a result of having Covid, duh). She's also vehemently pro-life, & was once was rabidly anti-gay (until her very best friend came out as lesbian).

I no longer speak to her, but that has nothing to do with our clashing political beliefs.


Keep trying to reach out to your friend, but also know you can't force someone to accept the olive branch.

 

The day after the yelling match, he texted merry Christmas from the far right, with a picture of a group of sasquatch in the woods.
I replied that I never accused him of being far right.
He said, I know, I thought it was a funny picture.

I left it at that. It's not good to get into a funny picture pissing contest with me.. by then I already had Hillary with email confetti shower, and some Trey Gowdy naked geoduck wrestling and pig riding pics...but I didn't want to light that fuse.

For the moment I'm going to let things be. I don't think of him as far right. He was frustrated with that his parents didn't get more from social security while immigrants got more funding. But he was also ready to fight an ass hole in highschool in defense of a guy who appeared to be gay, also a very good friend of mine who did turn out to be gay.

Anyway...thanks for the thoughts. Feel free to vent on this subject if anyone needs to and has no outlet at home/in person.