Mine has schizoaffective disorder (similar to schizophrenia). If you are trying to figure out what happened to his house keys, his explanation is just about as odd as his beliefs about society and the cosmos. The logic of Q seems very schizoid, the way one narrative leads into another into a kind of dream logic. When someone is psychotic, they are not just delusional but also cognitively impaired, so the logical structure holding their thoughts together is very associative and loose, but at the same time it seems like everything is connected to whatever it is they are paranoid about. This reminds me of how the different tangentially related or maybe even contradictory parts of q anon just fade into one another in this loosely associated web narratives and themes. So to me q anon seems like "mass psychosis" not just meaning that it is delusional and fake, but in the sense that the type of reasoning seems like how people's minds work if they are having a psychotic episode.

So my experience makes me feel like Q is literally just Republicans exploiting people with untreated mental illness as a voting constituency, by pandering to these fringe beliefs. And of course it is kept going by the many grifters who benefit from drawing in an audience of gullible people to scam. But maybe there are also people who are otherwise functional and have common sense who believe these things? Are there lots of people who have a grip on "consensus reality" who believe this stuff too?

So not specifically q stuff just general Maga fuckery. I live next to my in-laws it's technically the same address. I sometimes take their flag down for bad weather or put it at half mast for different events. Well last night I put it down for Jimmy Carter's passing not thinking anything of it, feeling like I did a good thing. This morning I see a text from my father in law that states "Don't touch my flag". I look out the window and sure enough it's right back up fully. How does someone become so pathetic as to not honor a former president!? If nothing else just as respect to the office. How petty can someone be!?! President Carter was a fantastic man doing everything for others damn near to his death... I just can't grasp this. They thump their chest claiming to be patriots but cannot even think to respect this tradition. Infuriating. As much as I hate trump my flag will fly half mast the day he dies...it's what we do whether we agree or like the former president, it's part of being a true patriot. Sorry I just needed to vent.

I live in Australia and was wondering if there is a group in Australia to share feedback with.

My sister sent me a link to my Qmom's Facebook page, and it is absolutely unhinged. Medbeds were given to us by ETs. Trump is the Messiah. Covid didn't kill anyone, it was the Vaccines. The Government is putting something in our water to make us Trans. The Deepstate wants to kill her because she knows the truth? I haven't spoken to her for some time, and this is the very reason. She's way too entrenched in this Qanon nonsense.

I’m starting to get worried about my friend’s mental health. He is 22, and doesn’t live in state anymore, and every time I hear from him now it’s just some political take that I don’t even wanna get into with him anymore because he says all the news is fake and he only trusts twitter. But it’s actually maybe worse than I thought? He has been talking a lot more about the “Rapture”, alien people, and flat Earth with me and some of our mutual friends. I’m actually worried, I know his parents are MAGA people, but I don’t think even they would ignore this. Should I reach out to them? I am worried for him, and possibly his safety? I know if I said this to him he would just deny it and make it political. I want someone with his similar beliefs to check in on him.

Throwaway account because reasons.

Anyway I was a victim of a dating catfish on 4chan. Won’t get into too many details but I didn’t send but a little info and a couple of face pics to get a whole extortion threat soon afterword with my name address employer and the works, threatening to send compromising info to my employer to get me fired if I don’t meet some absolutely ridiculous demands which included apologizing to every person I’ve ever talked to off of dating apps and showing them screenshots (how is that even possible), and threatening me church. I shit you not. Sending me links to church services and telling me I needed Jesus.

Yes I know 4chan is not the best place to meet people live and learn. That’s on me.

Anywho…

They sent a threatening email with a link to an actual church service. I shit you not.

Ok so Jesus and Christianity is about extortion you into worship?

Oh yeah and they also strongly implied by not masturbating for a full year I’ll gain superpowers.

I would post screenshots but as it included an actual threat on my life and a real threat of extortion I had to send it in to authorities and so it’s now evidence and it’s a throwaway account that I’m posting this under.

At any rate what kind of psychopath would extort someone like this and think it was ok all in the name of Jesus? And that this was a perfectly ok way to convert someone to Christ?

Im positive it was QAnon because of the things they said reeked of things QAnon seems to say all the time, hence why I’m posting here.

Haven’t heard from them since I blocked them and I didn’t respond as soon as they sent me the first threat anyway as I don’t communicate or reason with sociopaths. However, I figured I’d share my story.

I really regret doing this.

I am a transgender man who works in healthcare. When I came out to my mother, she just about disowned me. We used to talk all the time, but as our politics diverged, we became more distant. It became more and more difficult to hold a normal conversation with her. When I came out, it went to a text every 6 months or so.

I haven't actually seen her in years and avoid phone calls if at all possible. It always leads into some shit like telling me who to vote for, chiding me for "believing in vaccines" and encouraging my patients to get them, and floating weird-ass comments that she must be getting from Q sources. i.e. "well, you know what they want to do with all the helium now." No, I don't, and I don't want to hear about it.

I'm going to be leaving this state next year for my own safety and sanity. My wife and I discussed whether we would even tell her what state we are going to. Whether I would take that opportunity to go full no-contact.

I guess I wanted to see how bad she has gotten to inform that decision. It's bad, guys.

I found a profile that she uses for no other purpose but to go on left-leaning news sites and rant at people. It's all the usual buzzwords, "woke", "radical left", "fascist left", "Biden crime family" etc. COVID denial, birtherism, anti-Muslim commentary, anti-immigrant, "BLM is a hate group". And then the aggressive, hateful misgendering and attacks on trans people.

Two out of three of my mother's children are trans. We're waiting on the third to find her way out of the closet. It's clearly her genes. This is how she feels about us.

She's completely lost touch with reality.

I will give her one month's notice that we are leaving so that she can retrieve or have mailed anything that is hers that we still have here. I'm not telling her where we're going. And, when we get there, she will never hear from me again.

Yep, you read that right. My stepdad and I have always had a rocky relationship. He’s the reason my mom is so far gone now and they’re both crazy Q and maga supporters. What’s funny is they were scared about Covid since they have bad immune systems and only got 1 dose of the vaccine, and ever since have been so against it. My stepdad even once said he has arm troubles to this day (even tho he’s never mentioned it before or since)??? Anyway, I’ve noticed lately all he spouts is just RFK Jr. nonsense. Well last night, he started going off on how our dog shouldn’t get anymore rabies vaccines because “well prominent vets are coming out saying it’s awful and this and that” and of course I research this, and nothing! What’s funny is even my conservative mom was against him, saying we got all our dogs rabies vaccines and they lived full and long lives, not to mention it’s ILLEGAL to refuse it for your dog. I just…can’t with this nonsense. I can’t.

I’m on break from college at the moment and have been home, which is a blessing and curse at once. I promised myself I wasn’t going to discuss politics at all, but my family of course did not share that goal.

My dad and I got into an argument about my eating habits, which are a pet peeve of his and a frequent subject he enjoys bringing up (despite my explaining to him that since I am an adult it is none of his business whatsoever). He started talking about how carbs should only be 25% of your diet. By the way, have any of you noticed the prevalence of the keto/carnivore trend in right wing people? It’s like their version of a vegan diet. Anyway, I repeated what I had learned from reputable sources (cleveland clinic, harvard & usda) which is that actually an appropriate amount is 45-60% of calories from carbs.

He told me that half the time I don’t know what I’m talking about, because “you believe all this dumb stuff about President Trump” and added “why should I listen to you?” The only thing I have said about Trump recently was about his conviction so I knew he was referring to that. At this point I was angry at being referred to as dumb, so I gave up on my promise to avoid political discussion so I could defend myself. I told him all I said was that Trump was convicted, to which he replied that he was not. I pulled up the page from the Manhattan District Attorney and tried to show him, but he refused to even look at it. I started reading it aloud to prove my point, and he said that some constitutional lawyer on Fox said the conviction never happened. I reminded him that I was literally reading from a government website, and he told me that he’s going to trust that guy because of his status as a constitutional lawyer. ( Which is so incredibly stupid because lawyers are known for saying anything to get clients out of trouble.) We went back and forth for a while until my dad said “Well, maybe he was convicted but he wasn’t charged so that doesn’t count. If someone REALLY gets convicted they go to jail. They can’t prove anything- it’s just a witch hunt.”

The ability of these people to switch realities at the drop of a hat and twist facts into a pretzel to suit said reality is astounding. My dad would rather insult me than acknowledge the crimes of a man who doesn’t know him or care he exists. What do these Q parents expect once they’ve scared away their own kids? Do they think Trump will be the one helping them as they age or visiting them in their nursing homes?

My aunt and my cousins are big QAnnon believers and I feel like over the years its completely destroyed any relationship we had. I feel like the cousins that I grew up with are no longer the same people and its so upsetting watching them dig themselves farther and farther down this rabbit hole. I don't even know what they believe anymore— sure, it started just with Q but now its gotten so much worse over the past few years. I know what QAnnon is but I guess what I wasn't expecting was for them to take it further...I mean how crazy can these people get without realizing what they're saying is just absolutely absurd. Floating orbs in the sky?? Really??

I'm 20 years old with a double major in political science and philosophy. I'm very grateful for my parents (who don't really believe any of this shit) for giving me the opportunity to be able to go to college. But whenever I come home for break, it just seems like that side of the family is so belittling towards my studies and what I want to do with my life. One of my cousins, who is also in college, claims that he loves to go to class and see how other students are being indoctrinated. I can't even wrap my mind around the level of unawareness it takes to make a projection like that.

Its like I can't even keep up with their beliefs anymore. We have a rule not to discuss politics, which I am grateful for, but somehow they bring up their conspiracy theories in practically every single conversation we have. It really sucks because when they ask me what I've been doing at college I can't even be honest with them. I love what I am studying and I wish I could share it with them, but it's like I have to hide a big part of myself and I'm getting really tired of it. I've lost pretty much all respect for them which I feel pretty guilty for admitting. I'm also struggling coming to terms with the fact that there's absolutely nothing that I can do to change their mind. Honestly, I resent them and I want to cut them off but that's just not possible for me at the moment. The situation seems quite hopeless.

Holidays have grown to be exercise in patience with my family for the past 8 years. My father has always been sexist, but has recently become pretty explicit in his racism. I used to try to address these behaviors, but have learned ignoring them and not giving him attention works better.

I myself am a sexual assault survivor, (so is my mom) bisexual, have transgender friends and work with people with disabilities. I also have a degree in Sociology and psychology. I have a bit of a bleeding heart you could say.

I thought for sure that this year my parents would see the absurdity and hatred from the republican party and vote for someone who spoke about unity and didn't but our national secrets at risk. (Dad is military).

I recently just learned both my parents voted for Trump and now want me to just....be ok with it? They say politics shouldn't matter because we are a family but how can I possibly reconcile that? How can I reconcile that they would choose a dangerous, narcissistic rapist who actively speaks against common sense and everything I stand for?

I'm currently hiding in my room and not accepting any of their offers to go shopping or do something because I want to mentally and financially disengage with them.

I believe that is is okay to have disagreements but this is different. This is about human kindness and morality. I have a couple more days with my parents, what are some things I can do to cope?

Update: my parents asked why I didn't want to associate with them anymore after relatively having a good week. I told them I couldn't uphold or respect their views anymore and wanted to financially distance myself. My father laughed and said I was brainwashed by the left and my mom broke down and cried saying she would never do this to a family member she loves and that politics shouldn't divide families like this.

Every counter point I brought up was shut down and reduced to "I can't believe your letting politics divide us how can you do this to your own family we love you and just want to help you."

I myself have started to cry and feel bad for making them feel this way and don't know what to do now. My family does help me a lot and now I feel terrible.

I just found out that apparently part of the QAnon ideology is that in the Trump utopia, renters will own their homes. That doesn't sound so bad. Can someone explain this part of QAnon ideology to me?

Now I know I talked about this a few times but since trump is gonna be president in the next couple of weeks I wanna ask y'all what's the first thing you will say to them when they try claim that they didn't know trump was gonna do this or that when his 2025 policies start affecting them?.

I (F 52) previously posted with a title of "Personality change after believing conspiracy theory?." Thank you to those who responded at that time.

My QHusband (M 62) is still in a deep rabbit hole. But things have changed since I last posted in October.

1. After getting advice from many of you here, I went to see a family lawyer. I was worried most about whether my 13-year-old daughter would be able to choose to live with me in the event of a divorce (Found out she can choose in my state), and now I have information on property division and child support. I feel a lot better mentally because I am now confident that my daughter and I would be okay even if we get divorced.

2. My daughter set a boundary from her father, saying, "Don't talk to me about your new beliefs. I don't want to hear them." He has been keeping the boundary so far, reluctantly, though. Sometimes he tries to mix conspiracy theories into their conversation, but my daughter has been strong enough to refuse each time. Other than this, the relationship between father and daughter is very good and the two get along very well.

3. I want to know what kind of conspiracy theories my husband is into, so I have asked him to share any new discoveries with me. He knows I don't believe in any of the QAnon's beliefs. I am also doing a lot of research myself to understand QAnon stuff, so I have become familiar with their topics. He calls me a "QAnon groupie." When my daughter is at school, my husband and I sometimes talk about QAnon stuff, but there is no frustration or arguments.

My husband gradually became addicted to conspiracy theories in late May of this year, and in August his personality changed drastically, becoming filled with anger and hatred, and he was like a completely different person. Our relationship deteriorated. (There was no physical violence.) However, his personality gradually began to return to normal, and by November, on the surface, he had become the calm and kind husband just like the way he was before. He has been spending more time with my daughter and myself lately. (When it was bad, I was like a single parent because my QHusband was watching conspiracy theory videos and checking X.com literally all day.)

You could say that if he didn't talk about conspiracy theories, he would be completely back to normal.

* He doesn't try to convert me to QAnon anymore. (He seems to have given up.)

* He no longer talks about conspiracy theories to my daughter.

* There is no mental or physical abuse by him.

* Misogynistic comments and actions have also disappeared.

* He may be interested in investing in XRP (related to Quantum Financial System), but we made a promise to communicate to each other about new investment. I have access to his accounts. So, I can immediately see if there is any move.

* There was a time when he was interested in Sovereign Citizen, but it seems like his interest has waned now. (If he decided to take action, I was planning on getting a divorce as soon as possible.)

I have a dilemma now.

My daughter says that since her father doesn't talk about conspiracy theories to her, she would like us to stay as a family. I'm honestly confused. Should I continue to live with him who no longer shares the reality with me, or should I cut him off? I think one option is to divorce after my daughter goes to college.

I've accepted that he will not return to my version of reality. I still love him, but am not confident if I'd be happy with my life if I stay in this marriage because deep down, we are not connected anymore.

I know that it's my life and my decision, but let me ask you... Is there anyone in a similar situation? If you have made the choice to live with your harmless QHusband, or if you have gone through a divorce, please share your experiences. Thank you.

My family believes in it. My friends believe in it. My coworkers believe in it. The most popular one they believe in is the "woke agenda", where women or any sort of minorities shouldn't be in any roles in video games or movies.

I don't know what to do. I'm afraid speaking up may cost me my job, families, and friends. They say they accept me for who I am but I don't think they really do. I just want this to end. I want people who don't rave about their perceived paranoia because a youtuber told them to. I want to be aroujd normal people.

A little late to the party, but i'm still annoyed with my two idiot Q brothers for their nonsense first thing in the morning over Christmas breakfast with my mum a couple days ago.

The middle brother was traditionally the big conspiracy nut of the family and could always be relied upon to come up with some kind of insane and divisive conversation topic - this year he did not disappoint with an outright neo nazi pro Hitler tirade about jews being responsible for all the ills of the world and Trumpists being a force of patriots who were going to put a stop to them.

I managed to put that bullshit fire out only for my eldest brother to start a reallyyy strange paranoid pro Putin doomsday rant about how we should all be scared of the 'drone wars' and that the Ukraine war was the start of a Terminator style judgement day scenario and that we'd either come out of it into a robot driven utopia where no one has to work anymore, or humanity would be hunted down and enslaved by robots and their 'elite' overlords.

Has anyone else heard of similar nonsense from their q?
Mine spend all their waking hours watching youtube, listening to podcasts and in the case of the older one, watching violent videos and terrorist execution shit online

My close family (Who ill not name) believes in conspiracy's. And they are really REALLY deep!

They believe the vaccine for Covid was designed to harm us. They believe vaccines cause autism (As someone who has autism this one f*cking enrages me) They believe the world has been ran by an oligarchical collective of people (who they refer to as the Jesuits and free masons) who have been ruling and enslaving humanity since time began.

They are into new age spirituality which comes with its own lovely collection of nonsense.

They believe WIFI is harming us, they don't believe climate change is real, they don't believe democracy exists, they don't trust anything the government tells them, meanwhile they will trust an ai version of Elon musk talking about how the pyramids of Egypt are 60 thousand years old. Another one thats really damming is an issue that effects the country i live in. Here in Ireland there is both a housing and emigration problem. But they believe there is over 100,000 illegal immigrants entering the country as part of some elaborate new world over take over. (I have tried to explain to them how even the number they provided makes literally no sense in reality)

It seems like no matter what evidence i provide they make up an excuse or pretend to agree with me. Lately we where talking about the recent solar flair that came from the sun. We looked at some other things in space and they responded with...Its all faked by NASA (Even though i have literally showed them the planets through a telescope)

Before you even suggest it. NO im not moving away, thats not an option!

Perhaps i just ignore them? Very hard to considering almost every conversation we have will bring up some kind of conspiracy. its gotten to the point where its taken over there entire view of reality.

I try to be patient and understand as I too have fallen for conspiracy's myself (We all have) but my patience is starting to ware thin.

My dad will never, unless he is physically forced to, go to a psychiatry doctor, but things are bad and we are not sure what he has to give me any piece of mind that it’s not him. For one he has these beliefs that the government, democrats, or deep state(these three are we assume we thinks is attacking him, normally he will just say they) are after him and trying to prevent him from watching his conspiracy theories. Not limited to just that though as sometimes he believes demons are sent from satan to go after him whether they are the cause of his pain, a bad thought, or a light flickering. He will incredibly agitated at this belief. he broke a tablet once because of him unable to access his email because he forgot his password, which when told he wouldn’t believe. He has asked to destroy other tablets and tv’s if they do something weird according to him. This was present in the past which is when the actual tablet breaking scenario happened, but he has started having these beliefs more and more, with him thinking someone was hacking his tv. He will remember these situations as something attacking him even if proven not to him. He has other extreme beliefs on top but I am not entirely sure if they are the only thing causing it or not. He is convinced the world is ending pretty much every single day even if the world doesn’t end when he thinks it will. He also believes anyone who doesn’t agree with him is possessed by demons or just an idiot which one is which no clue (he will just assign one at random). Of course all of the other Q theories apply, but these are the beliefs that seem to be even stronger than just regular beliefs of other Q people

I thought I was mostly up on the Q conspiracy theories and wacko medical theories as well. Nicotine patches is a new one for me. What is up with that?

My mom met my boyfriend’s MAGA family this Christmas and couldn’t keep her anti-trump comments at bay.

His family live in bumfuck Indiana, white evangelical “Christians” and think that migrants cause all issues in this country and trump is going to stop it. They are so pro-trump that they pray for him at Christmas. They are low income and low education. They read Trump and Elon’s social media posts like it’s the Bible. They obsess over the Laken Riley case and the case where the immigrant lit someone on fire in NYC. They think Trump is going to lower costs for them and save them from all of their self-inflicted issues. Someone at Christmas was talking about how tHeY DiDnT hAvE a cHriStMaS tReE at the gym anymore and I guess they went woke (it was due to fire hazards).

My mom, who lives in Philadelphia, thinks that trump is the Antichrist.

Ok so they are talking about Philly and the “migrants” and my mom says that the immigrants aren’t the issue in this country (his dad says he thinks that they are). She proceeds to say that Trump and his “klu klux klan” buddies are going to come to her neighborhood and wreak havoc ripping people out of their homes. His family was silent, stunned. She literally suggested that Trump was a member of the KKK. She then proceeded to tell them how Trump tanked the Taj Mahal casino and fucked over all of the blue collar workers and she was there to witness the protesting. His family is so weak and fake that they didn’t even respond to her, but I got a mouthful from my boyfriend at home.

Anyway, we had to leave Christmas early and I’m pretty sure my boyfriend and I are breaking up because of how triggered they all were about my Mom. Can’t tell if I’m proud of her or annoyed that she couldn’t keep her opinions to herself but…she ain’t wrong.

Edit - I am definitely proud of her!! She helped me dodge a bullet with this one.

After the election I lied to my family and said I voted trump. They’re all fully into Q and unironically think dems are eating babies to stay younger. They said that all dems should be executed. If they found out I’m a lefty who knows what they’d do. They think that it’s “impossible “ to rape your girlfriend or wife. They’ve told me that walz is a secret maoist who rapes kids. I’ve heard that hitler “had a lot of good points but was bad because he was a secret communist”. After hearing this stupid shit for years it really starts building up and now I just wish they would all die. It sounds harsh but my dad literally thinks epstein is innocent which I don’t even think is a maga talking point literally who the fuck is telling him that. I don’t have any money but I am old enough to leave. What do I do? Should I just find a minimum wage job and move into a studio apartment? I only have a high school diploma and literally no skills. I’m not in any imminent danger, but I legit have no idea what they would do if they found me out. I’m more worried about the effect on my mental health, I’ve become completely misanthropic and stopped hanging out with friends and stuff just because I feel this hatred of humanity because I project my own family onto others. I understand that it’s irrational and that just because my family sucks that doesn’t mean everyone does but I still feel the hatred and disgust even when they’re not around. I just feel like any person I get to know could end up like that so to avoid that I just avoid people all together

My spouse(m 25) and I(f 28) got married peak 2020 idk if it was marital bliss or what but the change from 2020 to now is insane. Before we used to agree on a lot of topics and we had agreed to disagree on others. When we got married it felt like we were fit well. I love his family, my family adores him and he seems to really enjoy spending time with my family as well.

This past year has been rough. My grandfather, who I've always had a great relationship with, had finally passed after an awful fight with cancer. My whole world felt like it was crashing around me and my husband was very sympathetic but had suddenly turned extremely religious. Things we had agreed on previously were suddenly very different. Before he was fine with me reading romance novels (yes the dirty ones) doing tarot readings, drinking/ getting drunk, and hanging out with my witch friends. He calls my books disgusting, he called me a heretic, and pushes me to talk about hot button topics like abortion.

Recently he's been following this group based in Oklahoma, USA that go to the public with anti abortion signs and shirts. Apparently for the past two years he's been on Twitter arguing with people and listening to these 'Abolitionist Rising' speakers. Now he's bought signs, several tshirts, traveled 8 hours for their sermons, is now against ivf (I have pcos) and keeps leaving 'For the Glory of God' cards with pictures of infant's in the womb everywhere we go. This has kind of blind sided me because I've been upfront about my beliefs, I would never have an abortion but I know that safe abortion should be accessible, and while I'm upfront with my beliefs I'm not the kind to push them onto someone.

His friends are concerned for me, my friends are concerned for me, and I don't understand how he's changed so much in such a short time. I don't know what to do. Any time I think im at my limit and I try and I have a break down he says "I'm sorry. Please don't give up on me. I'm so used to being left behind" and I feel even worse.

Thank you for giving me a space to vent and thank you for reading so much if you've made it this far.

Let me start by saying I don’t want to start a debate on whose views are correct or better. I am purely struggling with the differences in opinions these days.

Earlier this year my sister got a boyfriend and he is hardcore anti immigration and anti abortion. I have had an abortion and my long term partner is an immigrant. My boyfriend has been in the US on a green card for almost 10 years. I have not met her boyfriend yet but my mom has and told me that he was insistent about talking about politics and it may be hard for me. I am terrified of meeting him because I am worried it will affect my relationship with my sister.

I don’t want to get all caught up in the possibility of this happening and I am a believer in bipartisanship. I just don’t know how to block this out as their relationship gets stronger. I also truly don’t want to expose two hardships that me and my boyfriend have encountered to judgement. Politics suck.

One thing about many Q people, is they are very emotionally invested in some beliefs of the “evil” all around, claiming they “are so horrific” that they lose sleep, or admittedly cry to themselves to sleep about it. Believing that people running the country do the most horrible and unthinkable things imaginable to children. The odd thing that strikes me about these beliefs is, that if they believe them to be so horrible and evil, you’d think they would be relieved and rejoice at any evidence suggesting that it isn’t happening. That children aren’t being mutilated regularly by Democrats. I really think they desperately want whatever they believe to be ended (what Trump is supposedly doing) but at the same time, you can’t share a bit of anything that should be viewed as good news that it’s fake. That’s the part that gets me. If it’s really so terrible and eats away at you, why not entertain anything that suggests these things aren’t real? Why not be relieved and get better sleep knowing the kids face isn’t getting peeled off alive? This might be a weird analogy, but if someone convinced them that a loved one died a terrible death and it kills you knowing that, then if you try to show them it was a ruse and their loved one is alive and well, it’s like they’ll still choose to believe they’re dead and suffered still. That’s the element in all this that kind of baffles me most. But that’s just me

this talks about forensic psychiatry & discerning the difference bw a delusional disorder/mental illness conspiracy theorist & one who believes due to ideology & has no mental illness.

there is a table of behavioral type questions that ask which ways has q anon/conspiracies affected your life & thinking.

some may even be able to get their qs to answer some if they are open to talking about the q group itself and not turn it into another push to talk about the held beliefs.

it states the order conspiracists go in to finally lock in their beliefs on a theory:

conviction, preoccupation,flexibility, self-reference, justification/rationalization

https://jaapl.org/content/early/2022/01/25/JAAPL.210053-21

I live with a Drump supporter and we got into such a bad argument once that we rarely acknowledge those topics anymore for fear of ruining our familial relationship, I’m grateful for that.

But I also feel like I live with a Nazi who is also a parent. It’s so confusing because I want to disown her out of principle but I can’t because she’s my mother, which is also a form of duty.

I try to keep my mouth shut but today something slipped out. Let me mention I’m a white person, and I have witnessed my family (on her side) say racist things.

She always likes to imagine she isn’t racist, but it’s fake. “I have so many black friends over the years!” Just a few sprinkled in. She is one of those “token person of color” pretending not to be racist, racist.

Today her and my cousin made some negative racist comments against black people and I said that’s racist and wrong. They laughed and said “we don’t care, we’re racist! Hahaha.” Made me sick, they weren’t joking or shameful.

Then when my mom and I were alone we were watching that new military movie about black women who served in the military she did her usual denial of being a racist nazi shit, “can you imagine? Being black and experiencing that, not being acknowledged.”

I couldn’t help myself. I said in a calm voice, “I’m confused how you can say racist things earlier against blacks and now you say this? I don’t get you.”

She denied saying anything racist earlier and I said she laughed with my cousin. She claimed she had many black friends and wasn’t racist. I said what also about calling our neighbors Mexicans in a derogatory way? (She keeps accusing them of hiding illegals which I highly doubt, soooo fucking nazi). And calling people “those fucking Asians / Chinese”

She is in SUCH DENIAL. I told her she can’t say racist things behind their back and be fake nice to their face. That’s still racist. I also said I never saw her act this way until she got older the last few years and it confuses me. She went silent and has ignored me since. Okay idk let it be awkward, these people need to be called out.

How do I deal with a racist Nazi parent?

I posted this in a different sub and someone suggested this might be a better subreddit for it.

I just need to vent for a moment. My mom is in town and she pretty much praising how RFK Jr is going to save us from bad food and that “he isn’t anti vax” and that everything is going to be so much better. We got into an argument and she said “well anyone that doesn’t side with Israel isn’t going to survive” or whatever wording she used and when I asked why she said “well because it’s what is in the Bible”. What 😭 I can’t understand how people use the Bible as justification for that shit. And she’s like Democrats just want you to sow discord and stop talking to your family and I said “well good for them”. She said she thinks tariffs are good and even though I pointed out it went badly for farmers last time specifically soybean farmers she was still okay with that because “Trump is for the farmers”. I’m like he literally drove China away from buying our soybean products and now they’re buying them from Brazil. I just can’t. And then she went on about getting rid of the DOE and I’m like that’s not a good idea and she’s like “well I went to school in the 70s and there weren’t any issues then.” 😭😭😭😭I told her I hope she gets everything she voted for and that don’t be surprised when Putin comes knocking 🥲 At this point I don’t even care who takes office, I just want these 4 years to go by and be over with. I am so exhausted and tired. I tried not bring up anything political, but her talking about RFK Jr and making our food great again it just wow 🤯 I agree our food needs to be held to a higher standard and we need to use less artificial food coloring, but RFK Jr is just not it.

So. I have an aunt who has always been big on the supernatural. UFOs, Atlantis, past lives, you name it.

When covid hit, she fell into the rabbit hole of QAnon-esque and adjacent conspiracy theories. Bill Gates was putting microchips in people like me who got vaccinated.

I already got into trouble with her a few years back. We didn't talk for almost a year because I felt so strongly about her ideas. She would act smug and holier than thou and tried to "awaken" me by letting me in on the big secrets of the world.

Well we have since made up and I have started visiting her again. She is the only relative I really keep in touch with and I feel a little obligated. She helped me and my alcoholic mom a lot when I was growing up. She is lonely and has nobody else it seems.

So today we were having a nice day. Having actually satisfying conversations. We watched a movie and talked about it, nothing out of the ordinary.

First she said she's no longer drinking regular non-100% natural milk because they are poisoning the cattle feed. I asked why would they put straight poison in our milk if the methane emissions are a cover up like she said. She said "To poison us." So the poison is for poisoning, why did I not think that.

Then later she said that Trump was chosen to lead by the Powers That Be because the world is changing and Trump knows how to deal with it. Ever notice how the World is always Changing when it comes to these peeps? We live in Europe too so it's always weird to find a Trump supporter to begin with.

I did not engage with her and left her apartment soon after. It's now hours after the talks and I still feel uneasy. I tried talking about my experience with some friends but I have a nagging feeling people don't understand how dreadful it can be when it's family and you are alone with them. I know the trope of the racist uncle at Thanksgiving but try being alone with them...

I am a sensitive person and just cannot keep it rational in these situations. I feel an overwhelming sense of loss of safety when somebody so close to me says something so incredibly wrong to my ears. It's like a gaslight attack in broad daylight.

Today we split. I am free of the nonstop conspiracy theories. How do you balance the sadness of losing your partner with the freedom gained of nonstop politics.

Title says it all really. Ive been friends with the same group of guys since I was a kid - I practically see them as family, but after speaking up against one of the guys’ newfound beliefs, I’m pretty sure I’ve burned that bridge substantially.

I moved away from our hometown for work a few years back, and since then, every time I come home I’ve noticed one of the guys has been hinting at some extreme opinions (he became a fan of Andrew tate for a bit, he asked if I watched tucker Carlson, hinted at covid conspiracies which hurts as my grandmother died of covid in 2020, talked about hunter biden, etc). I was scared that pushing back would just radicalise him more so I’ve kept quiet for years and kept my distance, but yesterday he admitted he would’ve voted for Trump, claimed being gay was a sin, made weird racial jokes about black people stealing things (I am a black man) and was generally pretty heinous, in my opinion.

I decided to finally push back properly and said I felt like he was supporting a fascist and it seems like he’s started to believe some pretty extreme scary shit. He basically said “I can’t believe we can’t be friends over differences in opinion” and one of our other friends who was there seemed to agree (he doesn’t know anything about current events/politics so I probably came across as the radical one, tbh).

I feel sad that this will probably damage my relationship with my friends, but I guess it’s for the best. I feel extremely guilty, like maybe if I had pushed back harder earlier I could’ve fixed it, but tbh I don’t think I’m that great at these kinds of conversations and I think it may have just pushed him further. I feel like I’m going crazy, as the other guy I was with seemed to take the other guys side like I was the extreme one. How do you deal with these feelings? We’re not even American, I’m so upset that this has happened to me.