My parents have always been left-wing hippies and entertained the odd conspiracy theory, but during the pandemic they got lost down YouTube rabbit holes and bought into Q-Anon and anti-vax ideas. They still don’t believe Covid is real (even though they blatantly had it…).
We’ve just kind of agreed not to talk about it anymore, but they’ve steadily become more and more batshit and I think they believe I have been brainwashed.
Anyone else’s familial relationships changed forever?
Yes and no.
My parents are thankfully at the age at which they just don’t give much of a shit. They think that there was a lot of shady political shenanigans surrounding the whole thing (and I’d say they’re objectively correct about that), but they cynically expect that and mostly ignore it. They talked to their doctors and came to understand that covid is real, and dangerous, and that the vaccines do have some risks, but the benefits outweigh the risks, and that was enough for them to take it seriously and take proper precautions.
My brothers on the other hand…
I’m the oldest of three, and they’re both… well… angry, spiteful, delusional, Fox News and talk radio consuming, gun-toting, Trump-voting, road-raging reactionaries. So they both lined right up and marched in lockstep with the expected dogma, to my complete lack of surprise.
So yes - our relations have been strained over it, but really it’s not quite accurate to say that it’s because of that, since that’s just one of the many, many MANY things on which we disagree.
Did they also waffle along with their leader about how Covid is not a big deal, but the vaccine was the best thing ever, and China is responsible but Biden is responsibler, that it can be cured by over the counter or, uh, through-the-horse methods but you can’t trust a damn thing Big Pharma’ll sell you?
Last I knew, yes. In fact, I almost mentioned that, just because it amuses me so much.
I sit and listen (well - more accurately, I used to - at this point I leave the room as soon as they start), and it’s honestly astonishing.
The middle one is the one that does it most obviously, since he’s actually very intelligent and just fell down the conspiracy theory rabbit hole and hasn’t found his way back out. I think what happens is he cones to see the holes in his current conspiracy theory, so he… just replaces it with another.
The younger one constantly shifts too, but that’s because he’s mostly defined by who he hates, so as his focus shifts, so does the purported blame.
