Comradeship // Freechat

I will try not to reveal much personal information in order to maintain privacy.

Anyway, I've known Alex for most of my life, they were pretty good for most of it.

In recent years, they've gone down the MAGA pipeline, and it's gotten worse and worse over the years.

At this point: about every day they talk about illegal immigrants and Trump, often even making jokes about it.

They talked about it so much, and I tried to tell them the truth (such as that most undocumented aren't criminals, they can't migrate legally, etc.) and even encouraged them to do research about it, but they refused.

Here's where things start to get crazy:

In recent times, anything they see that goes against their worldview is called "fake news" while they literally unironically called Fox News a reliable source. (Another family member made fun of them for "only looking at Fox News," not knowing how right they were.)

They started to say how scared they are about "Venezuelan gangs" and even said that they check their windows and get scared at every sound because they are literally worried that it's one of the "gang members."

Then it happened:

We discussed the Garcia situation, where a legal immigrant was sent to CECOT without trial. We argued about it.

I asked stuff like, "Where's the fair trial? Where's the due process? Should you be punished for a crime you weren't even tried for and convicted of?"

They kept saying lies like, "They DID get a trial! They're an abuser! They're a gang member! Only the worst criminals go there! You just support mean people and gang members!"

This continued back and forth, until it happened.

They cried about how scared they were of the "illegal immigrant gangs" and being attacked by them. That's right, cried, with tears.

I was disgusted. I felt sad because they bought into this propaganda so much. And I felt amused to the point of laughing, which they didn't like.

That person had various problems in their life. And they decided to cry about "the evil brown people coming after me!!!"

I didn't feel sorry for them at all. That's disgusting.

And that was just the first instance.

Recently:

We were having just a mundane conversation in the car, and they made a joke about CECOT and El Salvador. I said that I didn't want to talk about that. They got angry and talked seriously about El Salvador. I told them again multiple times that I didn't want to talk about it, and they kept continuing. They said stuff back at me like "You know who goes to CECOT? The worst of the worst!" so I was forced to confront them like "They send innocent people there without trial, I don't want to talk about it." I keep saying no, they say "I have a right to say what I believe." I say, "I have boundaries, I want you to respect them. Can you please be respectful?" They say, "I cAn'T bElIeVe YoU sUpPoRt GaNgS!1!1!1!"

I tell them that I never said that and I want due process and don't want to talk about this, they sounded like they were going to cry about "the brown people coming to get me again!!!" and I wasn't in the mood to deal with that. Thankfully, I got to my destination soon after.

It is incredibly sad to see somebody I've known throughout my life turn into...this. Of course, there's much worse that could've happened, but this is unbelievable.

They do see a therapist, and I think I should encourage them to talk to them about it.

Do you guys have any thoughts or stories to share?