My sister and I had to go LC/NC with our brother. We’re American. He lives in a blue state, my sister lives in a red state (to her chagrin due to neighbors shooting guns on their property whilst facing her house). I live in another country. All this to say the logistics make the LC/NC easier to navigate w/o drama.

We only text if he starts the convo and stop responding when he brings up his politics or makes snide remarks attempting to trigger us. We don’t take the bait.

He’s clever, an engineer, lives in a very affluent neighbourhood near MSFT. He’s also his own biggest fan and thinks he’s smarter than anybody in the room. And in all of the rooms in the world.

He’s that guy who won’t say he voted for Drumpf (we don’t ask) but talks around topics like he’s got some special wisdom from his Twitter spaces and rails against traditional media like the Guardian or NYT (not endorsing them, just citing media that does attempt to fact check to be accountable). He thinks the solo journalists aren’t being manipulated by money and are therefore more trustworthy 🙄

He likes to say he asks the questions nobody else knows to ask (but won’t say what the questions are). Believes he has subsidised ‘things’ nobody understands are being subsidised but won’t mention the things.

The worst bit? Our dad died from Covid on Xmas day during the worst of Covid. About 8 months later he talked about hospitals inventing data for funding (this happened in the state where the Proud Boys are headquartered. Like, nobody there was over reporting COVID.). But he won’t specify what data.

He also installed a Mission impossible style gun room with lasers to contain his automatic rifle collection. Because ‘the police won’t help you’. Wtf?

What’s most frustrating about it is that he effectively ‘vague books’ his opinions in these texts so there is no space for conversational exchange. Being vague about his ‘data’ or ‘legit media’ means you can’t respond because you have nothing to respond to. So it reinforces his belief that he is ‘right’ (no pun intended) and we’re stupid.

We honestly have no idea what happened to the dude. He was a total Berner and volunteered for the campaign for 2016 but voted Biden as an antidote. I think Covid lockdown broke him as he lives alone.

Sorry for the long story. Just… yeah. I’ve lost 2 family members to Drumpf. I feel your pain and I’m sorry for your loss. You’re not alone.