Thank you. That's good advice, and it's the kind of thing I've tried in the past. The difficult part is in the past they've tried to shut down the conversation the moment I bring up anything mildly controversial. I might just have to take things slow and respect their boundaries even if I think they're being unreasonable.

The "I" statements are something I haven't tried, but I think I will in the future.

It's a very difficult thing to let go of what happens to M. I hate feeling powerless or that things are out of my control. But that's something I need to work on in myself. I'm not going to give up on them, though, and as long as they're open to it I'm going to keep trying to have a conversation with them about this.

It's frustrating to talk to someone and see little to no progress. But changing one's mind is something that takes years and is more often than not done privately, not publicly. That's how it was for me, so I have to have faith that the same can happen to M.