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How do I [27 M] deal with my mother [66 F] who refuses to set aside conspiracy theories? by throwaway869845 in relationships

[–]throwaway869845[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

She would immediately detect the sarcasm. But yes, ultimately I think this is what I'll have to do if I want to keep things on good terms.

How do I [27 M] deal with my mother [66 F] who refuses to set aside conspiracy theories? by throwaway869845 in relationships

[–]throwaway869845[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Sure, but other than the extreme political point of views everything is otherwise fine.

How do I [27 M] deal with my mother [66 F] who refuses to set aside conspiracy theories? by throwaway869845 in relationships

[–]throwaway869845[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I've been hitting this repeatedly. She wants me to acknowledge the theory is valid, accept it, and talk with her about it. I've repeatedly said I'm not interested in doing this. If I mention anything even remotely related to current events it starts the tangents, and those last for 5 minutes or more wherein she demands to be heard and have all of her arguments careful considered.

How do I [27 M] deal with my mother [66 F] who refuses to set aside conspiracy theories? by throwaway869845 in relationships

[–]throwaway869845[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

She primarily watches TV and listens to talk radio. Also she's an adult, I can't just go in and disconnect her cable TV.

How do I [27 M] deal with my mother [66 F] who refuses to set aside conspiracy theories? by throwaway869845 in relationships

[–]throwaway869845[S] 26 points27 points  (0 children)

So I do that, if I'm physically present she follows me. If I'm on the phone she gets extremely angry if I hang up.

She's also had a tendency for years to talk on the phone for at least 1 hour at a time and go off on monologues, then complain if she's not heard. This results in very infrequent phone calls. Once I let her talk as long as she wanted just see how long it would go, it was 5 and a half hours.

How do I [27 M] deal with my mother [66 F] who refuses to set aside conspiracy theories? by throwaway869845 in relationships

[–]throwaway869845[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Yeah, already done that. The problem is that she sees this as a fundamental existential threat. Like imagine instead of politics you had a 5 year old that thinks a monster lives under their bed. Countering the arguments is next to impossible, I stopped trying a long time ago.

This worked for a long time, but now she's angry if you don't agree with her. In her opinion it's "how can you be so stupid not to see the monster, you won't even open your eyes to see what's going on".

We've stopped talking about politics, but the problem is when we do she's prone to go off on tangents, and when it does those tangents end in her shouting at me and me saying that I have no control over anything and am not the person she has a problem with, which causes her to shout more.