General Politics Discussion (XI) [ARCHIVED] World • Page 1219

TRIGGER WARNING: description of suicide

Very similar here. I am so sorry. I know this pain well.

Wife’s father and uncle were both doctors. Absolutely brilliant. Lost their minds and a lot of money to scams and right wing media that told both of them to blame it on the poor and minorities. Politics were always a sensitive topic, but got awful when Obama took office. “These are good mashed potatoes, Uncle Mark.” “Yeah your guy Obama made sure I paid 40% more for them with a check that’s 20% smaller.” Shit like that. Even if the numbers were made up, they felt real and these guys lost what was left of reality.

Eventually, my wife’s cousin, who was the ring bearer in our wedding and a closeted queer or gay, killed himself after his dad (wife’s uncle) berated him for being an idiot and a f***** after refusing to have meat at dinner. Got up from the table, grabbed his dad’s pistol (unlocked and loaded, of course) went downstairs and shot himself in the head. The bullet came up through the floor into their dining room. Even that tragedy didn’t change his path. He blamed my wife and I for polluting his son’s head with acceptance and thoughts of being his own person. We haven’t seen them since the funeral in 2016 even though they live <5 miles away. That incident snapped my FIL out of it for a bit of time, but not enough to keep him from voting for Trump or now sending thousands of dollars to RFK Jr.

My own dad is basically Tim Walz. He’s been conservative and is now what I would call a very reasonable moderate who knows how hard life is and wants the best for his kids and now his grandkids. And I am eternally grateful and know just how lucky that is.

 

Goddamn. I’m so sorry.

 

I have friends who have parents and siblings that were radicalized by Trump and Alex Jones. Thankfully our family mostly avoided that.

The closest thing I had to that was my doctor, who really helped during a time where I was having frequent panic attacks and thoughts that I was gonna die. He looked a lot like Walz. Was incredibly thoughtful and kind. When Obama and Obamacare came into the picture, he lost his mind and eventually retired. That led me to going to his brother for a bit, who was way less kind and shittier politically.

 

Yeah those stories hurt. I thought my FIL has been bad in his drift rightward but not nearly that bad.

 

if only Tim Walz had an 'i drink horse semen' face that matches JD's 'I fuck couches' vibe.

 

can't relate. surrounded by dumb liberals who think gentrification is some kinda law of nature.

 

My entire immediate family ranges from liberal to leftist other than my step dad but I don’t count him anyway. I do have a 2nd cousin that was at January 6 though lol

 

Not as painful or at all on the level as previous stories but my current primary doctor is the best doctor I’ve ever had. He has sat me in his office and made phone calls to specialists and technicians on my behalf to get real-time answers on things. He’s stayed after closing to discuss my health issues and figure out the best next steps. He’s also a huge Trump supporter and kept testing me to see how far he can get and, thankfully, he’s picked up on me politely not engaging when he makes aside comments so it’s somewhat stopped. But why do very proficient, even helpful and caring, professionals have to compartmentalize that skill and thoughtfulness away from how they view the greater world???

 

He's so bad at this.

 

Fuck. I am so, so sorry. Just truly horrific and there are no words good enough. I'm so glad your wife's cousin at least had you and your wife to support them before that tragedy. I'm just so sorry.

My father in-law's issues really took off during the Obama era as well. The things he would say were so suddenly shocking and not at all in line with the person I knew him to be deep down (I've known him since I was three years old). Knowing now that it was just a precursor to what would eventually take place during Trump's term makes me wish so badly I could find a way to go back in time and save him from it. Where he lives now, he works with a bunch of fellow military veterans who have a "group" together that is "prepping" for "the end" or whatever and he's told my wife in the past that, should "things" go down, she should come see him so that she can hide out in his bunker they've built (though I doubt that invitation would be extended nowadays). He too has given so much money to Trump and his campaign and still he can't see that Trump has never wanted for money the way that he does and yet Trump is the one he's giving all of his money to.

Back when everything first went down, there was a day where he had his kids all panicked thinking that he was really going to hurt himself so my wife called while I was at work and asked if I could come pick her up from her work because she was really scared. On my way there, her brothers both called me to ask if I could call the police and meet with them because I was the closest to my father in-law's house. So I did that. I met with them and explained the situation, told them I knew there really wasn't much they could do, and let them know that I knew my father in-law was, deep down, a good man who was really lost. I told them the only person I was really fearful he would hurt was himself. So they checked in with him, stayed nearby, and eventually determined he was behaving so erratically that he needed to be committed to a hospital for a few days for observation. Then he had his guns taken away by the courts and that sent him over the edge. He went to court and requested to see who it was that called the police in the first place. He saw my name and decided that that was it for us. He disowned me and told me that he wanted nothing to do with me. When his wife divorced him, he said that I was "50% to blame" while my mother in-law was the other 50%. I never told him that it was his own children who asked me to call in the first place nor what I told the police.

My wife tried visiting him a couple times over the years, but I was not welcome. Since then, as he's gotten progressively worse, he has told her to "forget about" him and has said that our kids, his grandchildren, don't have a grandfather and they can forget about him too. My children have cried over him, asking why "fixing papa" (they call him that because he's the "papa" who fixes everything) doesn't want to see them anymore. He sent his kids this long manifesto a while back wherein he blamed every single one of them individually for their part in all of this and included their spouses as well. My section, according to my wife, was so bad that she wouldn't let me read it. Her siblings then individually reached out to me to tell me how sorry they were for what he said even though, to this day, I have no idea what he wrote but I'm sure I could guess. But oh, he still insists that Trump is going to save this country and that there's a war coming and that we had better be prepared like he is. We'd better be on the right side when the time comes, he says. He's so, so lost and lonely and every single day I am glad I am not him. Fuck Donald Trump and fuck the GOP.

 

Libertarians are the dumbest humans alive.

 

Those idiots make me embarrassed to be from NH sometimes lol

 

Well shit , now this tweet is even more relevant after how the last couple pages have gone.

 

Literally couldn’t even say his wife and kids make him happy?!

 

My whole family is conservative except for my mom’s dad. My dad has voted for democrats before, he tends to vote based on who he thinks is less personally objectionable. But I doubt he’ll ever vote for a democrat again - he voted for Trump twice and thinks the 2020 election was stolen (although he did say he would have voted for Bernie in 16 or 20).

 

I am tearing up and I am hugging you through this comment, comrade. Christ almighty, that’s horrible.

As another Chorus’er with young kids and who sees how happy they are with their grandparents (even my insane FIL above), I know how much they long for that time together and how indescribably hurtful it is to have it taken away by a brain fog that never seems to lift.

Your wife and kids are SO lucky that you are the kind of person who will help them do hard things if and when the time comes. That’s the kind of person who changes things over the long haul, for the better.

 

These things are like wrestlers cutting promos. I’d end it with a “we got two words for AIPAC, SUCK IT” and do some crotch chops.

 

I'd vote for that

 

I don’t know what she means by her being radicalized, but it does make me think of MLK moving further to the left after desegregation and seeing the dead end there when working with the establishment for anything substantial after

 

You, buddy, what's your name?
AIPAC.
AIPAC.

 

Careful Josh is going to say you have content brain™ for this take

 

I JUST KICKED AIPAC!