My therapist is concerned about my safety

I’m in my early 40s, and my boyfriend is in his early 60s. We met when I was 24. I grew up with him, built my corporate career, and spent 17 years believing we were building a life together. I never imagined I would be writing something like this.

I found this community because I am trying to understand what has happened to someone I loved deeply. I don’t know whether his experience fits the QAnon label specifically. What I recognize in some of the stories here is the grief of watching someone change politically and ideologically, hearing increasingly disturbing things come out of their mouth, and wondering where the person you knew has gone.
I am a woman of color. My boyfriend is Mediterranean American. For most of our relationship, I felt safe with him. He valued my intelligence, encouraged me professionally, introduced me to new experiences, and made me believe that marriage might be possible for me, even though I had always been hesitant about marriage because of what I witnessed growing up.

Our life together was full of the things we enjoyed: classic movies, theater, concerts, restaurants, travel, and simply spending time together. We had routines, shared interests, and years of memories. We talked about homes and a possible future together. I believed those conversations meant something.

Now he says that what we shared was superficial. The movies, theater, concerts, restaurants, and time we spent together apparently meant something different to him than they did to me. It is devastating to wonder how someone can dismiss so much of a life you built together as superficial.

The changes I didn’t fully understand
Over time, I began noticing comments and attitudes that unsettled me. At first, I treated some of them as isolated incidents of rudeness or offensive opinions rather than evidence of a larger pattern. I didn’t fully understand the significance of what I was hearing, and I didn’t want to believe it reflected something deeper about the man I loved.

He increasingly talked about race, politics, and how he believed people of color behaved. In March, he referred to Black people as “chimps” when discussing behavior he had observed on cruise ships. I asked him to stop. He said he would continue using the word because he believed it was true.

He has made degrading generalizations about Black people, including comments about crime and intelligence, and has used the N-word during conversations with me. He has also talked about racial mistreatment he says he experienced himself. I tried to listen to him and understand those experiences, but I did not always recognize that he wanted me to respond with visible anger and outrage on his behalf.

He repeatedly told me that I did not have his back. He felt I did not become angry when he was angry, and that I did not respond to his experiences in the way he needed me to.
I have spent a lot of time questioning myself over this. Could I have asked more questions? Could I have acknowledged his feelings before trying to analyze what happened? Yes. I can recognize moments when I could have responded differently.

But I am struggling with the idea that loving someone means I must mirror their anger to prove my loyalty, or that I should have understood every expectation he had without it being clearly communicated. I also struggle with the fact that his anger about racism has become intertwined with degrading language about other minorities.

My therapist recently described some of the language my boyfriend used as being lifted from alt-right media, and some of his language about women as resembling rhetoric found in incel spaces. I had noticed changes that sounded red-pilled to me months earlier, but I had trouble believing that someone so intelligent, whom I had known so intimately, could be moving in this direction.
I am not claiming to know exactly what he believes or what has influenced him. I am trying to understand the pattern I have witnessed.

The car ride that changed how I see him
During our most recent outing, a conversation about race and his experiences escalated into something I am still struggling to process.
He told me I was “the coldest woman” he had ever met. He called me “frigid.” He said I was making it almost impossible for him to love me. He brought up something my father had said to me when I was eight years old—that I was unlovable—and used that painful history against me.
During the argument, he said, “I’ll show you how racist I can be.”

He used racist language and made degrading comments about Black people and other minorities. When I tried to describe what I saw as a pattern in his comments about race, he treated it as though I had simply called him racist. The conversation became about my supposed betrayal of him rather than allowing space for both of us to speak about what was happening.

He repeatedly said we were done. He questioned my character and my capacity to love him. He said things that made me question whether he had any regard for how deeply he was hurting me.

I was not having a normal disagreement with a partner who was frustrated with me. I was sitting with someone I had loved for 17 years while he used my childhood wounds against me, degraded me as a woman, and expressed contempt toward groups of people that include people like me.

I have never experienced racism directed at me in this way before. I cannot adequately describe what it felt like to hear that language from someone I had trusted enough to consider marrying.

The fact that he was the person saying these things made it worse. I had felt safe with him. I had never imagined needing to question that safety.

My therapist’s reaction frightened me
I shared what happened with my therapist, who has a clinical background. He described the language as racist, sexist, classist, and degrading. He was particularly concerned about the way my boyfriend spoke to me and the way he weaponized my own painful history against me.
He also expressed concern about my safety in any future interaction with him.

That frightened me. I have never thought of my boyfriend as someone I might need to be cautious around. He was the person I felt safest with. Now someone whose professional judgment I trust is telling me to take the situation seriously.

My therapist also wondered whether a medical issue might be worth considering because of the changes in behavior I described. I do not know whether that is relevant, and I am not trying to diagnose my boyfriend. I know grief has affected him deeply after losing both parents, but I cannot determine whether grief, political influences, personal choices, a medical issue, or some combination of factors explains what I have witnessed.

I am left with questions and no clear answers.
I am grieving him, but I am also disgusted by what I heard

This is the part I find hardest to explain.
I still remember the man who encouraged me, who shared my interests, who made me feel intelligent and understood, and who made me believe I could have a marriage different from the one I grew up watching. I remember the person who called me his rock and whom I would have cared for if he became ill.

I would have stayed and taken care of him. That was never a question for me.

But I cannot unhear the language from that car ride. I cannot forget the way he spoke about women, Black people, and other minorities. I cannot forget him using the most painful parts of my childhood against me. I cannot reconcile his statements that our life together was superficial with the life I thought we were building.
I am grieving the future I believed we had. I am grieving the man I thought I knew. I am also disgusted by what I heard, and sometimes I feel guilty for that disgust because I still love him.

I don’t know whether the person I fell in love with is still there beneath all of this, whether I overlooked things I should have recognized earlier, or whether he has changed in ways I cannot understand. I don’t know whether I will ever get an explanation.

I am not in contact with him right now. I am trying to process what happened and take my therapist’s concerns seriously without pretending I know what will happen next.
I am sharing this because I wonder whether others here have experienced something similar—not necessarily someone who identifies with QAnon, but a partner whose political or ideological shift seemed to bring out a level of racism, misogyny, or contempt that you never knew was there.

How did you grieve someone who was still alive but no longer felt like the person you knew? How did you make sense of the change without deciding that your entire relationship had been a lie?

I am struggling to hold two truths at once: I loved this man for 17 years, and the way he spoke to me was profoundly degrading. I don’t want to erase the good years, but I don’t want the good years to become a reason to minimize what happened either.

I am heartbroken, confused, and trying to find my footing again. I would appreciate hearing from anyone who understands this particular kind of grief.

[ Removed by Reddit on account of violating the content policy. ]

I keep hearing this talking point repeated over and over again in regards to democrats being a huge problem and we have to correct their policies blah blah

The economy/country is not the same as getting hit in a drunk driving accident. Are they out of their minds?

The Q family expects me to fly home for the holidays this year, clear across the country, same as I did last year. I've been putting off buying the ticket because I expect any number of things to keep me from wanting to do this. For instance:

• Midterm shenanigans. Republicans are already putting the plans in place to greatly mitigate their losses, if not steal the election outright. If they just blatantly defy the democratic will of the voters like that I'm not going home to spend Christmas with these MAGAs.

• Fuel price-based shenanigans. The holidays are going to be a clusterfuck for sure, and there is nothing I would like less than to be trapped in the deep south because I wasn't able to get a flight back. Or even just to be stuck in the airport all day because of it.

I've always dreaded the day I might have to cut them off, I'm really conflict-averse and don't want to have to do it, but I feel like I'm about to run up against a wall where I'll have no choice.

My brother is a piece of shit. I got in another fight with him again for saying he was excited to watch the public execution of Nidal Hasan happening. I blew up on him, called him a piece of shit and a coward, and that he’s a sickening person. He tried to take the moral high ground saying he won’t argue with me because he loves me and he doesn’t want our relationship to be damaged but it kinda rings hollow when you’re foaming at the mouth to watch someone die like a sicko. Normally I don’t even engage with him, but that struck a nerve. Justice being turned into a public blood sport has always been gross to me.

This isn’t new of course. I’ve deeply disrespected him for a very long time. He fully dove into Q Anon when it was big back in 2020. Has the WWG1WGA shirts and the MAGA merch and everything. The only reason I put up with him now is for my parents sake, and because of my niece. He has voiced his disappointment and resentment that he had a girl, he wanted a son. I want to be there while she’s growing up because I don’t want my brother to be the only influencing voice.

He believes women shouldn’t vote. Shouldn’t work. Shouldn’t make any choices without their husband, and if they have no husband then they should answer to their father. He believes in the death penalty for abortions, believes no fault divorce should be banned. That sabbath laws should be strictly enforced. He was an Andrew Tate disciple, and he would get very upset and defensive every time I told him to stop watching that filth. Didn’t matter. He has dived head first down the alt right fascist pipeline, saying Muslims and LGBTQ people should be deported / imprisoned / exterminated. He is a reprehensible person.

He brags about his church attendance, yet reposts AI slop of Jesus pushing Muslims off a cliff and watching them die. He brags to me about how he tries to psychologically manipulate people at his job for more money. He’s a sleazy car salseman because of course he is. My wife and I are currently expecting our first son, and when we dropped the news to my family there were no congratulations, no excitement, only anger because he had a girl instead.

He laughs about how he and his coworkers objectify their wives at work, and has belittled me for defending my wife when people make jokes about her at her expense.

I just fear for my niece. The only two options I see is that she either internalizes my brothers horrific mysoginy and sexism and falls in line, or she rebels so hard he disowns her. I just want to be someone she can trust if the latter happens. I hope she rejects his beliefs. That she grows to see what a belligerent, unempathetic, petulant asshole he is.

And that’s if she even gets old enough to do so. She’s only four months old now, but has never been vaccinated, never seen the pediatrician, and isn’t given enough food. They believe pediatricians are vaccine pushers bent on killing children. They want to homeschool, yet are incapable of learning or intelligent thought. They are idealogically captured science deniers that believe in white replacement theory. I genuinely fear for her well being. They are willfully sabotaging her ability to enter the world later in life. They are also anti-college and anti-education because they think education makes people into communists. He cannot define that word when asked.

It doesn’t help my parents defend him to the death, mostly because they also believe the same racist, hateful, bigoted bullshit. My dads favorite content creator is Matt Walsh so… ya know. I have just tried to be a peacekeeper my whole life but it feels like it’s a losing battle and I foresee a situation where I have to threaten them with a cutoff. I never thought it would come to this. Fuck everyone infecting the internet with this alt right propaganda. It’s ruined my relationship with my family. I never expected them to have such comically evil views of the world. It’s been a little shocking recently. I was always left leaning but their behavior of late has pushed me further and further that direction just to avoid how awful the views of the right wing are anymore. It’s truly vile and my brother personifies the worst aspects of them. He is a sniveling cowardly little asshole that wants to impose his will on the weak. There’s no “manliness” strength, or integrity there. He has surrendered his humanity to try and rob others of theirs. It sounds like I’m trying to exaggerate or make him worse than he is, but I wish I was.

I just needed to rant. My brother is a piece of shit and I cannot stand him. I truly hope my niece makes it out ok, but I can’t say I have high hopes. Any advice on how best to go about interacting is appreciated.

I'm from Germany and while the ideas of Qanon are widely shared here, most people won't know what that means.

We don't have maga but a rising far right movement led by the political party AFD. It's not quite on maga levels yet, but it's getting there.

In my circle the racism and political discussions are worse than actual conspiracy stuff.

What's the subs take on this?

Thank you

One of my parents has recently started consuming content consumed by a big nazi audience, and they’re repeating these messages.

They’ve sent me the propaganda videos they consume, hoping I will take on the same views.

It breaks my heart my parent could be this heartless, they don’t even speak the language these propaganda videos are on (I do speak it fluently).

They’re set on protecting the racist, homophobic, and xenophobic narrative in these messages and I just don’t know what else to do.

I’ve tried to teach them to do unbiased research and check their sources, I often am able to prove the videos come from biased sources.

But that’s not enough for them, they still defend what they’re saying and consuming, even when I ask them to think critically about the things they’re watching.

Today they shared a video where the caption claimed that Muslims are attacking people with dogs because dogs are Haram, their video never showed a Muslim attacking any dogs.

Or muslims attacking people for having dogs.

The video didn’t even show Muslims saying anything about dogs, it only showed a Muslim man arguing with a white man who happened to have a dog on a leash.

The video didn’t have any context, the audio was impossible to make out, and at no point did the couple ever point, look, or touch the white man’s dog.

The comment section was full of neo-nazis and ai generated images of Muslims being lynched and deported.

(As far as I’m aware dogs aren’t Haram, they’re just considered dirty and muslims must be clean while praying, so having a dog around is inconvenient).

What can I do to help? I feel like my parent has become evil.

Hi Friends-

I'm visiting family and have a chance to hopefully interrupt an out of control YouTube algorithm. I'm 99% sure my mom hasn't intentionally subscribed/liked anything, but she watches Fox News all day and then ends up using YouTube as a way to "research"/"fact check" different things she hears, and has very little practice/capability for recognizing propaganda/AI/etc.

As of right now, she only uses YouTube on her android phone. Her account is most likely tied to a Gmail account she never uses, but it's also possible she has never actually signed in and is just watching whatever is fed to her (surprise surprise-it's all trash).

I can make changes to her settings on her physical device this week, but I will only be able to log in to her account remotely if I need to do any ongoing maintenance.

I plan to:
1. Make sure account is correctly logged in so I can access when I'm not in the same state
2. Unsubscribe/block/mute as aggressively as I can while here
3. Subscribe to a mix of channels (neutral reporting + interests outside of politics) to keep her interest and curb the need to search
4. Log in remotely on some sort of cadence and clean house as needed

Will this be enough? I know YouTube's algorithm is device dependent so I'm concerned I won't be able to actually make an impact remotely. Looking for any advice/Tips/Tricks you might have to help me keep this channel at least as neutral/banal as possible.

I've been on this sub for the past two years. I just wanted to share a letter my daughter wrote to her dog.

Background story: My husband got sucked into QAnon cult in May 2024. Our daughter was 12 years old then. Our beloved dog passed away in August 2024. (She was old and died naturally.) We visited the grave in October 2024. My daughter wrote a letter to leave at the dog's grave. I took a photo of the letter because it really showed how she was feeling about her dad.

I am not going to try to explain all of our family situations. So, the letter may not explain certain things clearly for readers. I guess the drawing at the end of the letter says everything, though. So, I'm uploading the 2nd page with the drawing. The left side is showing that I and my daughter look troubled. We are watching my husband glued to his computer (on X). He doesn't even notice that we were there. The right side drawing is the world my daughter wanted. Daisy, our late dog, is watching us from the above. We are happy as a family filled with love. Everyone is smiling.

My daughter's wish didn't come true. I tried everything I could do to keep family together until December 2025, but no success. My husband got into almost all of the QAnon related topics: pseudo science, anti-medicine/doctor, misogyny, sovereign citizen, and so on. We got separated in March 2026. He moved out and I am currently living with my daughter.

I haven't shown this letter to my husband. Why? Because he thinks I'm influencing my daughter and I'm programmed (=brainwashed) by main stream media and the education system which is controlled by the cabal. Showing this letter to him would not help.

*****************

Letter to Daisy (late dog) from my daughter:

I started school and 2 days later you left this world. Since we were in xxx (my home country) about May, daddy started to change. On the video call, he was talking about the government A LOT. He was in tears when he was talking about it. Mom and I noticed that he was changing. We were kind of worried about him. It was fine in xxx (the state we got back together). After you passed away, he came back to xxx (the state we live), Then, everything started to change. He started believing things that weren't even real!! He was starting to believe aliens and stuff that were on internet. He would show me and mom all about these giants and cyclops. We were in big trouble. He started being in the computer room almost all day and not even taking care of me like he used to!!

Mom is trying so hard to get the REAL xxx xxx (my husband's name) back. Mom is searching and trying to find information how to.

Dad would forget things like to harvest the carrots or study with me. Instead, he sits down and browses on his computer. I am really sad about this. I want to go back 11 years ago and sleep on your belly. You would always comfort me in this situation. This is a really tough position for me. I need your help to get him back. Please help me, Daisy. With just me, I am helpless. I love you, Daisy. Thank you. Love, xxx (my daughter's name)

Letter image: https://www.reddit.com/user/Fragrant_Coyote4006/comments/1x4q4h0/my_daughters_letter_to_dog/#lightbox

My Q dad is getting older and I'm bracing for a fight over his inheritance - he's the type of guy who will give it away to further his idealized right wing political causes instead of his children because he thinks his children are "selfish" (He never gives us money and we never ask). I'm specifically looking for stories from Canada, but any stories/anecdotes where you fought for your deranged parents' inheritance are welcome.

I (late 30s, M) just ended a friendship of over 20 years. For most of that time it was great: shared interests, similar values, healthy debates over beers.

About two years ago he changed fast. He became religious (new for him) and started trying to convert me. I'm agnostic. At first it was a fun debate, but it turned into pressure, so I asked him to drop the topic. He switched to politics. He used to be center-left, I'm center-right, and over those two years he moved to the far right. Our discussions got heated enough that we both got angry several times.

Six months ago I realized our values no longer lined up, but I didn't want to lose 20 years of friendship. I asked him at least 10 times to keep politics out of our conversations.

Three days ago he brought it up again over text. I engaged, which I probably shouldn't have. He got condescending and said I "don't understand reality." When I said that wasn't how a friend should talk to me. He started insulting my intelligence, said I owed him respect, called me a traitor, and listed three bad things I did when we were 18 or 19 to discredit the fact that I think someone should stick to good values.

I asked how I was a traitor, and why things from 20 years ago suddenly mattered now. He said I was a traitor for not respecting everything he'd done for me, and that I'd gained more from the friendship than he had. For the past 15 years our friendship has mostly been beers and talking about life, so I honestly don't know what he means.

I sent a final message wishing him well, saying I'd cherish the good memories but that we're no longer aligned.

I'm sad but mostly confused. He feels like a different person. I felt like the friendship was already over months ago, but it still sucks.

My dad (age 70) was always my sane, rational parent. My mom has bipolar/schizophrenia and I've never been able to trust her, so he was all I had. In 2019 he and his second wife divorced, and that's when I noticed the change.

Before, he has always been Independent/voted either way depending on who he agreed with regardless of party. Then he began watching FOX news all the time and listening to misogynistic YouTube videos about how women should be back in the kitchen and out of the workforce because their independence is bad for men.

Suddenly, Trump was "a genius" even though Dad used to think he was an idiot just a couple years ago and couldn't believe he'd even been elected. Any faults he had, any promises he didn't keep were fake or the fault of democrats.

Dad was a quiet, bookish person who only talked with people about politics when he was sure he wouldn't offend them. After he started watching FOX he began just loudly proclaiming his beliefs to anyone no matter what and starting arguments in public. I couldn't even have a civil conversation with him if I disagreed about the current administration even a little bit. He would start screaming at me, calling me a democrat (I'm non-partisan), and saying I supported evil people.

He began getting paranoid, thinking his landlady was trying to evict him because she's a liberal, and her sister was working to drive him out too. I knew them both and tried to tell him that they are good people who just didn't want to talk to him about his political beliefs, but he screamed me down about that too.

Then, this spring, he abandoned his apartment and left me to clean everything. Just ran out in the middle of the night to stay with family up north. Then I helped him get a new apartment. That lasted like a month, and then a month ago I got a call from the ER saying there'd been an "altercation" with the police and Dad was going to a mental ward.

He stayed there five weeks because he was threatening to kill his neighbors if released. The hospital ruled out dementia or Alzheimer's with a MOCO(?) test and an MRI. He's been diagnosed as major depressive with psychotic features/paranoia, but when I talked to the psychiatrist she told me that he has followed a specific pattern of many other older folks in recent years: Increasing isolation, watching FOX news constantly, spiraling into paranoia about ANTIFA and liberals and anyone who disagrees with them. She said that FOX news is ruining the elderly, and I agreed with her.

So now both my parents are crazy. One because of bad genes and the other because of self-induced paranoia from listening to right-wing nutjobs.

I'm a documentary filmmaker and my debut film "My Omaha" comes out today on PBS. It's about my experience attempting to reconnect with my Pro-Trump father after he is diagnosed with stage-4 cancer. It's also about how to have conversations about anything political or cultural in today's highly polarized times, as seen through the lens of life in Omaha, Nebraska.

I have received much solace from reading stories in this Subreddit during the making of my film. And I've been looking forward to the day when I could give back to this community.

I think you'll be moved and I'd love to know what you think. The trailer can be found here:

https://youtu.be/w8RV4X59WFg?si=1BnkpeGAQnRq9Fg3

It's free to stream, I'll put a link to the full film in the comments

I hope it helps everyone here feel seen.

My partner has always shared similar beliefs to me, but things changed starting about 7yrs ago. Really slowly. It began with occasional comments that were quite offensive but when I reacted, he would always say he was only joking and ‘obviously’ he didn’t mean it. But it increased over time and now he’s definitely not joking. He’s openly racist, homophobic, misogynistic, paranoid and just generally angry at the world. It is the complete opposite of who he was when we met. We do not live together and now I’m spending less and less time with him due to this.

The part that confuses me is that he was always very intelligent but seems to have lost that. He has decided he doesn’t believe even basic facts anymore; things that aren’t even a debate. He thinks he is enlightened now but he just seems stupid. He is significantly older than me and the personality change combined with the reduction in brainpower makes me wonder if this is some type of early onset dementia. It’s that bad. I find myself explaining things to him that we’ve already discussed several times but he can’t remember. He spends all his free time on YouTube watching right-wing propaganda and click-bait nonsense. He seems to find it difficult to concentrate on anything else and seems bored when we go out places or do anything fun.

Is there any way to tell if he’s just brainwashed? Have other people noticed this drop in intelligence in others who have been sucked into this?

So my aunt and uncle are deep into QAnon and have been into conspiracy thinking for many years but this worsened noticeably around COVID time.

Most of my family members have fallen out with them over it or at the least have stopped contact and made it clear they absolutely disagree with their views and don’t want contact.

My aunt and uncle will occasionally send me Qanon related stuff e.g. a link to a YouTube video or a video that I never watch. I tend to just either not respond or ignore the video and ask them how they are. My rationale is that IF they ever come out of Qanon I would like them to know there is someone in the family that is still on talking terms with them.

However, in the past week they have sent me 2 videos much more extreme than previously - the last one was all about how the holocaust wasn’t real and Hitler was in the right - which is course is insane and really offensive. I’m not sure how to respond - do I just put my foot down now and cut contact, or is my idea of keeping a channel of communication with them open a helpful thing in case they come back to reality in future?

EDIT: for previous things they’ve sent I’ve felt comfortable just ignoring as the content hasn’t been so hateful (e.g. the vaccines are going to make you ill). But this week the content has become much more venomous and antisemitic and I’m wondering if not making that clear to them is almost like not doing enough on my end/complying.

Edit: all I’ve done so far is report the video on IG as hate speech

My dad ever since covid happened has been very right wing, conspiracy, alex jones loving man. Hates vaccines etc etc. I have always struggled with my relationship beforehand with him and don’t actually see him that often but he’s still my dad. I have recently been diagnosed with autism and was wondering what the best approach would be to tell him as I am nervous and worried.

He also thinks autism and stuff is caused by vaccines!! 😐

My Q gave me one of those 2020 trump coins and said don’t tell anyone because I’ll need it very soon for safe passage and people will be killed for there coin . OMG.

I’ve been wondering how the Great Reset folks are doing right now. We’re living on a pretty tight budget and it makes me sad to think about the people who bought into that bs. Has anyone heard anything?

This isn't exactly Qanon related but I see people also come here to share stories about their MAGA and Qanon adjacent family/friends.

With the Cornell 7 currently being heavily covered and discussed by right wingers all over social media, my mom has been exposed to extreme opinions and its really starting to get to me.

I do not want to debate anyone on this but I do believe and it is based on scientific research that anyone under the influence (alcohol, drugs, etc) cannot under any circumstances consent to anything sexual. From that statement, you can gather how I feel about this case. I believe that Jane Doe and many others are victims and how the university, police and others are handling this case is absolutely horrifying and disgusting.

I have been a victim of SA and gender based violence so this is a very triggering topic for me. I have not told my mom most of my experience because I wasn't comfortable and I think its because there was a part of me that knew she would have these opinions and I just couldn't emotionally handle that on top of my experiences.

She is now talking about how the full story is not being told. That Jane Doe's name should be revealed to the public like the rapists. That should drank and consumed substances willingly and she willingly partake in these acts. I have told her that it does not matter if she was naked and begged for these men to have sex with her, she was not ever in a state to consent and everyone knew that. The rapists, the other frat members and everyone that was there that night. She agreed with me but said that the full story is not known and that I shouldn't hold this against her. She has also experienced sexual assault and sexual violence in her life which is what makes me even more disappointed and just so sad and angry. She had previously been so encouraging of me speaking up and teaching me what people can and cannot do to me and my peers and what to do in situations like that. She even took me and my sister to self defense classes to be able to protect ourselves.

I tried putting my sister and I in Jane Doe's position and her only response was that she raised us in a way that we would never be in a situation like that which is not even true. She has seen me drunk (I had a terrible drinking problem a couple years ago) and I was eager and willing to do anything to make people like me and that scared her so I could very well have been in a Jane Doe situation and thankfully I have not but that is not due to my own actions, it is because I have a great group of friends unlike Jane Doe who was surrounded by enablers.

She has had many opinions that I absolutely despise (xenophobia, racism, transphobia, general queerphobia, Islamophobia, anti semitism, etc) but this was really the last straw. I just hate to see her like this because I genuinely have so much love in my heart for her and outside all of this, her and I have an amazing relationship but I honestly do not know how much longer that is going to last if she continues down this road (with Candace Owens and alike, she is becoming an extreme conspiracy theorist). This hurts my soul because she is so excited to have grandkids one day but at this rate, I do not want my kids to meet the person she is becoming.

Anyways, any advice would be really helpful :)

TLDR: My mother, former SA survivor, might eventually become a rape apologist and for me, also a former SA survivor, is the last straw.

My beloved auntie P lost her mind to Q during 2020 and has never been the same since. She's sitting on a sizeable estate and lo and behold my other long lost estranged aunt J popped out of nowhere when Aunt P started getting really wacky.

For some context Aunt J would constantly harass my grandparents for money but when my grandma was alive she wouldn't let anyone send her any because Aunt J historically squandered it all on drugs.

After Grandma passed in 2017 Aunt J moved onto grubbing money from my poor Grandpa who sent her close to $300,000 before his passing in 2021. Now she's moved onto agreeing with everything that my Q anon Auntie P has to say from aliens living above her house to the "scamdemic" to "viruses don't exist" and beyond.

I'm very concerned about my Auntie P because she's getting bled dry for money and isn't taking care of her mental or physical health. She refuses to go to the doctor, can't walk on one foot now but insists when she ascends her body will heal itself. She gives out money to anyone who agrees with her and buys laptops for people to research Q stuff. Again, she's elderly and clearly has lost her mind.

I expressed my concerns and was written off by my auntie P for being a "low vibration energy sucker" AKA I refused to feed her Q illusions and asked some questions.

My cousin, Aunt Js daughter, V, has joined in and has lovingly called me a petulant bitch on a public family chat for speaking up about this. V stands to now gain a huge inheritance through Aunt J who will inherit Aunt Ps estate as she got her to change her will. Great.

I'm disgusted. One person has lost her mind and two more are taking advantage. Auntie P is too far gone but shame on the rest of my family for exploiting it. They hadn't connected with her for 25 years before all this happened.

This isn’t as crazy Q stuff as others but I just want to share and vent about how frustrating it is to have my parents checking on me and my little family just to shit all over a certain group of people and act like it’s totally normal as Fox News loving Christian conservatives. It’s exhausting.

Text went like this:

Dad: hey I heard you guys are in Oregon, how is it going? How did daughter travel?
Husband: weather is great and we love Portland, we are having a lovely time! Daughter did good but melted down yesterday after flying but all better now.
Dad: Glad to hear it went well. Portland is really beautiful. Just crazy/wacko people live there.
Husband: lots of crazy hair!
Dad: I bet. Home of Antifa..... no thanks.
Me: was that necessary? We are having a great trip, I hope you have a John 3:16 day!
Dad: glad you are. Like I said, beautiful place, don’t be so sensitive (face palm emoji)
Me: just be nice!
Dad: ummmmm k!

It would be awesome to have a discussion about a trip us and not have something hateful to say simultaneously. They have a newborn granddaughter they could be doting on via texts, but they choose to talk about Antifa? Just weird. Makes my stomach turn. Maybe I am just a snowflake ❄️

Ps- I’m 9 weeks postpartum and my dad told me not to be so sensitive. Classy

This is his exact statement:

“The New York Times has an article on QAnon. According to them it's dead. The Washington Post has posted a similar article also saying it's dead. The person who started posting those theories (Q) has posted nothing since at least 2021. The few followers left have had nothing new to talk about except old posts.”

This brother of mine “X” acts like this is a dead end and is in denial. He is No Contact (and has been for years) with our Q brother and does not hear him speak ad nauseum on the subject nor receive his texts sharing these conspiracies. So, why is our Q still spouting this stuff? Why has it not ended?

Beyond frustrated with the reality and the gaslighting…

My Q brother decided to go No Contact with me and I have obliged. TBH, I really needed and appreciated the break. I have spent the last 4-6 weeks practicing self-care, visiting family and friends out-of-state, bumped up my social activism, and reminding myself who I am and what I stand for. I stayed silent until just recently. I discovered some information that I knew would be helpful to my brother and texted it to him as though nothing had changed. He remained silent but there was a read receipt for the text. That got me thinking… For months, he has bombarded me with Q-laced conspiracy memes and links. Why not reciprocate but not with “nonsense” but with truthie news items and items filled with optimism and love?! So, I have sent a few more texts that I know will pique his interest, and that are politically timely. But, from groups and things that should resonate with him.

My experiment is in its infancy but I am hopeful that this strategy might build a bridge. What do you all think? Curious…