My parents are lifelong Democrats - they are pretty smart people and my pops' knowledge is extensive - he can tell you who the secretary of labor under Nixon was off the top of his head, sort of thing.

And they are good people and aren't wack-a-doo, however they are far too trusting of the media.

I finally lost it watching the PBS Newhour with them tonight, which used to be a decent program. It used to do straight reporting, but has now fallen into the black hole of biased shit journalism like everything else. They haven't done a single report on election irregularities, except to check in every once in a while and talk about how 'questioning the validity of the election is a threat to our Democracy' and all this cryptofascist stuff.

Which is what they did tonight on a political panel. After saying the audit confirmed Biden won, the "political experts" on the panel (one of whom now sidelines on CNN and it shows) spun all this bullshit about how it was a threat to our democracy etc and the head anchor closed the segment by saying how the "misinformation" was frightening, after they just spun it. The Newshour has been this way for years now, but I still cannot believe how willfully dishonest they are being - I used to admire the reporters they had on and now they make me sick!

I ALWAYS just hold my tongue b/c I think for the most part just not talking about politics is maybe the best way to have peace, but I lost it tonight.

This was after an episode where my ma, who just avoids every controversial topic across the board, just refused to engage in any conversation about the repressive and draconian vax measures in our area. I am so tired of just keeping it all to myself.

It is so unbelievably hard to be in a reality that you know others see as fake or crazy. My pops has adopted the language of the pundits he sees on MSNBC - he is a smart guy but has become addicted to Maddow, etc, after not having cable for 70 years. In discussing the audit he'll say shit like 'well then why did this REPUBLICAN (as if that's meaningful) say the election was fine or 'but _some bozo contributed $ to the audit effort' - he won't engage with the actual data, he just attacks it sideways by bringing up peripheral facts about it. He wouldn't watch the hearings back earlier this year because 'anything led by Giuliani can't be serious.' He thinks he is having a fun spar but I am talking about something that is the biggest political story of our lifetime and no one even knows it's happening. Then he'll get pissy when I talk over his points because they are such stupid points and I know where he's going the second he opens his mouth.

It is just so creepy and unnerving to exist in a context where everyone is being played like a fiddle, and yet they think you are the one who is taken. I have to throw my hands up, I don't know!