Let’s Lie for a Living! What could go wrong?

I have an ex-brother-in-law who has recently had both legs amputated and is a shut-in/invalid person. so, he’s on the phone to somebody at least 12 hours a day. And, I’m one of the somebodies.

Anyway, he says the most insane things as a part of his conversation, and I’ve ask him numerous times where he gets his news. He swears he doesn’t watch/read/listen to news at all. However, he just happened to know words like “adrenochrome” and stuff like that, so he’s clearly getting his news from some crazy place.

A couple months ago, he wondered about the USA burning part of Hawaii to show China to leave us alone. Or something to that effect. Completely insane. Yet, those people(My god what a horrible phrase, considering its historic use) will actually carry on a conversation with each other, accepting and discussing completely insane and impossible ideas. What the actual fuck is going on??People that went to school, some to college.

I rarely talked to any of my relatives, but I always knew I came from a pretty bright family. One of my cousins established contact with me and we had several pretty good talks. The last time he called, after a few minutes, he said “It just makes me sick the things Hunter Biden has done” So, I asked “what things” and of course he wasn’t exactly sure, but foolishly I pressed on. I said, Bob(not his real name) let me get this straight, you’re 79 years old, have had numerous heart surgeries, and you’re all tore up about somebody you don’t know who does not hold a public office, is that correct?” He replied something about “you know Joe Biden was involved” So I replied “Based on that, everything I’ve done, my father was involved in, right?” Well, no but…” and it just went on a couple more minutes with him basically sputtering “No, but…” at every question I asked until he said “I gotta go” and hung up. One of my other cousins who had been calling me regularly never called again. Bob looked me up on facebook a few years ago, and although I rarely use facebook, I did post about getting crushed by a car, and somehow managing to pump enough adrenaline to get out from under it. Absolute silence from Bob, who had previously asked questions about the pictures of my garden and orchard. Not a word.

I’ve seen him make many posts on his own FB page, so clearly he’s still functioning. Sadly, the reason I found SAV originally was I had a cousin, early 50’s who was a rabid antivaxxer and postmaster at a small town post office, who lied about getting vaxxed(she hadn’t) and even had one of those fake vaccination cards. Her last words, right before they finished hooking her up to the ventilator, was to ask God to forgive her for lying about the vax. Never mind she exposed the whole little town to covid.

So, sorry to accept, but my family has devolved from unusually bright to unusually stupid. and they get their news from crazy news sources. Thay may be something that made them stupid, or not, but it definitely shaped their conversational topics.

Incidentally, the cousin I was talking to on the phone worked his way from a construction worker to an officer in one of the top banks in America. I mean really at the top. So, he’s not some drooling idiot. I just don’t understand what the hell is happening to make reasonable people this foolish. how can a functioning person believe such nonsense? How can a rational person thing trump is someone to adore? WTF has happened??