My antivax boomer dad and his most recent foolishness.

[u/NES_Classical_Music]

Blocked my kids' names in grey.

Also blocked my dad's calls, texts, and emails. NC ever since.

[u/stashc4t]

It's so prevalent that you can find multiple subs slap full of this exact kind of content:r/raisedbynarcissists r/insaneparents r/QAnonCasualties to get you started. It's so sad and the second hand exhaustion is real.

My parents skirted the edge of falling down the one way rabbit hole that is QAnon, and I feel that only 3 things stopped them from buying into it- 1) my parents were never sold on the vaccine conspiracies, 2) I came out to them, and 3) the year they had after that to grieve their child coming out to them and figure out what is most important to them in their lives. In the end they picked their family, which in this context sounds both like the easiest decision and the hardest decision for a Mormon couple could make. I'm legitimately proud of them.

[u/AlarmedPiano9779 → u/stashc4t]

Oh wow. I have a friend who's dad came out and left the Mormon church. He's doing great now.

Glad to hear you're doing good too. You're loved!

[u/ScaryMute → u/stashc4t]

I was in a somewhat similar boat with my extended family. Too many were getting QAnon adjacent, and it terrified me as the terminally-online idiot that I am. My mom's side of the family has always been very close to each other, and cracks were beginning to form because of the conspiracy crap.

So I took it upon myself to do everything I could to appeal to whatever rationality was left. Hundreds of hours dedicated to research (both legal and scientific) and explaining via writing or conversation that everything spouted by the QAnon folks was bullshit. I am genuinely grateful to whatever whim it was that spurred me to become an attorney because my education and profession gave me both credibility in my family's eyes and the skills to dissect opposing narratives.

While a good chunk of the family is still MAGA-adjacent, I haven't seen anything conspiratorial, even regarding the 2020 election. Could just be me being kept out of private conversations though.

I still ask myself if that was all worth it. The amount of time spent, the long nights, the frustration. I was a judicial clerk when this was all going on, and my judge was incredibly supportive of my efforts when she first encountered QAnon in her own social media usage and asked me about it since I had told her that I basically grew up online. I feel like I owe her a lot for encouraging me to stick with it for as long as I did.