Message from American to Europeans

[goddamnit]

I live in America and today I am feeling sorry for myself, jealous of people born in many parts of Europe. Yes, it could be worse; I could have been born in a third world country where my neighbors gets a limb hacked off for criticizing the government, but I still fantasize about the European Dream.

I was born into a family of mostly evangelical (Protestant) Christians. How can I connect with my family? Literally, the majority of anything my dad says is related to an Alex Jones conspiracy. I can bring up a regular idea that is only indirectly related to politics, like healthy eating, and he will turn the conversation into fanatical conspiracy talk about how food is being poisoned. Before I know, the conspiracy is somehow being tied into secret cults of politicians. I love my dad. He sacrifices so much, but I can not empathize with him. He does not listen. He has a preconception based on internet propaganda and nothing changes his mind.

My mom watches Jack Van Impe, Joyce Myers, and re-runs of Billy Graham all the time. She is obsessed. When she talks on the phone to my sister, the two of them exchange ideas about the signs of the upcoming rapture. I try to watch Dr.Phil with her as a way to relate. I try to relate in other ways, but inevitably, all of her views ultimately boil down to religion and there is NO chance of her ever doubting her religion. She swears she felt the presence of God.

I am not even talking to my brother right now. It is complicated, but I will provide one example of the stupid stuff he says related to religion. Any time something goes wrong in my life, he goes, "Aha! See??? How's your belief system working out for you now?" I love him and stick up for him when it comes down to it, but he combines Biblical mythology with conspiracy theories to form wildly absurd and stupid hybrids of nonsense. It got to the point that he was sending dozens of texts about religious conspiracies to me on a weekly basis.

Outside of my immediate family, and in my extended family, they are all Christians. I am the only naturalist in my whole family. I am not just an atheist. I do not believe in psychics, Illuminati conspiracies, ghosts, etc.

I try to persuade my family that this country has the highest obesity rate in the world and point out the 90% of products laying around the kitchen that are white bread, cake, cookies, doughnuts, candy, etc. Nobody says, "Wow. I want to look into that. It might turn out to save me from health problems." Instead, I am met with resistance for even mentioning a resource to look up statistics.

Outside of family, there are passionate Obama supporters and Romney supporters who practically campaign for them and have absolutely no clue what is going with civil liberties, like indefinite detention or the PATRIOT Act. I am not trying to say that if someone disagrees with me politically, they are like a theist because of that. Instead, I am saying that they watch corporate US news from MSNBC, Fox, NBC, ABC, etc. and never heard of popular controversies on the internet. But you know what? What am I saying? I don't care. Politics puts people to sleep. I can live without it.

I am curious to know what Europeans think about this. American atheists, I know many of you feel my pain, and your feedback is appreciated, but I am really hoping for some Europeans to respond.