Wotcha

[Doubting Thomas]

Thomas, can you go a little more in depth than that?

Well, just looking at my in-laws, and remembering how I was when I was a conservative Christian, they tend to isolate themselves from any contrary viewpoints. Most Christians like to surround themselves with other Christians so they can provide each other communal reinforcement. If you surround yourself with people who think like you do, then it reinforces your idea that you are right. Hearing contrary viewpoints makes them uncomfortable, so to hear a nationally-syndicated radio personality spewing stuff they agree with makes them happy because if someone on the radio is saying what you believe, then it must be true. Same goes for Fox News. My in-laws never watch any other news stations or programs and get probably 100% of all their news from Fox News.

This is probably why they don't include me in getting involved in the get-rich-quick schemes they've been getting involved with, because I told them the one they were in last year was probably a ponzi scheme, and sure enough it was shut down by the government as one of the biggest ponzi schemes ever in this country. But when I told them my suspicions they just blew it off and kept attending their meetings. And after that one was shut down they got involved in another similar scheme which collapsed, and then got into another which looks like it will go nowhere. But they apparently don't want my "negativity" to dampen their enthusiasm so they keep going to meetings but don't discuss their MLM schemes with me.