My parents have gone off the deep end

[Tiberius]

Wait, you live in Boston? Why haven't we met up already?

No clue. Haha. I'm living in Brighton area now. Used to live next to Kenmore. I've been thinking of checking out one of the local atheist MeetUp groups soon.

Well if you ever feel like coming down to the South Shore...

[The Valkyrie]

Just watch out for mirelurks and raiders...

[Alex K]

Jesus H Christ, if you were a new member I'd think you're trolling us.

Do your parents have social contacts, friends outside their cult thing?

Also, Alex Jones sells bs conspiracy equipment, how unsurprising!

[chimp3]

Your parents appear to be dangerous.

[Whateverist]

With family like that I'd go with adoption. Really, my own parents were pretty weird about religion but no conspiracy or murderous intentions - thank whatever. Must be tough for you. In the end I just pretty much drifted away from them. No big confrontation, all my attempts to let some air into their worldview were inaccessible to them. So I stopped trying and eventually found better things to do with my time.

[Ben Davis]

---

It's been surreal watching how my parents are like a microcosm of the shift among conservatives to extremism seen the past five years. They've always been fundies (conservative, young earth creationists) but what they are now is a whole new level. 

My parents for the past 10 years have lived in central California. For the first five years I was living with them still until I moved to Boston. They were members of a tiny fundamentalist church (like 20 people). The year I left, they stopped going to church because they disagreed with some doctrinal minutia and shortly thereafter turned to the internet for church. My mom has become infatuated with the infamous "pastor" Steven Anderson and his little cult in Arizona. You probably know him for being a holocaust denier, an antisemite, and being such a huge homophobe that he goes so far as to advocate for the murder of homosexuals. Here are his greatest hits:





I'm still weirded out by my parents sudden shift to this extreme. Growing up, they loved Jews. My mom was obsessed with Jewish culture and had Jewish friends. And now they're telling me about the conspiracy of "zionists." And they have always been a little homophobic but never growing up could I picture them thinking that gays should be killed.

They've also embraced the wackiest of the fringe right: Alex Jones. My dad particularly gets like 80% of his "news" from him (the rest comes from Bretbart of course). They even buy and ingest all the weird vitamins the guys sells. With every meal, they take like 10 vitamins. When I visited them last Christmas I went into their shower and found this bulky contraption attached to the shower head that had Alex Jones' "InfoWars" logo on it. They told me it filters out fluoride supposedly. 

In the past two years, they've also bought guns for the first time and going to gun ranges is their new favorite thing to do. That in itself wouldn't be bad I guess but I know they're investing in guns now because they believe they're going to use them eventually to fend off evil liberal minions of the anitchrist.

I've always beens somewhat concerned about their mental health, particularly my mom's. Well, during my visit last Christmas my mom scared the shit out of me. She took me to my new room. I walk in and see this giant and very grotesque painting she made hanging in my room. It showed a guy being riddled with bullets. It was very gory showing blood and guts. She told me it was an unbeliever being killed. I was obviously very disturbed and I told her to take it down but she wouldn't and she was very confused why I didn't like her painting. Growing up, all my mom painted was like birds, Bob Ross landscapes, and shit. Not executions. WTF. (the room also featured a poster detailing the timeline for the end of the world, and by my bed were dozens of fringe books, most notably a roughly 800 pages long book about the "jewish conspiracy").

I haven't told them that of my two roommates in Boston, one is Turkish, and the other is a gay Jew.  They'd freak out. 

---

Holy shit, mate. That's mental! Do they know that you're an atheist? If so, the fact that she'd paint the murder of an unbeliever and show it to you is not just strange but deliberately threatening!

Do you have any idea why they're heading down this path?

[Tea Earl Grey Hot]

I can't figure out if they know I'm an atheist or not. They know I'm at least a bit more liberal than I used to be. I critiqued their homophobia once and they see all the anti-Trump items I post on Facebook. They know I don't go to church which has been a point of contention for years. My mom regularly begs me to go to church and sends me links to local fundie groups in my town.

They don't have any real life friends anymore. They won't associate with anyone who isn't a fundie. My mom only talks to people in Anderson's Facebook group.

[brewer]

Time to keep the relationship long distance or in public.

I think you should tell them you're atheist. Let a little reality into their fantasy. Mom should know that, with her belief, she's basically painting a picture of your bullet ridden body. 

Mental health? Do you think it's come to needing a wellness check from the local gvt support services?

[Tea Earl Grey Hot]

I remember one time when one of my sisters briefly dated a black guy, and my mom got very upset over this. Supposedly, my mom claimed she wasn't upset about it because she's racist -- she's not racist according to her -- she was upset because the only reason she believes my sister would date a black man was to make her (my mom) upset because my sister believes our mom is racist. I know that's sounds really confusing. I might make a diagram for those of you who can't understand her thought process. It's really fucked up.

[SteelCurtain]

Damn. My parents are in the deep end as well, but they are still in the shallower part of the deep end.

Sorry TEGH.