General Discussion

I disconnected from a cousin because of her uncontrollable racist rhetoric, and she's an educated woman, which makes it even more incongruous and disappointing. It shows that intelligence and education are no guarantee of wisdom, objectivity, altruism, empathy, sanity, and so on. I warned her a number of times, but she is too entrenched in her bigotry.

Also, I have a nephew whom I love dearly, but his fascist habits of thought are heartbreaking. I just have to avoid him. I did send him a "heal quickly" card after his surgery, but every conversation with him that touches on politics and/or economics devolves to hateful and ignorant talking points, so at family events I walk away when he goes on his various rants. For example, he's in total denial about the class war being waged against him from above, but he fixates on a fictitious immigrant "invasion" being waged against him from below. He is middle class, but he has convinced himself that the top 5% of the population is treated badly, even persecuted. And so on.

And it is definitely no consolation that this pattern is fractally repeated in countless families across our nation.