family chat blowup
Our mostly daily attempts at cheering up my sick brother via the family group chat went off the rails today. I started it by sending a picture of the snow outside, my sister followed up with a picture of the rain -- she's on the other side of the rain/snow line. Innocuous enough. But then my sick brother (J) talked about how he's starting to feel better, the fever finally broke, after several of the most sick days of his life, "Honestly didn't know how I was going to make it."
Then J blamed President Trump.
My other brother (N), who is a Trump supporter, made fun of this, and then said how can you blame one person for a disease? "I don't care who you try to blame. It's ridiculous. Not logical. Not reasonable."
J tried to pull back from the political drift, saying he didn't want to talk about it now, that he was too pissed off. But N wouldn't stop. He continued on a group chat soliloquy for about 20 minutes, even as J apologized, N kept on complaining about how everybody wants to blame blame blame, all the negativity, etc.
Obviously N was taking personally this criticism of his President, because he just wouldn't shut up about it.
N questioned the value of masks, saying people get sick even if they're wearing masks, so don't blame people for not wearing masks.
Although I'd supported J at first in agreeing that Trump's leadership was incompetent, I had to force myself to stop responding to N after one contrary text. Stayed quiet, as N kept sending over a dozen texts in a row to a silent family chat room that includes five siblings and two in-laws.
At first I told T about this group chat as it unfolded, but then T got mad at N for being an idiot, so I stopped telling T about the crap N was spewing.
I think it was one of those instances where somebody gets upset because deep inside they're worried they're wrong. N had to proclaim that "blame and negativity" are the bad guys, because otherwise he'd have to blame his President. So, no blame. Blame is bad. Just be positive, everybody!
We can't argue the facts anymore in the US. It's "how dare you blame anybody, it's nobody's fault, stop being so negative". That we in the US have the highest death toll of any nation must be a coincidence. It has nothing to do with anything.
Then J blamed President Trump.
My other brother (N), who is a Trump supporter, made fun of this, and then said how can you blame one person for a disease? "I don't care who you try to blame. It's ridiculous. Not logical. Not reasonable."
J tried to pull back from the political drift, saying he didn't want to talk about it now, that he was too pissed off. But N wouldn't stop. He continued on a group chat soliloquy for about 20 minutes, even as J apologized, N kept on complaining about how everybody wants to blame blame blame, all the negativity, etc.
Obviously N was taking personally this criticism of his President, because he just wouldn't shut up about it.
N questioned the value of masks, saying people get sick even if they're wearing masks, so don't blame people for not wearing masks.
Although I'd supported J at first in agreeing that Trump's leadership was incompetent, I had to force myself to stop responding to N after one contrary text. Stayed quiet, as N kept sending over a dozen texts in a row to a silent family chat room that includes five siblings and two in-laws.
At first I told T about this group chat as it unfolded, but then T got mad at N for being an idiot, so I stopped telling T about the crap N was spewing.
I think it was one of those instances where somebody gets upset because deep inside they're worried they're wrong. N had to proclaim that "blame and negativity" are the bad guys, because otherwise he'd have to blame his President. So, no blame. Blame is bad. Just be positive, everybody!
We can't argue the facts anymore in the US. It's "how dare you blame anybody, it's nobody's fault, stop being so negative". That we in the US have the highest death toll of any nation must be a coincidence. It has nothing to do with anything.