Caroline, South Carolina
Some of my earliest memories are of driving around rural South Carolina with my dad. Daycare cost money we did not have, so he would pick me up from kindergarten every afternoon, grab some snacks, and turn on the radio to Rush Limbaugh.
From that time on, I cannot remember an afternoon in the car without conservative talk radio. Life was school and hanging out with my dad until my my mom was ready to be picked up from work. We were poor, but my parents emphasized education and worked hard to provide educational opportunities. They wanted me to escape the cycle of poverty.
I took their emphasize on education to heart and worked hard in school. I listened when they preached values of community, hard work, equality, and caring for your community... and then I started to notice the contradictions in my teens.
The talking points put out by Hannity and Limbaugh were blasted at me daily. I noticed that they went against the values I was raised with. They were racist, classist, anti-science, anti-edication, and cruel. My parents had always emphasized critical thinking, so I started researching the taking points. I found lies and deliberate deceptions.
I had waken up and seen the lies. I went to college, went to graduate school, and became an epidemiologist. My parents were....supportive...but public health went against their talk-radio values. They slipped further into the right-wing media machine and began believing every insane thing they read on Facebook.
They believe Sandy Hook is fake, Qanon is truth, Covid19 is a Chinese Hoax, and that everything Trump says is profound.
The pandemic has put us at odds. Im an Epidemiologist... I have been on the Covid-19 response for well over a year. I have seen the devastation the pandemic has caused. I have cried with patients and families over the phone as they have faces horrible deaths.I have a much better understanding of infectious disease than their beloved radio hosts and Facebook posts.
Who do they believe? Fox, Hannity, Limbaugh, Qanon, and every other radical.
I went no-contact for 6 months. The stress of their hateful ignorance and surging cases was causing me to have mental breakdown. I had a duty to crawl out of that for my community.
After months of no-contact, they started to come around. I convinced them to get vaccinated. They still think it is a hoax and spout right wing rhetoric. Our relationship may irreparably damaged... my spouse is Asian, I have a Trans sibling that I fairly support, I work in a field they don't support. I don't know why I hold out hope they will change.