Anon
This is a complicated story but I'll try to boil it down. I had a difficult childhood. My mother was depressed, extremely volatile, and suffering from IBS. My dad was addicted to television. She would rant and rave, then go hide in her room. And my father would go hide in the TV -- for at least 4 hours every night.
Anyway, I also was not particularly well adjusted as a child, but my sister really was. We were friends, but not always super tight. I recall around 14 years ago, she had met this guy from the Peace Corps, but broke up because he didn't want to leave his home country. She came back to our hometown and fell in love with this ultra-right-wing guy.
Back then, I thought he was nice enough, but she changed overnight. She became 'saved' and a mirror image of him. At some point, my parents moved to Arkansas to help them with their kids. Over the years I became progressively worried as they were ALL becoming radicalized before my very eyes.
They all regularly consumed Fox News, and everyone joined my brother-in-law’s young-earth fundamentalist church. I'll never forget when my sister told me they didn't believe in evolution. I was utterly horrified. Boy did the horror turn out to be prescient.
I went back to graduate school, thinking maybe an MS in Biology would get me a nice job with the DOI somewhere like the BLM or the Forest Service. Though difficult I powered through grad school. I got a good job at the Jornada Experimental Range, got married and had a baby on the way.
Then, to everyone's surprise, Donald Trump was elected. I couldn't believe that my family, and my sister, a one-time avid environmentalist, were now cheering next to the Nazis. I was horrified that I would lose my job. It started with the email that we were basically banned from studying the weather. The GOP cut the DOI budget by 20%, forked it over to the DoD, and with a new house and a one-month old, lost my job.
To make a long story short, there are a few things I've come to realize. Many baby boomer men went to Fox News because they expected their wives to behave as their stay-at-home mothers did. Except that their wives were working. So, the wives lost their shit regarding housework and family, and the men went to right-wing misogynist radio, which of course led straight to Fox News.
I still battle a rage that simmers endlessly. You can't even trust that your family won't grow up to prioritize a bullshit TV station over you and your family.
My wife is now doing well in her career, and I went back to medical school. I'm starting year 2, and things are going well. Except that I'm stuck in a rage hole. If I find out anyone is a Trumper or GOP, I pretty much shut down, and walk away. But I now see that they are brainwashed--utterly addicted to the rage-porn and the tribalism of Fox News.
I have a strained relationship with my mother, but the others remain quite on the periphery. She is deeply saddened that her two kids' families are splintered so deeply, and frankly, so am I. I'm addicted to the rage too. I've since blocked news sights and left-wing media on my computer. I'm thinking I'll ask them to do similar, knowing full well that they won't.
One day I'll get therapy, when I have money and time. For now, I'll just limp ahead with my pseudo-PTSD and hope that the business of medical school and family will keep me too occupied to think about it much. But I still ruminate, still can't believe it. Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes pretty much ruined my life.
I've picked up and moved on, but I can't find the strength to be optimistic very often. I'm very grateful that I found your movie, and grateful to be slowly warming up to the fact that they aren't bad, just utterly brainwashed.