Me: [Describes my assignment this term. It concerns a current supreme court case.]
Him: Wow, they’re teaching you real ideas! That’s something. That’s how you make something of yourself in your field. What do you think about that?
Me: Uh? Regarding my brief or something else? My brief was just assigned. I haven’t started researching it yet.
Him: No, that they’re teaching you real ideas. Do you have an opinion on that?
Me: um, no? I like the assignment. It seems interesting.
Him: That’s not good. You should have a take on that. If people don’t believe in what you’re saying, you won’t be worth anything. You need to have a take and be able to argue for it, because that’s what your field is paid to do.
Me: Well, no, the law applies to you whether you believe in it or not-
Him: No, it doesn’t! Those systems were set up by globalists and Trump destroyed all of that. It’s all worthless now. You need to convince people to believe in good ideas that make society better.
likely watches fox 24/7 and listens to radio owned by conservatives. theres loads of stories like this on reddit the past few years.
he’s worse. he likes Russian propaganda blogs and OAN. he used to have gay friends.
Did your dad experience any traumatic event before really falling into the deep end with that stuff? I’m curious if Andrew Callaghan’s radicalization theory as to why this happens holds up in this instance.
I don’t think so, but he has never been willing to explain into why he got into the stuff with me. I tried asking years ago and he just gave some dumb “both sides are propaganda, I read everything” answer.