I suppose it is in part due to my military background. When you move a lot, family becomes the only stable community. So, we tend to work hard on getting along. Even if it is just agreeing to disagree.
Then there is my brother-in-law. Waging a one man war to demonstrate the futility of speaking truth to crazy.
He's a nice enough guy. Back in college, he may have been a member of the College Republicans, but he agreed with me that the Young Conservatives of Texas were a bunch of nutters. Sadly over the years, he has devolved into pure talking point regurgitation.
His latest hobby horse is that Obama is a fascist. I'm learning a lot fascism as an economic philosophy and about TARP and the corporate histories of Citibank and GM. I suppose I can thank him for that. But, other than some reactionary hyperbole from around March of last year, I just can't find any evidence. There is no "there" there.
I am halfway through writing an exhaustively researched response to his latest diatribe, and am wondering if I am wasting my time. I don't think he is a troll, but I could easily see myself having to diligently debunk every bit of current teabag orthodoxy. I'd rather stay away from that rabbit hole.
I want to let it lie.... BUT WHY FASCISM? Of all the things to complain about, these teabaggers pick the oddest things. At least when I complained about bush the lesser, I was protesting actual policies. Not some dreamed up boogie-man.
How can I try to talk sense into someone who makes up their facts out of whole cloth?