I am angry at the MAGA movement for being so effective in marketing hate to the exact demographic my dad represented. I am also angry at my dad for falling for it. jesspiper.substack.com/p/he-made-me...
Replies
Sooner or later they'll figure it out. I feel your pain
jul 27, 2025, 5:07 pm • 1 0 • view
They've figured it out but can't admit they're wrong, that's the tragedy. They do know better.
jul 27, 2025, 5:12 pm • 3 1 • view
Sooner or later the reality will catch up to them
jul 27, 2025, 6:01 pm • 0 0 • view
Same.
jul 28, 2025, 3:16 am • 0 0 • view
This is a great piece. Very tragic. I’ve struggled similarly but with siblings.
jul 28, 2025, 12:26 am • 0 0 • view
So many sad stories like this.
jul 28, 2025, 3:39 am • 2 0 • view
My mom died 4 weeks ago. We hadn’t communicated since election night. She was all in MAGA. Plandemic, it’s just locker room talk, transphobe, drag hate, Fox News 24/7…. All of it. Angry an is under statement.
jul 27, 2025, 6:11 pm • 18 0 • view
I’m so sorry 😕
jul 27, 2025, 7:41 pm • 1 0 • view
My Dad too. I don’t even know him anymore.
jul 28, 2025, 4:05 am • 6 0 • view
😔
jul 29, 2025, 3:39 am • 5 0 • view
My family the same 😢😢
jul 27, 2025, 5:35 pm • 0 0 • view
My grandfather thought Nixon was the best president ever. My Dad was raised a staunch Republican. But he hated Trump. And that was the end of his support. My Dad passed away in 2017. He thought Trump was an idiot.
jul 28, 2025, 2:17 pm • 2 0 • view
This came out a decade ago and I think about it every damn day: www.thebrainwashingofmydad.com My dad was a slow descent, but by the time Lou Dobbs gave way to Glenn Beck, he was a goner. Now I have to tune out the current lineup, who he admits are idiots but won't change the channel.
jul 27, 2025, 6:39 pm • 8 0 • view
Sad to see my Mom falling for it as well. We don’t talk politics, but she can’t help herself sometimes and it’s straight up Fox News talking points. She is a very intelligent woman. I can’t figure it out.
jul 27, 2025, 10:21 pm • 4 0 • view
That is some huge heartache there, Jess. Sending 💪💪💪💪💪.
jul 27, 2025, 10:57 pm • 0 0 • view
Me too. Thanks for sharing your story.
jul 27, 2025, 10:11 pm • 0 0 • view
We were just listening to one of Baltimore’s new “mini Fox” radio stations that carry the baseball. It occurred to me that this is how they work - present accurate traffic and weather, and carry sports; get you used to tuning in and thinking they’re accurate; then slipping the hate and fear in.
jul 27, 2025, 7:32 pm • 2 0 • view
Jess, your thoughtful eloquence always stops me in my tracks. Yours is a very important voice for our times. Keep doing what you do...it is more important than you know.
jul 27, 2025, 6:16 pm • 22 1 • view
Bigots are bigots. Hate wasn't marketed to your father. Permission to be overt about his hate is what Republicans marketed.
jul 27, 2025, 5:06 pm • 5 0 • view
I feel the same way about my brother. How could the person who taught me to question authority & reject doctrinaire thinking become a science-denying, right-wing Evangelical? It's broken my heart
jul 28, 2025, 3:26 am • 16 0 • view
Boy do I feel this!
aug 17, 2025, 9:10 pm • 0 0 • view
So many of us share your pain and anger
jul 27, 2025, 7:44 pm • 0 0 • view
Same story for a lot of my friends
jul 28, 2025, 1:40 pm • 1 0 • view
Ditto- but mine died so he’s been relatively quiet and no longer a supporter! You turned out great Missy‼️Thanks god for our Mamas! 👏🏻👏🏻✌️😁
jul 27, 2025, 6:02 pm • 1 0 • view
I think we're supposed to grow to be better people than our parents were. I think, morally, we want to be good, but also because that's how it's supposed to work when you live in a society where things are improving for its people. You want things to be better than what they are presently.
jul 28, 2025, 9:47 am • 0 0 • view
At times it's hard to understand why my parents are so in love with this man and his way of thinking. But when I really stop to ponder it, I realize they've always had thinking-flaws that are easy to expose. Use it as an example of who not to be. You are the template, now.
jul 28, 2025, 9:52 am • 1 0 • view
I've got a lot of family giving up everything to support a dying felon con man. It hurts. More than anything, I hate the propaganda machine. It is really strong and diverse. My family is drowning in misinformation.
jul 28, 2025, 5:32 am • 1 0 • view
I lost both of my parents and one brother to the cult. They're grown adults. They fell because they wanted to.
jul 27, 2025, 7:56 pm • 24 0 • view
❤️💔
jul 28, 2025, 5:15 am • 0 0 • view
Jesus, Jess, this made me cry. I know some men like your dad, but unlike him, I don't think they ever read much. Some are MAGA, a few are ex-MAGA, and the rest are just wandering around wondering what the hell is going on has nothing to do with what Trump promised, and they are confused. And angry
jul 28, 2025, 5:03 am • 2 0 • view
I’ve watched my Dad change too. He’s 89. I live with & take care of him. Seeing Fox News poison his thinking & his compassion, replacing it with illogic & resentment… He’s still here. But I miss him. 💔
jul 28, 2025, 12:59 am • 37 0 • view
Block the fox on the TV
jul 28, 2025, 3:34 am • 10 0 • view
It’s his home. Believe me, I’ve thought about it, but can’t do it. My conscience won’t let me. If would feel like lying or tricking him.
jul 28, 2025, 4:23 am • 5 0 • view
I’m very sorry that you’re going through this. I wanted to point out that it’s your home as well. An honest question - would you allow some toxic substance in water pipes in your home keep poisoning your dad and you because it’s “his home” or would you take action for the good of both of you?
jul 28, 2025, 6:28 am • 13 1 • view
Please believe me when I say I’ve thought about this SO many times. My conscience just won’t let me. It feels like doing to my Dad what Trump/book banners want to do to us: control us, decide for us what info we can access, take away our freedoms & choices, trick us.
jul 28, 2025, 2:49 pm • 1 0 • view
I do and I understand. I’m sorry. Do take care of yourself. I wish you well.
jul 28, 2025, 5:32 pm • 2 0 • view
Thanks. 💗 It’s difficult. For so many of us.
jul 28, 2025, 5:48 pm • 1 0 • view
Excellent analogy! Our elder's brains are being poisoned by Faux News. Block all of it - Fox, Newsmax, and OAN. They're demonic.
jul 28, 2025, 10:52 am • 3 0 • view
I was just thinking how valuable it would be to have a truth analysis pop up during each Fox show. One that would pause the show with every lie and explain WHY it is a lie. A magical un-brainwashing app. Pretty sure that recognizing the manipulation is the first step in leaving a cult.
jul 28, 2025, 1:45 pm • 1 0 • view
You are so different then I am, his house of not, it’s a matter of truth vs lies, fiction vs reality at this point. I’m sorry you’re going through this though.
jul 28, 2025, 3:06 pm • 3 0 • view
That's so sad. ❤️
jul 27, 2025, 5:01 pm • 0 0 • view
Same with my mom. She raised me to be like this then MAGA sunk its teeth in her.
jul 28, 2025, 1:35 am • 25 0 • view
My parents died in 2007 and 2015. I was never faced with the MAGA indoctrination of my parents.
jul 27, 2025, 10:27 pm • 0 0 • view
Sad and well stated too.
jul 27, 2025, 11:44 pm • 1 0 • view
Ugh. Hate is never the answer. Righteous indignation on the other hand…
jul 28, 2025, 3:48 am • 0 0 • view
Nothing personally against your dad bc some of my family members are MAGAs as well. Problem is they’re the dumbest most uneducated people in our country bc they believe nothing but lies when there’s proof every where they are lies. Foxnews is singlehandedly destroying America
jul 27, 2025, 9:27 pm • 1 0 • view
I used to think MAGA was mostly the uneducated who only listened to Fox News. Then I started hearing absolutely bizarre statements from very well educated people - doctors, attorneys, accountants, academics - who just blindly accepted & repeated MAGA lies. I don't know how to counter stupidity.
jul 29, 2025, 5:58 pm • 1 0 • view
Yes, that’s what has amazed me.
jul 30, 2025, 1:20 pm • 0 0 • view
I am so sorry that a fellow Australian brought all this horror on all of you.😶
jul 28, 2025, 3:48 am • 1 0 • view
Trump made it ok to feel good about the worst of human sins. And they like it.
jul 27, 2025, 9:19 pm • 2 0 • view
Sorry for your loss. That's a lot to carry around, but you seem to know exactly who you were dealing with and have balance between you disappointment and your love. That's more than most of us could do.
jul 27, 2025, 10:49 pm • 0 0 • view
😢
jul 27, 2025, 8:34 pm • 0 0 • view
There is no "up side" to MAGA. It is all bad
jul 28, 2025, 1:34 pm • 10 0 • view
Damn, you can write. I'm so sorry for how you lost the dad you loved so much. But I admire the way you are reaching out to others who are going through the same thing. Your loving piece gives them a starting place if they want to try to break through. The dad of your childhood would be proud.
jul 28, 2025, 12:31 pm • 6 0 • view
maga is really rough on families that are not all down with everything maga...
jul 27, 2025, 6:46 pm • 6 0 • view
Wow Jess what a great piece - it’s so hard watching people who are good and wouldn’t hurt anyone fall into the MAGA trap and completely change who they’ve been their whole lives. My brother is one. It’s so sad that one man has been able to do so much damage to the world. How did people get so conned
jul 28, 2025, 5:14 am • 4 0 • view
They have poisoned a lot of minds in america . Sadly.
jul 27, 2025, 7:46 pm • 0 0 • view
Exactly!
jul 27, 2025, 5:11 pm • 0 0 • view
Lovely, sad piece. Except for the MAGA, your dad and I had a lot in common. Thank you.
jul 27, 2025, 5:16 pm • 0 0 • view
My mother fell for yet another abusive personality -in Trump I'll tell you what love is = when I treat you like shit= It's love When I lie= It's love When I tell you my abuse is your fault= It's love When I control your life= It's love When I tell you what you need and what you don't= It's love
jul 28, 2025, 1:16 pm • 3 0 • view
"marketing" is just the polite word for propaganda, tho it is true that marketing is a form of propaganda. after all, goebbels got most of his ideas from US advertising. so sorry about your dad. have you seen this doc from a decade ago? the brainwashing of my dad: www.youtube.com/watch?v=FS52...
jul 28, 2025, 5:30 am • 1 0 • view
and best of luck with your campaign, jess! rootin' for ya from TN!! 👍
jul 28, 2025, 5:30 am • 1 0 • view
Most of my family fell for it as well. And I’ll never speak to or forgive them for it. Ever.
jul 27, 2025, 5:09 pm • 1 0 • view
Jess, I truly believe you could not have changed your dad back. I'm sorry it happened. My dad's also the reason I don't take shit from anyone and it's because he was first to give me shit. I decided he would be the last. (He too was a MAGA who died before he could vote for Trump more than once.)
jul 27, 2025, 5:47 pm • 5 0 • view
Thanks for sharing, Jess!I feel this personally as a blue dot in a red Floridian family.This takeover by hatred & bigotry & the destruction it has wrought in the sacred spaces of our lives — our families, our morals, our ethics — is one of the things we may never be able to fully restore.
jul 28, 2025, 2:24 am • 14 2 • view
This is so well said. It is hard to explain to outsiders what this has done to our families. “destruction it has wrought in the sacred spaces of our lives” is the best description of it I think I’ve seen. - a lonely anti-Trump voice in a MAGA South Ga family
jul 28, 2025, 3:43 am • 16 2 • view
And church. I’m 74, been in church my entire life but have been out several years now. Husband passed away 7/6 & there was no church family to support us during his cancer journey & death. I want to try someplace again but it’s so hard. I don’t want to be a hypocrite in church so I stay away.
jul 30, 2025, 1:15 pm • 2 0 • view
I’m so sorry for your loss, Carollyn and that you haven’t had any support from your church family. Can you say something to the church leader about it? I hope you haven’t had at least some family support 😢
jul 30, 2025, 2:13 pm • 2 0 • view
No I don’t have a church now. We moved back to our home area and was going to my wee little childhood church which closed in 2023. I did see some of them & someone sang at the funeral for me. But since that time we haven’t found a new church.
jul 30, 2025, 10:19 pm • 1 0 • view
Yes, my father as well. I have to be very careful what I talk to him about.
jul 27, 2025, 5:13 pm • 1 0 • view
It's very sad that the technology that has opened the world has closed the minds of so many people, because people intentionally use it for dishonorable purposes.
jul 28, 2025, 1:24 am • 11 0 • view
OUCH. Seriously, sorry.
jul 27, 2025, 8:46 pm • 1 0 • view
As a side note, I've lost both of my brothers because of MAGA though.
jul 27, 2025, 5:12 pm • 4 0 • view
My God Jess, this is me and my mom. Except that she is still alive, voted for him 3 times and now that she is beginning dementia, I have finally been able to break the hold of the cult on her and made her see what he and they are doing. No Fox for her anymore, that helps.
jul 27, 2025, 5:11 pm • 10 0 • view
Your father was a victim of a con, as are millions of others. The last thing a con victim wants to do is admit he was conned, which is why, I think, you see so many of them doubling down. It's a sickness, and a cult. I see this all the time. If you call them out, it's f**k you for calling it out.
jul 27, 2025, 5:31 pm • 28 1 • view
People who have been able to leave cults have tried to get the message across that they were victims. But, in this case, I have a hard time seeing folk who want 65 million people in this country to be kidnapped, trafficked, tortured, and then eaten by alligators.
jul 27, 2025, 6:26 pm • 14 0 • view
To finish my sentence above "...as victims."
jul 27, 2025, 7:01 pm • 4 0 • view
I'm certainly not making an excuse not to be angry with felon-rapist loving cultists. I'm simply pointing out that there's no talking facts or common sense with them, as it is with any cultist.
jul 27, 2025, 7:09 pm • 2 0 • view
I didn't take your comment that way at all (re excuses). They are victims, but I was expressing that I have a hard time seeing them (MAGA) as victims.
jul 27, 2025, 7:13 pm • 3 0 • view
Luckily there is a gentleman on here who did escape and has a profile called Leaving Maga who can empathize and maybe reach them.. It is interesting to listen to him on how he got caught up in it and why.. Why those who have left other cults can relate to others who did as well…🤷♀️
jul 28, 2025, 3:38 am • 5 0 • view
It’s really fear that is masquerading as hate They have never been to the border but it frightens them They don’t go to cities but they fear them
jul 28, 2025, 12:19 am • 5 0 • view
If my grandpa hadn't died in 1980 I think he would've tread a similar path. In a way I'm happy I never met him so that I can imagine him freely without the baggage of having to deal with the real person. But I would have loved to meet him.
jul 30, 2025, 12:03 am • 0 0 • view
That hit close to home. My father became a raving MAGA despite having an ed specialist daughter & a park ranger SIL. He was proud of our work & us as individuals even as he railed against & mocked others just like us in the abstract. I cut him off after Jan 6, but saw him before cancer took him.
jul 27, 2025, 6:22 pm • 19 2 • view
😔
jul 28, 2025, 3:54 am • 3 0 • view
💔
jul 27, 2025, 9:04 pm • 0 0 • view
I was just saying to my wife: When Fox News pivots and start blaming Biden instead, I know goddamn well that my parents didn't fall for that. Because they'd say: 'this isn't about what your brother did! This is about what you did!' So why do they fall for that now??
jul 27, 2025, 4:59 pm • 15 0 • view
Thanks for telling your story. I'll remember it when I feel hatred for MAGA. Instead, I'll choose anger. Anger can be good, but hate never is.
jul 27, 2025, 7:12 pm • 0 0 • view
I am sorry that you had to experience that, though that experience is, most unfortunately, quite common.
jul 27, 2025, 8:38 pm • 0 0 • view
Well done Jess! Great article!
jul 27, 2025, 6:13 pm • 0 0 • view
Thank you for sharing this and he sounds like he loved you so much!!! Fox News should be banned across the USA.
jul 27, 2025, 7:20 pm • 0 0 • view
📌
jul 28, 2025, 3:37 am • 2 0 • view
Hey Jess - you made me cry writing about your daddy. My own daddy (and to us Southerners it is always “daddy”) was a lot different from yours - no rebel but a man who believed in following the rules and married the girl he met as a teen (56 years married so far) yet MAGA took them both. He is in
jul 28, 2025, 3:34 am • 44 3 • view
the twilight of his years and MAGA has taken over his mind and has driven a wedge between us that never existed before. And as much as I try to love and not to hate anyone the truth is I do hate Donald Trump for that…. There are a lot of families who have been wounded by this era. 😔
jul 28, 2025, 3:34 am • 65 4 • view
Yup. Good honest family memebers I looked up to my whole life. Now my kids dont want to visit. Phone calls are few and far between and a lot shorter. No more good faith discussions amd debates. Its sad and it hurts.
jul 28, 2025, 3:39 am • 23 1 • view
Yes it sure does.
jul 28, 2025, 4:06 am • 5 0 • view
There is some relief for me in knowing I'm not the only one... 😢
jul 28, 2025, 3:30 pm • 1 0 • view
I'm so sorry that you lost your kids to MAGA. I can't even begin to tell you how thankful I am for you and for your courage and character.
jul 28, 2025, 4:01 am • 3 0 • view
No kids are great. They dont want to visit the family members that went maga. It upsets them too as they were basically their grandparents since i lost my mom before they were born and my dad passed 7 years ago.
jul 28, 2025, 4:12 am • 3 0 • view
I am the same. And it has broken my heart.
jul 28, 2025, 3:39 am • 3 0 • view
Completely. I have to just try not to think about it most of the time. If I did I might lose my mind. Our family was always so close. And now? It’s different. It will always be different.
jul 28, 2025, 4:11 am • 11 2 • view
This is why I despise Trump with a passion of a thousand burning suns.
jul 28, 2025, 9:19 pm • 2 0 • view
I'm so sorry Atticus. It's indeed heartbreaking how many of us have lost loved ones to this hateful ideology.
jul 28, 2025, 6:29 am • 3 0 • view
I would say the same, but looking back on my childhood, I can see that my father was always a racist and the maga agenda just suits his personal interests. As little kids, we want to believe the best about our parents. Our fathers let us down.
jul 27, 2025, 5:11 pm • 16 0 • view
Yes. This. All of it. Also, my grandparents had that exact couch he’s sitting on. I can feel the upholstery even know, thinking of it.
jul 28, 2025, 1:21 am • 1 0 • view
I’m sorry for your loss. Excellent article as so many families are broken because of this.
jul 27, 2025, 10:29 pm • 0 0 • view
Incredible story.
jul 28, 2025, 3:47 am • 1 0 • view
I’m so sorry. It’s so hard to lose someone you love to MAGA.
jul 28, 2025, 3:42 am • 0 0 • view
My mom too. I feel like her decent started with the hate spewing Rush Limbaugh. She lives in a care home now. There is now way I would tolerate her hate in my home.
jul 27, 2025, 5:43 pm • 10 0 • view
Descent
jul 27, 2025, 6:29 pm • 0 0 • view
I had exactly the same thought the other day. I told my sister that it was like watching the man who raised me disappear farther and farther into the rearview mirror.
jul 27, 2025, 6:10 pm • 11 0 • view
I'm writing a book about fear & trust and brain research shows that fear/hate/rage changes people's brains. The smart, reasoning area that accurately judges reality & provides self-control malfunctions due to fear hormones. That makes the person unmoored/illogical/reactive. So his brain has changed.
jul 27, 2025, 5:05 pm • 8 0 • view
My dad passed in 2005, but I have a feeling he may have gone MAGA. My brother-in-law and his wife stopped having Fox News on when my mother lived with them as she too, with onset dementia, was becoming radicalized.
jul 27, 2025, 4:57 pm • 12 0 • view
History will tell the ways this administration tore families apart-Ideologically and Physically.
jul 27, 2025, 4:58 pm • 11 2 • view
…forever
jul 27, 2025, 7:00 pm • 3 0 • view
It has been absolutely brutal.
jul 28, 2025, 4:03 am • 7 2 • view
Powerful, beautifully written, and heartbreaking.
jul 27, 2025, 9:46 pm • 0 0 • view
😞
jul 28, 2025, 2:59 pm • 0 0 • view
📌
jul 28, 2025, 3:59 am • 0 0 • view
Many, many such cases 😔
jul 28, 2025, 7:29 pm • 2 0 • view
Heartfelt. Thank you for sharing, Jess
jul 27, 2025, 6:48 pm • 1 0 • view
So sad and beautiful all at the same time!
jul 28, 2025, 4:51 pm • 1 0 • view
This is painful to read. It’s even more painful to live. 💔
jul 27, 2025, 8:07 pm • 5 0 • view
Thank you for sharing your story. It hits close to home for me. I hope this reminds us all that people are complicated and life is more often shades of gray than black and white. It feels easy to write MAGAs off. Can love bring some of them back? If we don’t leave the door open we lose for sure.
jul 27, 2025, 7:33 pm • 1 0 • view
😔
jul 27, 2025, 9:00 pm • 0 0 • view
My grandfather will be 80 in September. When I was a kid in 2005, he was a Bob Dole Republican who had no problem criticizing the Bush Jr Administration for all its faults. Now he's a blind MAGA acolyte who I have no hope for. It's sad, watching him become so radicalized over the past 10 years.
jul 27, 2025, 5:25 pm • 15 0 • view
A heart-wrenching story
jul 27, 2025, 11:37 pm • 1 0 • view
They are not marketing hate; they are marketing fear and selling hate as the solution.
jul 27, 2025, 5:45 pm • 50 6 • view
I think you are right. Cults tap into a person's vulnerabilities and then offer belonging and "answers". Right wing media does this relentlessly.
jul 27, 2025, 6:36 pm • 9 0 • view
This kind of propaganda and brainwashing seems like it should be illegal... a form of fraud. Can't there be a class action lawsuit?
jul 27, 2025, 9:13 pm • 0 0 • view
From advertising to gambling, dating apps, and the internet, our lives are a series of manipulations that have been studied by psychologists, behavioral economists, and those who traffic in manipulation. Social media has lowered the cost, and the Internet (section 230) has removed accountability.
jul 27, 2025, 10:34 pm • 0 0 • view
That's what I would like to see happen.
jul 27, 2025, 9:24 pm • 0 0 • view
This is how it was when we were involved in evangelicalism. We were so afraid. Afraid of everything that was not part of our religion. Fear was preached weekly. Republicans had the (Afraid to even send our kids to school.) Evangelicalism cost us so much.
jul 28, 2025, 12:13 am • 9 1 • view
Yes growing up Evangelical in the 90s meant a constant message that we were persecuted, discriminated against, and may be thrown to the lions at any minute. It has been so disturbing to see that worldview become the whole Republican party.
aug 1, 2025, 6:10 pm • 0 0 • view
It makes me sad. Now that it's over I'd give almost anything for a do-over and our weekends would be spent having fun as a family instead of hanging out at church.
aug 1, 2025, 7:15 pm • 1 0 • view
Sales 101. Selling fear of a loss and hope for a gain. Even if it screws over entire groups of people.
jul 27, 2025, 6:34 pm • 0 0 • view
And the fear is created through the cultivation and propagation of ignorance. People fear what the don’t understand. Ignorance is the life blood of tyranny. All Republican successes stem from the cultivation of ignorance. It may not be quick, but education is our only long term solution.
jul 27, 2025, 8:15 pm • 0 0 • view
Sure, ignorance is part of it, but I think fear is one of our more complicated emotions. www.verywellmind.com/the-psycholo...
jul 27, 2025, 8:50 pm • 1 0 • view
A heartbreaking read, and very relatable. Likely so many people out here in similar situations.
jul 27, 2025, 5:35 pm • 0 0 • view
To see hate bloom in a happy heart is a particular kind of devastation for a daughter. I lost my dad to dementia, and the story is so similar. MAGA is a virus. I wish you peace and comfort in the happy memories you keep, no matter how far you must reach back in time.
jul 27, 2025, 11:23 pm • 3 0 • view
It's so sad, and I'm always so sorry to hear this now-common story. My dad passed away before Trump ran in 2016, and even though he was very conservative, I can at least hope that he would have had the decency to reject Trumpism. But who knows?
jul 27, 2025, 6:49 pm • 3 0 • view
jul 27, 2025, 6:01 pm • 78 7 • view
But it will end MAGA
jul 27, 2025, 7:28 pm • 4 0 • view
Maybe. Hoping.
jul 27, 2025, 8:21 pm • 1 0 • view
We’ve always had hate and racism…typically we don’t put it in charge tho…twice.
jul 27, 2025, 8:49 pm • 11 1 • view
A real ugliness has been allowed to go mainstream and be acceptable in the United States. Again. I’m stunned that we keep letting it happen but I guess we will until we are no more.
jul 27, 2025, 9:04 pm • 3 0 • view
Sadly, some Christian leaders invited and facilitated the ugliness. They should have done the opposite.
jul 27, 2025, 10:28 pm • 2 0 • view
I think the fault is with many, not one religious group. That is oversimplifying all that is wrong with humanity and one of the reasons we are where we are. It’s not a “them” problem. It’s an “us” problem.
jul 27, 2025, 11:51 pm • 0 0 • view
Why do so many people seem surprised that hate and racism has resurged into the mainstream? They act as though it has gone away although it was always there in plain sight. I don't see how it could ever be ignored or overlooked. Perhaps, it was living in poverty, for there is disdain in social class
jul 28, 2025, 12:36 am • 3 0 • view
i wish, but like many cults, they outlast their founders. when he dies (no doubt from natural causes), they'll make up theories. they'll say he went into hiding. maybe they'll go back to their blasphemous claims of him being jesus. it's going to take a lot of work deradicalizing so many people.
aug 1, 2025, 2:27 am • 1 0 • view
Na. They’ll be around, but nothing like now.
aug 1, 2025, 5:11 am • 0 0 • view
Jess. So beautiful. Tbh, this is the first glimmer of understanding that I've had of MAGA folks. They've been unfathomable to me. Thanks to your piece I understand MAGA may be the first cult in human history methodically evangelized through the digital world at scale. QAnon its seedling.
jul 27, 2025, 5:57 pm • 15 2 • view
She writes the truth, as do so many of the replies. When outsiders say things like “MAGA were always hateful people” etc, well that may be true for some but for millions of us it is not. They are our beloved family members. They were good people. MAGA has brainwashed them. It is almost unbearable.
jul 28, 2025, 3:58 am • 8 2 • view
🫂 💙💙💙💙
jul 28, 2025, 4:25 am • 1 0 • view
"Good people" (family or not) in my book do not support: internment camps, kidnapping humans w/out due process, ignoring aid to citizens after natural disasters, destroying educational opportunities/standards, a potus who lies, self-deals, & is belligerent, hurting ties w/allies, etc.
jul 28, 2025, 6:21 am • 0 0 • view
Did you read the essay?
jul 28, 2025, 6:34 am • 0 0 • view
Totally agree.
jul 30, 2025, 1:25 pm • 0 0 • view
My parents were pro-integration Republicans in the early 50s. Murdoch's fear machine turned them into MAGAts.
jul 28, 2025, 4:57 am • 1 0 • view
Foxnews. 29 years of it! And it it's the entire republican party & 90% of republican voters.
jul 28, 2025, 3:02 pm • 9 0 • view
Thank you for this. I’m currently dealing with my mom who raised me with good ethics and morals only to abandon them herself for MAGA and Trump. I don’t know how to get her out of it. I’ve tried. My brother has tried. I’m grieving over it all.
jul 27, 2025, 5:02 pm • 46 2 • view
So many of us with similar stories.
jul 28, 2025, 3:46 am • 13 2 • view
Glad to see you here!
jul 30, 2025, 7:37 pm • 1 0 • view
Hello friend!
jul 30, 2025, 8:13 pm • 1 0 • view
jul 30, 2025, 11:50 pm • 1 0 • view
Yes
jul 28, 2025, 3:47 am • 1 0 • view
I saw an interview with a KGB agent who specialized in propaganda. He said at the end you can't help them. I just don't want to believe that is true. I keep hoping there will be a breakthrough...maybe Epstein?
jul 27, 2025, 9:11 pm • 4 0 • view
I hope that will do it but I don’t know…
jul 27, 2025, 9:15 pm • 0 0 • view
Propaganda is a powerful tool. It destroyed Germany and 50,000,000 lives just eighty years ago.
jul 28, 2025, 8:58 am • 1 0 • view
Something similar is happening all over the UK and other European countries, too. I am lucky that my late father didn't fall for the vile and hateful right-wing surge, which will see the end of progressive societies, but way too many people are lost to it. Many of whom I love and used to respect.
jul 27, 2025, 5:34 pm • 13 1 • view
I hope people in the UK can see what a nightmare this cult is in the US and stop fascism from tightening its hold on the vulnerable in the UK.
jul 28, 2025, 2:25 pm • 2 0 • view
Hope is all we have. Not much of it, though.
jul 28, 2025, 2:28 pm • 1 0 • view
Get regulatory laws in while you can. Wish we had more regulations on how lies and hate could be spread here. Also, the algorithms need to be regulated. Be proactive while you have the freedom to protest and push to reform laws.
jul 28, 2025, 2:50 pm • 1 0 • view
We lost both sides of our family and one of our kids, with our grandchildren. It’s been hideously painful. There are so many of us.
jul 27, 2025, 5:42 pm • 35 2 • view
So many…. My in laws, parents, brother, brothers in law, lifelong best friend, and on and on…. Thank god my wife and I are of one accord about it all.
jul 28, 2025, 3:48 am • 14 3 • view
I'm so sorry you have had to endure this.
jul 28, 2025, 3:49 am • 4 0 • view
My dad is passed and my mom hates Donald Trump at 94 , but I have family members that are Trump supporters
jul 27, 2025, 5:00 pm • 3 0 • view
My husband's father went down the Fox rabbit hole. He was always racist and I think MAGA just accelerated it. Oddly enough my husband has become more liberal and hates the current regime. His parents know better than to talk politics around us because we'll just leave.
jul 28, 2025, 3:52 am • 6 0 • view
Great piece. I'm in the same position with my dad right now. He's still with us, but I don't think it will be for much longer. And I don't know what to say to him about who he's become, or if that would only interfere with what time we have left.
jul 27, 2025, 5:34 pm • 2 0 • view
Same. My dad seems an unlikely wingnut. Not white, not Christian, a scientist. He worried about the environment and worked in "shithole countries" to feed the hungry. Raised me to respect other cultures and not be an Ugly American. He wanted lower taxes, though. Started watching Fox and went MAGA.
jul 27, 2025, 9:26 pm • 3 0 • view
My dad passed in 2007 before MAGA. No doubt he would have voted for Trump. He had to take early medical retirement and began to watch Fox in the 90s. His whole personality changed and I couldn’t figure out why. I watched “The Brainwashing of my Dad” doc and it made me realize what had happened.
jul 28, 2025, 11:23 am • 9 1 • view
They got my mom before she died in 2014💔
jul 28, 2025, 2:33 pm • 4 0 • view
About to say this goes back long before Trump, am sorry about your mom.
jul 28, 2025, 3:03 pm • 1 0 • view
At least Dad was better. He was too busy with hobbies to watch Fox, Phil and Oz🙄😩
jul 28, 2025, 3:07 pm • 2 0 • view
Once my mother stopped working, she got sucked in:( brother and sister got sucked in early though. I’m the odd one out and have all but cut ties with them at this point.
jul 28, 2025, 3:19 pm • 5 0 • view
❤️
jul 28, 2025, 3:55 pm • 1 0 • view
😢 There are so many people across this country who can relate (too well) to this pain you’ve described. We’re all nodding along…it’s excruciatingly sad. 💔
jul 27, 2025, 5:25 pm • 5 0 • view
Jess - I’m so so sorry. I read yr eloquent piece knowing it wasn’t gonna have a happy ending; horrified by how many Americans have similar stories. Wrenching that he died w/out ever coming back to his senses, & to his true self. 😓 May we, as a nation, be freed from the spell of this cult SOON.
jul 28, 2025, 4:12 am • 1 0 • view
Oh, Jess💔 Thank you for sharing your love and anger. I cannot imagine life with my dad, who has dementia and voted for "the woman" in November, if he hadn't watched the Watergate hearings with us. He learned the truth about the President and it disappointed him. He read and listened.
jul 28, 2025, 3:26 am • 9 0 • view
He sounds much like people I know. My paternal grandmother in many ways, who was warped along the same path here in the UK. I am truly sorry you experienced this. The good people Trump brainwashes are often the unsung victims at first, before they become his ground troops. A tragic thing to witness.
jul 27, 2025, 11:00 pm • 0 0 • view
They took my mom. Haven’t spoken to her in months. She spews nonsensical hate. Whatever the MAGA insane talking point of the day is, she’s right there.
jul 28, 2025, 3:50 am • 5 0 • view
I’m really sorry. I’m kinda glad my dad passed before all this. Part of me thinks he could have fallen for that fate.
jul 28, 2025, 3:55 am • 4 0 • view
It’s really sad.
jul 28, 2025, 3:27 pm • 1 0 • view
I can relate. 😭
jul 28, 2025, 1:02 am • 0 0 • view
My father and I had a very difficult relationship. He was a great grandfather to my sons and I was able to let most of the past go. I knew he watched Fox News every day, but it was not until he died, and I gained access to his computer that I came to realize that he had been brainwashed.
jul 27, 2025, 5:21 pm • 5 1 • view
The vile and hateful things that he supported. The imprisoning and execution of Democratic leadership. The hatred of immigrants was all because for 30 years Fox lied to him every single day. I hope Rupert Murdoch and every person that he employed that pushed the misogyny burns in hell.
jul 27, 2025, 5:23 pm • 9 0 • view
I could feel your pain in this essay. My Dad was similar to your Dad but thank the gods, went the other way. He became a better person because of MAGA. I feel so thankful those are the memories I have of him.
jul 27, 2025, 5:24 pm • 2 0 • view
A very moving (and tragic) story, thank you for sharing.
jul 27, 2025, 6:32 pm • 1 0 • view
My Dad (and Mom) have only gotten more progressive over the years. Both are boomers and my heroes as they go to every protest and call out those friends of theirs who put on red hats. But I’ve watched friends and others go down the MAGA chute and many friends lost dads to this cult.
jul 28, 2025, 1:03 pm • 6 0 • view
Very well articulated. I absolutely understand. ✊🏼✌🏼
jul 27, 2025, 10:18 pm • 0 0 • view
I’m so sorry. 😞
jul 28, 2025, 1:52 am • 3 0 • view
Me too:(
jul 28, 2025, 1:38 am • 0 0 • view
💔
jul 28, 2025, 2:33 am • 0 0 • view
It all started with my father with Rush Limbaugh. Then the Fox Kool-Aid took over.
jul 27, 2025, 4:58 pm • 61 1 • view
I'm sorry..🥺 That would've been awful to experience & Watch someone you love be taken over by Hate & Ridiculous ABSURDITIES. 🤨
jul 30, 2025, 1:13 am • 2 0 • view
I know a farmer that refused to vote for him in 2016 because he thought he would not benefit. After finding how rascist Trump is, the guy has supported him ever since. Funny cuz all his farm labor is black.
jul 27, 2025, 7:56 pm • 6 1 • view
That’s a great line that describes my relationship with my mother. She is truly the kind to give a person the shirt of her back. But I lost her to Trump. Deep down she’s a good person. But she has forgotten that and I won’t speak with her until she realizes it.
jul 27, 2025, 6:32 pm • 8 0 • view
Thanks for sharing this story.
jul 27, 2025, 6:58 pm • 1 0 • view
Happened to my dad too. He raised me to be one kind of man and then when I was grown he turned into the exact kind of man he'd vociferously raised me to be vociferously against. I hope Rupert Murdoch dies painfully and excruciatingly for it, punished by an angry god. I wish Ailes & Limbaugh had too.
jul 27, 2025, 4:56 pm • 26 0 • view
Murdoch. Don’t forget the father of all this evil unleashed on us.
jul 27, 2025, 7:17 pm • 5 0 • view
I think we all have this going on in our families
jul 28, 2025, 4:05 am • 0 0 • view
This one hits home for so many. My dad is alive and although he's not loud and proud maga, he's still maga. My mom died 15 years ago and some of her best friends tell me there's no way she'd have ever gone maga and he wouldn't have if she were still here, but I'm not as confident as they are in that
jul 27, 2025, 6:10 pm • 17 0 • view
What a wonderful and heartfelt piece Jess. Thank you for writing that and for sharing it with us all. 🙏
jul 27, 2025, 6:25 pm • 0 0 • view
This is heartbreaking and beautifully written. A valuable read for everyone.
jul 27, 2025, 5:43 pm • 0 0 • view
Everything starts from within, not outside oneself.
jul 27, 2025, 4:59 pm • 1 0 • view
Wow. This is happening in my family as well. I just can’t associate myself with Trumpers. I can’t.
jul 27, 2025, 9:14 pm • 3 0 • view
Your words are my story. My daddy is still in his body but his soul left some time ago.
jul 28, 2025, 4:40 am • 0 0 • view
This is a powerful and fraught story. Moreso when listening to you tell the story in your own voice. I grieve for all of your losses and sincerely hope that your country can soon rid itself of these hateful fascist-admiring elements infesting it.
jul 28, 2025, 3:46 am • 2 0 • view
Maybe he was always an asshole. There are lots of them.
jul 27, 2025, 6:45 pm • 0 0 • view
Wonderful memorial for your dad. He sounds like a great guy, when he was still himself. So sad that decent people have been swallowed by maga darkness. 😢
jul 27, 2025, 8:58 pm • 0 0 • view
Same 💔❤️🩹👊🏻 #IMPEACHCONVICTREMOVE #25thAmendmentNOW generalstrikeus.com
jul 27, 2025, 7:46 pm • 1 0 • view
My dad and I talk about other things
jul 28, 2025, 3:27 am • 0 0 • view
My older brother, always a decent guy before Trump, fell for it too. Pretty sure dad would have to if he were still around.
jul 28, 2025, 1:48 am • 3 0 • view
My heart goes out to you—I see my own father in the description of yours, down to the cult all-but replacing the person he was with someone else. I wish I could get him back, but he refuses to hear me out. I’m so sorry, and I hope the old memories can still bring you some happiness. 💔
jul 28, 2025, 3:44 am • 13 0 • view
Lotta people have this same problem.
jul 27, 2025, 6:02 pm • 1 0 • view
Oh, I woke up today thinking of my dad. Jess, this piece made me cry. "The first man I loved and the first I lost." While my dad was not MAGA before he passed away, we did live through Black Lives Matter protests with him & he had always been a 'police are there to protect you' type of guy.
jul 28, 2025, 2:36 pm • 1 0 • view
He knew the cops were behaving badly, but thought the protesters were too. The amount of explaining we had to do before he understood that anti-fascists are not "the bad guys," was frustrating. Luckily, my mom blasted NPR at full volume most days, dad had to stay somewhat grounded.
jul 28, 2025, 2:42 pm • 2 0 • view
“He started simplifying big ideas and concepts. He started making the people he loved the opposition without even meaning to — he forgot the gray areas. He forgot nuance.” This was so well written, powerful, and honest. I am deeply grateful that the good in him lives in you. MAGA can’t take that.
jul 27, 2025, 6:55 pm • 19 1 • view
It is so very well written.
jul 27, 2025, 9:07 pm • 1 0 • view
Thank you for sharing about your dad.
jul 28, 2025, 3:40 am • 1 0 • view
Heartbreaking Jess. 🫂
jul 28, 2025, 3:40 pm • 1 0 • view
What a lovely and heartbreaking tribute - and a picture of the madness that has seized our fellow citizens, in a microcosm.
jul 27, 2025, 7:30 pm • 0 0 • view
With all due respect, MAGA is MAGA because it's who they are at their core. Some were good at disguising it, but held MAGA views long before Trump. Just like alcohol is the "truth juice", Trump reveals America's truth. Again, respectfully.
jul 27, 2025, 11:37 pm • 1 1 • view
Exactly. It's always been there, and tRump gave them permission to crawl out from under their respective rocks.
jul 28, 2025, 10:13 am • 0 0 • view
Dearest Sister, I cried as I read your words. Thank you for writing such an amazing piece about your Dad and for sharing it with us. What mercy knowing we aren't alone. Heartfelt hugs, Jess.
jul 27, 2025, 6:16 pm • 5 0 • view
I didn’t have the same glowing relationship with my father growing up, but I too have watched mine change into someone I don’t recognize and have lost him to this cult. Same with my evangelical mother.
jul 27, 2025, 6:28 pm • 9 0 • view
Trying harder wouldn’t have changed things for your dad. I’ve tried everything with my parents and nothing I say will bring them back. My mom now has dementia, but my father has also lost all critical thinking it seems. 10 years of propaganda has eroded it! I’m sorry you’re hurting from this too ❤️
jul 27, 2025, 6:28 pm • 10 0 • view
We were trained to fall for it. A lot came from our religious upbringing and how our parents were trained. Many of us don’t actually read the Bible or know very little about history. Leaders have mislead people. Your educating people is so valuable!
jul 27, 2025, 10:00 pm • 2 0 • view
Thank you for sharing
jul 28, 2025, 1:53 am • 4 0 • view
An aunt and uncle of mine had to cut off the couple that introduced them to each other because that couple (not my aunt and uncle) went down the road of MAGA. A friendship of over 60 years was ended because of Trump.
jul 28, 2025, 9:35 pm • 4 0 • view
That’s so terrible.
jul 29, 2025, 3:39 am • 2 0 • view
What makes it even worse is they all live in the same retirement community. I know that my uncle has tried to keep some contact with them, but as for my aunt they are dead to her. I believe that Trump is the worst person in American history for all the harm he has done and continues to do.
jul 29, 2025, 4:24 am • 1 0 • view
My 82-year old mother has been blocked from posting on her church Facebook because she considers anyone not MAGA a “communist”. She calls my sister and me (1st gen college grads) dumb. Our parents have been brainwashed.
jul 27, 2025, 11:55 pm • 11 2 • view
I’m sorry to hear that.
jul 28, 2025, 3:54 am • 2 0 • view
In her twilight years she should be “I just want to love everybody” as my elderly aunt put it. Now your mother is angry & more than likely fearful. I am so sorry.
jul 30, 2025, 1:18 pm • 0 0 • view
Thank you. She’s likely fearful, but she’s always had a mean streak. Fortunately, I have great siblings! :)
jul 31, 2025, 1:23 am • 1 0 • view
That’s great about your siblings.
jul 31, 2025, 11:00 pm • 1 0 • view
Awww… Same with *my* parents. :-( They’re 89 years old and support Trump, but all three of their children are liberal. My mother helped start a migrant clinic when we were growing up and my father always taught us to respect cultural differences, but then… they watched a steady diet of Faux News.
jul 27, 2025, 4:58 pm • 50 0 • view
Same here. My parents were common sense Republicans when they retired 20 years ago. Now in their mid 80’s after watching nothing but Fox they are fucking nuts.
jul 28, 2025, 12:29 am • 2 0 • view
From what you've so eloquently written, I see a lot of myself in your younger father. Though I started as a republican voter in the army, i changed over the years, I don't think it was a matter of hatred or distrust, but more actually learning which side my morals actually sided with.
jul 27, 2025, 5:04 pm • 5 0 • view
Same here. Was never a FOX news watcher but I blindly voted Republican until Trump descended the escalator and then my ears and eyes opened wide.
jul 27, 2025, 6:56 pm • 4 0 • view
This is very similar to how it went down with my dad too.
jul 27, 2025, 4:57 pm • 2 0 • view
I've know people that were lost to cancer. Too bad there's another disease even more evil. MAGA.
jul 28, 2025, 4:00 am • 3 0 • view
So many of us have lost a dear friend or family member to MAGA.
jul 28, 2025, 4:02 am • 2 0 • view
I lost cousins & uncles because of trump. Brothers too.
jul 27, 2025, 10:10 pm • 5 0 • view
Fox took my dad’s personality, an evangelical church took his retirement savings, and the Republican Party put him in credit card debt. Those were my last years with him. He’s newly diagnosed with dementia. Solidarity to all those going through similar. It has been a heartbreaking ride.
jul 27, 2025, 5:50 pm • 123 16 • view
I’m so sorry. I think the most revolting aspect of trump’s risevto power is how he’s fed on the social and financial insecurities many elderly people experience and turned it into fear and hate. He has robbed so many of their savings and destroyed families. #IHateThisRegime
jul 28, 2025, 3:41 pm • 2 0 • view
So sorry
jul 28, 2025, 5:11 pm • 1 0 • view
Thank you 💙
jul 28, 2025, 5:17 pm • 1 0 • view
i don't know what the solution is, but the right-wing psy-op/media sphere is so toxic and criminal in how it targets and brainwashes people that we should all be rising up against it
jul 28, 2025, 3:34 pm • 1 0 • view
So sorry to hear all this. What has been done by the Republican party, and the church in taking people's money, is nothing more than extortion! So, they can live like kings in their mega mansions. My husband and I fell into the trap long ago, finally saw them for who they really are, and escaped!!
jul 28, 2025, 2:35 pm • 3 0 • view
Thank you. I’m glad to were both able to get out. 💙
jul 28, 2025, 2:37 pm • 1 0 • view
I’m so sorry. This is my story as well. My father passed last summer still a Trump supporter. Republicans destroyed my family. I will never forgive them for that. I survived and protected my family by breaking away.
jul 27, 2025, 8:05 pm • 34 0 • view
Ultimately, I had to break away as well. People don’t talk enough about the survivors guilt that comes from protecting yourself and your family from cults. 💙
jul 27, 2025, 8:16 pm • 33 0 • view
💙
jul 27, 2025, 8:20 pm • 1 0 • view
I’m so sorry. 😕
jul 27, 2025, 7:38 pm • 5 0 • view
Thank you 💙
jul 27, 2025, 7:45 pm • 2 0 • view
😕
jul 27, 2025, 9:27 pm • 0 0 • view
Oh Jess, I am so sad your heart aches this way, too. So many of us in this boat just wanted our fathers to hear us and see us. 💔
jul 28, 2025, 2:56 pm • 2 0 • view
We all know and love people who voted for McCain and Romney while holding their noses but then went all in for Trump. Hearing the phrase "Black Lives Matter" starting in 2014 really triggered lots of folks. That was a turning point. The gutting of the Voting Rights Act in 2013 was big too.
jul 27, 2025, 7:31 pm • 2 0 • view
Obergefell in 2015. Everything was building toward the Republican Party being subsumed by authoritarianism though. For decades. Deindustrialization and union busting. Hollowing out of communities and loss of social capital. Hemorrhaging of members of Catholic and Mainline Protestant congregations.
jul 27, 2025, 7:37 pm • 0 0 • view
The white cultural conservative who used to have a good job, used to go to church, used to be active in his community. The forgotten man.
jul 27, 2025, 7:43 pm • 0 0 • view
My bumper sticker (custom) says: I BLAME FOX
jul 28, 2025, 3:39 am • 5 0 • view
My parents were Democrats for 40 years. Perfect 800 credit scores. They lost everything they built in the recession and from that point wanted to blame someone. It was always Obama & Democrats after that. They fell for the RW propaganda hard. 😔
jul 27, 2025, 6:32 pm • 3 0 • view
Amazing considering who actually caused the GFC.
jul 27, 2025, 6:36 pm • 4 0 • view
Yep.
jul 27, 2025, 6:39 pm • 2 0 • view
Sorry you have to deal with that
jul 27, 2025, 7:17 pm • 1 0 • view
Thank you. At first, it's hard to reconcile the people you knew w/who they've become. Then it's impossible to have a conversation they don't politicize. After a while, it just gets too hard to have a relationship. I've told them I love them. I hope they find a way out before any of us are gone.
jul 27, 2025, 8:27 pm • 1 0 • view
I feel your pain. People I used to adore have been lost in that same void. I am grateful that my father wasn't one of them. We had a problematic relationship for most of our lives, until the last decade (He joined AA.). He didn't dare express his disdain except with family in his small Texas town.
jul 28, 2025, 3:23 am • 13 0 • view
Dad briefly surfaced as a "principled conservative." But most of his life, the self hated he hid from all but me was wallpapered over by red/white/blue jingoism. He taught me that repression becomes political. He taught me that flags are good distractions. I'm so sorry many of our dads harmed us.
jul 28, 2025, 12:39 am • 1 0 • view
Sorry. Lost some good friends to that disease.
jul 28, 2025, 4:07 am • 1 0 • view
Was he taking any thing like simvastatin or cholesterol lowering pharmaceuticals? I think or is it possible that such drugs can "dumb people down". I removes good and bad cholesterol. Brains need good cholesterol. My mother took simvastatin, anger and IQ issues were noticeable. Was it old age or?
jul 27, 2025, 5:04 pm • 0 0 • view
My father passed in 2022 after voting for Trump twice. I'm so glad he's dead because I do not have to know whether he would support all this cruelty and lawlessness and descent into fascism.
jul 28, 2025, 12:43 pm • 2 0 • view
I am so sorry.
jul 28, 2025, 12:06 pm • 1 0 • view
Omg. Jess, thank you for sharing.
jul 27, 2025, 10:01 pm • 0 0 • view
Dear dear Jess I am sorry that you still have the anger; it is so hard to let go of the anger, because we loved them so very much But try Because holding onto that will always diminish him in your memories I pray you find solace 🫂
jul 28, 2025, 4:06 pm • 0 0 • view
Thank you for telling your story. For me, it's my daughter who's in the Christian Nationalist Maga cult and I'm losing hope that she will ever change.
jul 27, 2025, 10:47 pm • 6 0 • view
Sorry to hear that. That must truly be awful.
jul 27, 2025, 11:22 pm • 2 0 • view
This resonates with me so much... My parents formed the foundation that made me who I am... the they went and lost their damn minds. Started with Limbaugh and talk radio, then Tea Party and now full on MAGA. They should be enjoying their twilight years with grandkids and their great granddaughter.
jul 28, 2025, 3:56 am • 14 0 • view
📌
jul 28, 2025, 12:21 pm • 0 0 • view
I'm sorry for your loss in every way. We've seen it happen in Brasil. Loved ones have been totally lost and that, apart from anything else, is very sad. It must have been much worse for you. Your father seemed like a really nice guy. What a shame.
jul 28, 2025, 8:24 am • 0 0 • view
Same thing happened with my dad. He survived Hitler, came to the states with my mom, was a Democrat for years. Moved to Texas & 3 years later he’s a Libertarian! Didn’t even recognize the man.
jul 27, 2025, 6:08 pm • 13 0 • view
Our media's been Radio Rwanda Hate Radio for 30+ years. 24-7 Loudspeakers of propaganda. The siege mentality, the incessant vitriol, it's Jonestown. The thing is, the people the Murdochs + Spencers employ are geniuses. Goebbels is writhing with jealousy in Hell. It's MK Ultra level brainwashing.
jul 27, 2025, 5:46 pm • 4 2 • view
My Dad, too, Jess. Thank you for making me feel less lonely in my grief.
jul 27, 2025, 6:55 pm • 1 0 • view
I am angry at them for ruining so many families and for stealing my friends. And I am angry at my friends for becoming fucking fascists. They knew better. They still know better.
jul 27, 2025, 5:10 pm • 10 1 • view
My family is fractured. My granddaughter is turning 1 in August and there is going to be a big birthday party. It is going to be stressful. I will see Maga family I haven't spoken to for years.
jul 28, 2025, 5:01 am • 1 0 • view
Do yourself a favor Try not to relive them in their past actions; I am hoping for you that you may be pleasantly surprised 🙌🏼
jul 28, 2025, 4:01 pm • 1 0 • view
But, as all of us are aware, you may not be So my unasked for advice is this: Stay right there in the present of enjoying a birthday party for your one year old granddaughter Ignore everything else She is far more important to you than any of this 💟
jul 28, 2025, 4:01 pm • 1 0 • view
Just be loving and firm. I feel for you. I haven't been with my grandchildren (youngest 2yr) for a year bc my SIL became suddenly infuriated that I was against Trump. Yesterday he texted me to say "Sorry I didn't listen to you." Wishing you strength and peace.
jul 28, 2025, 6:50 am • 4 0 • view
Your SIL's text is the most hopeful thing I've read in months. I have friends & family - all kind, compassionate & generous people - who told me that they didn't vote for "That Woman" b/c Congress would never allow Trump to implement Project 2025. So far no one has admitted they were wrong.
jul 29, 2025, 5:23 pm • 2 0 • view
I can understand why it'd be hard, esp if it's their whole identity and friend group. Fortunately, I have a history of being long-suffering with my SIL. The pain of it has been been very deep, though. He hasn't been more specific yet, just "was a clown," but we've got to give ppl space to undig.
jul 29, 2025, 8:59 pm • 1 0 • view
I think a lot of us understand. They did that to my Dad as well, but since he had remarried and moved to the other side of the country from me, I didn't know much about it until after some phone calls. Cleaned up his computer of so much MAGA propaganda, it was scary. An evil propaganda machine.
jul 27, 2025, 7:49 pm • 5 0 • view
Feels to close to home
jul 28, 2025, 12:13 am • 2 0 • view
Beautiful and articulate article….
jul 27, 2025, 7:25 pm • 0 0 • view
Same
jul 28, 2025, 2:58 am • 1 0 • view
Like many democrats, I too have many unresolved daddy issues.
jul 28, 2025, 3:18 am • 1 0 • view
Good somewhere else and be rude. Not here. Not now.
jul 28, 2025, 3:49 am • 1 0 • view
Are you trying to slam Democrats in some way? If Democrats have "unresolved daddy issues," at least they are working on them. GOP folks are calling the fascist glorious leader "Daddy" as he wrecks everything. Better to have unresolved issues you know about than to worship an idiotic pedophile.
jul 28, 2025, 3:22 am • 4 0 • view
Not sure what you’re talking about? I’m a democrat with daddy issues. It’s very common and relatable.
jul 28, 2025, 3:55 am • 0 1 • view
I could not tell whether you were joking, telling on yourself, trying to pick a fight, or what. I think *everyone* has some kind of daddy issue. Even if your father was around and ideal you are in danger of spending your life trying to live up to him, not let him down, etc. Peace.
jul 28, 2025, 1:36 pm • 0 0 • view
❤️❤️❤️❤️
jul 28, 2025, 1:19 am • 0 0 • view
Great insight. I come from a similar background. I could see Maga sucking in many of my family if it was in my country.
jul 28, 2025, 11:52 pm • 1 0 • view
This is beautifully written, haunting and sad.
jul 27, 2025, 7:05 pm • 0 0 • view
Beautiful Jess. I am so sorry. During the Harris/Walz campaign so many young people were attracted to Tim Walz because he was the dad/grandfather they used to have before Fox entertainment poisoned them
jul 27, 2025, 5:04 pm • 25 0 • view
I think you have that spot on, Lori. Walz looks like he could so easily be a MAGA, but he actually was the opposite.
jul 28, 2025, 3:53 pm • 3 0 • view