• axont [she/her, comrade/them]
    ·
    11 months ago

    This is what a coworker of mine was saying would happen with that recent emergency broadcast ping. He came to me very solemnly and asked if I wanted to go somewhere peaceful to spend my last moments. He was convinced there would be a radio wave that activated a zombie virus inside every vaccinated person.

    • Thordros [he/him, comrade/them]
      ·
      edit-2
      11 months ago

      That's just Acceptable Polite Discourse. It's not like he said genocide is bad, or something equally career-ending.

      • axont [she/her, comrade/them]
        ·
        edit-2
        11 months ago

        One time he asked me very seriously if I wanted his help reporting my mother to the police because she had an abortion 37 years ago. Like he said it in a concerned, helpful way

        • CatoPosting [comrade/them, he/him]
          ·
          11 months ago

          This has to be the most confusing person I've heard of. Seems deeply compassionate, yet falls for the most unhinged of chud rhetoric.

          • axont [she/her, comrade/them]
            ·
            edit-2
            11 months ago

            he grew up poor and ethnically mixed, one side of his family Latino and the other side white. Told me he never quite fit in anywhere, was rebellious as a kid and joined gangs. Got an assault charge or something at 18, spent some time in jail, found Christianity. Once he came out he became obsessively fixated on UFOs and something in his head clicked regarding UFOs, treatment of Latino people, and American enforcement of poverty. He's apparently come to a conclusion that UFOs are a government program to distract people away from Christianity, and this is why poverty and hatred are widespread. Says the only solution to that is love for everyone, and I do believe he means it, not in a cynical way. He just doesn't fully understand what he's saying. He also fell deep into Qanon and believes there are Satanic pedophiles everywhere who snatch kids out of parking lots to harvest adrenochrome

            He's one of the most deranged people I've ever met and yet you're right, he's deeply compassionate and nice. He'll give anyone a ride in his truck, he donates food to his church. He's pleasant and friendly in conversation. He even has a few trans friends?

            Believe me, I am a little scared of the guy though, because there are some weird cogs moving around in his skull

      • axont [she/her, comrade/them]
        ·
        edit-2
        11 months ago

        No it's not terrifying anymore, I'm used to him saying deranged things. He tells us a military coup will occur any day now, but he means it in a positive way. "patriots will soon be in control" is a phrase he throws around.

    • GreenTeaRedFlag [any]
      ·
      11 months ago

      That kind of behavior is always the thing that throws me. Like, they believe this shit clearly designed to make you hate people and view them as enemies, but somehow are still nice about it. It is very rare, but people like that feel like they're just misguided. They could be comrades if we could make them think a little better, but that's really hard to do

      • cmhickman358 [he/him]
        ·
        11 months ago

        They could be comrades if we could make them think a little better

        There had never been a more accurate description of the leftist struggle

      • axont [she/her, comrade/them]
        ·
        11 months ago

        Yeah he's often very close. He's deeply into Qanon, but is somehow not bigoted. He just buys into bigoted stuff without realizing it, like he blames half the world's problems on George Soros.

    • nothx [he/him]
      ·
      edit-2
      11 months ago

      So wait.

      Are you unvaccinated and he figured you would go along with it?

      Are you vaccinated and he doesn’t know, so he figured you would go along with it?

      Or are you vaccinated, he knows and wanted to live out the fantasy? Give you the old double tap?

      • axont [she/her, comrade/them]
        ·
        edit-2
        11 months ago

        I'm vaccinated and he thought I was gonna die of zombie plague. It's not a fantasy to him, he believes this stuff to be true.

        • nothx [he/him]
          ·
          edit-2
          11 months ago

          More so the fantasy of many conservatives to be the gritty survivor of an apocalyptic event.

    • wahwahwah [none/use name]
      ·
      11 months ago

      Ngl, I’m low key jealous of you guys who know these people personally. All I have is fundies and they’re the boring kinda of cranks :(

      • axont [she/her, comrade/them]
        ·
        11 months ago

        i mean, at least with fundies you don't have to be afraid of them suddenly pulling out a handgun. That's the price of knowing interesting reactionary cranks.

    • Tunnelvision [they/them]
      ·
      11 months ago

      The real American spirit of that situation is knowing that if the end of the world actually did happen you’d most likely be at work when it did.