My dad is a right-wing Republican. He would tell you “I don’t like any of them” but he’d never vote for anyone except a Republican and all he consumes is right-wing commentary (not news…right-wing media has indoctrinated him to believe that no news organization is giving him unbiased fact).
I live in California; my dad lives in Tennessee. For 18 years, my dad has been sending me doomer news about how horrible it is in California. Which is a bit ridiculous because he’s been here a lot over the years. But his media tells him what to think and he won’t let his own experience, or his child’s experience, override his biases.
The year I moved out here, he sent me an email with a picture of a California traffic jam. It immediately looked fake and it took me less than a minute to find the very faked photo on Google with confirmation that it was fake (someone had copy-pasted extra lanes onto the freeway and filled them all with unmoving cars). But that photo was on the front page of Drudge so my dad thought it was real. If Drudge isn’t going to fact-check, why should my dad?
Through the Obama years, my dad was convinced that “things have never been so bad in the United States.” And through the Trump years, he’s been bamboozled that things are going great. So let’s just look at some of the things my dad, and all the other dads like him, are wrong about. Click on the links to find plenty of evidence.
The economy under Trump sucks. The job market is stalled and people are dropping out of it (i.e. giving up on finding a job). Inflation is high. Gas is at an all-time high (while the strategic oil reserve is lower than ever).
California isn’t failing. (In fact, Tennessee is in a more precarious position.)
COVID-19 was actually a pandemic. It was way worse than the flu. Vaccines work. Masks work.
Anthony Fauci is an actual doctor who saw actual patients for his entire career. RFK Jr is an ambulance-chasing lawyer who knows nothing about science or public health.
Capitalism doesn’t provide better healthcare.
Republicans aren’t defenders of common people. They hate farmers, the military, women, and everyone who isn’t a billionaire.
Bitcoin is a scam. This is strangely the one issue that gives my dad real cognitive dissonance (that he recognizes). When he examines it, he thinks, “how is this not a scam?” But the Republicans are all for it. So he doesn’t examine it for too long.
Data centers are making life worse for everyone around them. AI is, at the very least, deeply problematic.
Elon Musk is not a genius. He’s a grifter who made his trillion off government subsidies. (And he’s quite the racist too.)
Human-caused climate change is real. Fossil fuels are a massive contributor to that change and should be replaced with alternative energy sources that do actually work.
The electoral college doesn’t keep California from taking over. It disenfranchises all California Republican voters and it prevents us from developing competitive 3rd parties. (That’s Duverger’s Law.) Voter fraud is not widespread.
Trans people aren’t de-transitioning en masse. In fact, few do. Trans people don’t cause as many mass shootings as white men. Trans people do not sexually assault as many people as the clergy and right-wing politicians.
Public education helps keep the country safe. An educated population creates a more prosperous country which contributes to our safety.
Democratic Socialism isn’t un-American or fascist. Republican corporatism is fascism.
Antifa isn’t a threat to anyone but actual fascists. And isn’t America theoretically anti-fascist?
DEI works.
Gun ownership leads to gun violence.
Electric vehicles are great.
Trump is a singularly corrupt president. No other politician comes close. This cannot be “whatabouted” by any sensible person. No democrat ever profited off the presidency like the Trump family. Hunter Biden and his firm may have made $7-$20 million over 5 years. Trump made over $2 billion in 2025 alone. Hunter Biden was eventually convicted on felony gun charges and federal tax evasion which, if anything, is an argument for more robust gun laws and an IRS empowered to go after millionaire scofflaws. (But of course, Trump downsized the IRS so it couldn’t go after them.)
White men are privileged. When my dad turned 21, he could vote in any state in the U.S. At that time, Black people were still being violently assaulted just trying to register to vote. It wasn’t until 1965, that the Voting Rights Act was passed.
The Civil War wasn’t about states’ rights. It was about slavery.
And oh yeah, the pyramids weren’t grain silos. (Nor were they alien batteries.)
But, of course, no facts will change his mind.