I Need to find a DUer with dysfunctional family experience to IM.....

[alittlelark]

Preferably with religious dysfunction that they are dealing with well. Experience in the 'Flat Earthers" would be good....

I am at a loss....

Any recommendations of DUers with experience would be welcome.....

Thanks,
alittlelark

[Warpy]

1. My best suggestion is to go Emily Post on them

and refuse to discuss sex, religion, or politics with them under any circumstances. Walk out if you have to, come back in half an hour and ask if they're done.

You are not going to convince each other and insisting on pursuing it will drive you all away from each other.

I had an armed truce with my Catholic parents, especially my right wing father, for decades. We simply did not discuss that stuff, although I did pass along dirty jokes I knew my dad would enjoy.

The funniest part is that they both died unbelievers. I had nothing to do with it, my conscience is clear. I'm just glad they died with no fear of judgment or hell.

[steve2470]

2. Try Mental Health Support here also

Sorry, on phone, cannot be more helpful

[mnhtnbb]

3. Instant Messaging? Really?

Do you mean something else?

[BlancheSplanchnik]

4. I might be able to help a little bit.

I'm willing to try, anyway.

[PassingFair]

5. Try the atheist and agnostic room...

LOTS of experience in there!

[hunter]

6. When I was a kid religious warfare within my extended family was intense.

Trouble was all those "responsible" adults seemed to ENJOY the fighting. Blood and scars were worn proudly.

Christmas was always a special time... considered a pagan holiday by some; no, not Christian at all. So Christmas wasn't Christmas without yelling, objects thrown, people leaving in tears or getting very drunk, etc.. I still have no love for the holiday. The quieter Christmases I remember all reeked of hypocrisy, tolerance, and appeasement. Honestly, the smoldering-in-silence Christmases were far worse than the angry Christmases because in quiet Christmas everything was poisoned; the gifts and feasting, the false joviality, the things unsaid, everything...

Merry Christmas? Fuck you. Fuck "tolerance" with a cholla cactus. It's evil. The word you are looking for is acceptance. And nobody should have to eat bullshit.

Many of my ancestors landed in America's wild west as religious dissidents, pacifists, and heretics. My last immigrant ancestor was a mail order bride to Salt Lake City. She didn't much like sharing a husband so she ran off with a monogamous man. With compound interest I hate to think what we, her descendants, might owe to the Mormons who paid her passage.

I think I was lucky because flat-earth anti-intellectualism was never an ingredient in the hot mess I was born into. There may have been a few flat-earthers among them but they were afraid to speak. As it ought to be.

[mackerel]

7. Have you tried giving them cool glances at breakfast?