I have been depressed for about a week now. I have a frenemy, H., a Rapublican. I used to like talking with him, because I just could not get it through my head why half the country believes the lies put out by some right wing channels. I told H., point out just one lie about the Dems. Because I can show you many lies that Fox tells. I can easily see these lies because of my background in statistics. I realize now he actually doesn’t know the truth because he doesn’t know the difference between a fact and an opinion. Nor does he know how to research a fact, even by going to Google.

So I used to wonder if he was really trying to get to the truth or just make points. I used to wonder if he is so attached to his opinion that he will “cheat” by lying. Or constantly talk over me and interrupt me. I asked him to not interrupt me, and he actually started to make an effort. But still I told him last Friday that I didn’t want to talk politics any more. I was losing my patience.

For about 15-20 minutes we talked everyday talk. Then as he was leaving he brought up something about the journalist who asked Double Downer about the number of COVID cases. I said that I saw how the journalist caught Double Downer trying to give him a piece of paper showing some phony stats. I tried to explain what was probably the false stats. You would think that this should never have happened with H. Why? Because I had just asked NOT to talk politics, and because you’d think H. would defer to my better knowledge of stats.

I felt ambushed by H. and I also realize that he is swimming in lies, and therefore cannot tell the difference. The whole situation knocked me back for a few days. But this type of interaction isn’t helping my moods, post Prozac.