She picks and chooses what she wants to believe
My husband thinks I should stand up to her a bit more. She has picked up a lot of her views from right wing TV and radio. She has this way of making you feel guilty without trying if I go too far and hurt her feelings.
I told her that, it didn’t help. My mother is only 64, she is too young to be going this batshit insane.
My in-laws are 64, and they are both loopy. It’s very worrying. They get less competent every year and I have no idea what we’re going to do when they can no longer deal with life themselves. They’re on the brink now. So…my sympathies. 
It was, however, the day after.
Cite? I’ve always wondered about the crazy old people, and truly fear for myself as I get older. Do people who have an even moderate amount of skepticism about what they read/hear/see really lose it as they get older, just by natural causes? Do peoples’ ability to reason critically degrade, even without them being aware of it?
:eek: The end is nigh!
(I mean, about the lottery)
I am seeing the same thing with my father. He is 65 and has been retired for about 6 years. He used to be a pretty successful executive but since he retired it is tough seeing him slowly turn into a senile old coot, whether it be people driving too fast or politics.
Fortunately, he has not gotten into religion, and I live 6 hours away.
IME, they just get more ornery and curmudgeonly, and have decided that after a long hard life, they don’t have to put up with anything they don’t want to.
They also really, really, enjoy tormenting their off-spring by expressing outlandish views, as pay-back for putting up with those off-spring, and their outlandish views, as teen-agers.
Ah, family.
I think it’s a symptom of isolation as well as limited media usage, not getting out and talking to enough actual people face to face
I just reread op and the bit where mom is going to church more often just blew my theory out of the water as far as not getting out and seeing people, so commence never-minding
Fortunately, people in my family seem to just get more liberal as they age. My 88-year-old mother not only was an enthusiastic supporter of Obama, but she hosted a fundraiser for the Democratic gubernatorial candidate in her state, and helped her 87-year-old precinct captain friend get out the Democratic vote on election day.
And she’s also become a huge supporter of gay rights and gay marriage. She’s been adopted by a whole group of young gay men as their grandma, and they treat her like a queen, she marches (well, in a wheelchair) in the Pride parade, and on and on. It’s quite entertaining. They’re delightful young men, and I’m happy to have them spoiling her so much since I live several thousand miles away.
So not all old people lose their ability to think critically and support new causes as they age. Thank heaven. I want to be a feisty old lady like my mom and her friends!
I think the church would be happy to see her leave. She’s been known to take the priest aside after mass and lecture him on what was wrong with his sermon. My sister who lives in another state was humiliated when she took my mom to her church and my mother proceeded to lecture the pastor on respect because the congregation was wearing shorts.In Arizona.In the summer.
Taffeta! Nothing but taffeta will solve this country’s ills…
So, does that somehow make Obama the sort-of-anti-christ? The Prince of Insufficient Lighting?
I’m just surprised that they couldn’t get a good plague going or something. I mean, really, one lousy lottery result, one state, the day after the election?
Give us the tulle and we’ll finish the job.
Oh! Won’t someone please think of the sateen?
But yeah, I worry about TikkiDad a lot. Sometimes it takes several beats before his mind catches up with what you’ve said and then, many times he’s misheard it. (Forget about him getting hearing aids. Just forget about it.) Some days it’s frustrating holding a conversation with him even if he’s heard you right. I don’t know how much has to do with the poor hearing or medicinal side effects or just advanced age.
Sometimes he’ll ask a question and then keep rambling on without waiting for an answer. Or he’ll give you just enough time to start answering and then talk right over you. I’ve tried a couple of times just continuing my statement but he doesn’t get a clue and keeps on talking regardless. We were raised that it’s impolite to interrupt people so this is one of the more disturbing aspects of his seniorness to me.
At least he’s not religious so no nuttieness there. And he likes to listen to Art Bell and his cronies just for the laugh factor. Still, his mind just isn’t as sharp as it used to be. He used to be such a smart guy. I used to be able to ask him anything and he’d know the answer. Now some pretty elementary things seem to elude him on a regular basis.
Getting old really sucks, and we haven’t even touched on the physical aspects yet. My best to all of you who are dealing with aging relatives.
A lot of it surely has to do with the growing fear and vulnerability most of us experience with advancing age. We all know fear is the most powerful weapon against reason, and it doesn’t respect one’s ability to reason. Fear can curdle skepticism into cynicism, or it can drive you to cling to Truths, or have you spinning between the two extremes.
Especially during the last few decades, our national political-media-news matrix has gotten very good at ginning up and exploiting this kind of fear, and I think the young elderly are particularly susceptible. Both my parents gave up on the Democratic Party in their 60s - national, state and local - because the tremendous conservative backlash against the Clintons appealed to them more strongly at that point than the liberal principles they had supported for so long. (It helped that they had become affluent and tax-conscious in the 1980s.) They also became less tolerant and more bitter about racial, religious, and other differences, though they continue to respect individuals of all types.