I moved into a new neighborhood about a month ago. One of the things required of us (by the HOA), being pet owners, was to fence our yard in. Being a reasonably competent person I tackled the job myself.
Yesterday as I was puttering around the yard the lady from across the street came over and introduced herself. She was having the exterior of her house painted and the painter walked on over as well to compliment me on my fence-building abilities. This is the way the conversation went - I am not making this up nor am I leaving anything out or adding anything.
Him: “Hi. You did a good job on that fence. It’s straight! When Obama was president he wanted my house more than I did. He tried to take it from me”.
Me: (confused) Uh, really?
Him: Yes. Also during Obama’s presidency there was no work for carpenters. They call me a handyman now, but I’m a journeyman Carpenter. Obama took all the carpentry jobs away.
Mind you, I had never laid eyes on this person before. Also, yesterday! Obama hasn’t been president for years. What the fuck goes through these people’s minds?
No doubt. Meanwhile all over town traffic is congested due to new construction. I wisely avoided getting sucked in to his lunacy, but was sorely tempted to suggest he just look around as there are hundreds of employed carpenters.
He may have had sort of a point, although he’s still wrong. The Great Recession caused the new housing market to nosedive, so carpenters probably had a hard time finding work for a couple-three years. Of course, the Great Recession was caused by things that happened during the previous administration. Obama inherited the problem and gets the blame.
I was standing in line at the pharmacy associated with the medical provider that my mother uses. As was per usual, the line was probably at least 45 minutes long. I commented to the woman standing behind me about how long the line was, and she said, “You can thank Obama for that.” I really really wanted to say, “So you think it’s a bad thing that people can get health care now?” But I refrained. I just turned away and ignored her the rest of the time.
We’ve since started having Mother’s meds mailed to us so we don’t have to brave the horrendous lines.
Oddly she ignored it. I got the impression she might have been embarrassed by it. In any event I think he got the hint and went back to work. I’ve met other neighbors, so far they seem ok.
Based on what you describe, I would assume the painter has some sort of mental issues of the tin-foil-hat variety. He is probably adequate at this job, and his issues don’t prevent him from working and living a conventionally normal life. Just don’t get too involved in talking to him, lest you be tagged by his paranoia.
We hired a handyman a few years back (when Obama was still president) to take care of a few things at my stepdaughter’s house. He did really good work, but my wife came across his FB page and there were all kinds of racist anti-Obama posts, so she decided we wouldn’t be hiring him again.
If he’s done some work for her, she’s probably heard it before. It’s not like she’s responsible for what her contractor says, but for the contractor it’s an odd way to introduce yourself to potential clients.
Yesterday, I shit you not, a gratuitous reference to Obama showed up in a thread about Italian Beef on a Facebook group page I subscribe to. A thread about food. For some reason, some whackjob all-caps poster decided anyone who didn’t like his favorite Italian beef place probably voted for Obama. I mean, come the fuck on. It was a complete non-sequitor; nobody mentioned politics in the thread; none of these Italian beef joints are associated publicly with any political stance. Just completely out of left field. Politics is a mental illness for some people. People talk about “Trump derangement syndrome,” but Obama and Clinton derangement syndrome is far more prevalent. Let it go, kids–they ain’t president anymore, and one of them hasn’t been president since last century.