I'm not sure if my story belongs here, but I wanted to share it.

I don't think my friend was ever fully into Q. He loves conspiracy theories and sometimes falls for bits of them, like saying about the Vegas shooting, "I don't doubt he did it, but he must have had help and he was just the fall guy."

He's smart enough to know the 5G and Vaccine Tracker crap his family believes is utter nonsense, but every once in a while he would say something vaguely Q-ish. Something like, "Trump has some kind of grand plan, it just isn't the time to start it yet." Or, "I don't think the Pizzagate

Now, I love debating politics, much to my father-in-law's annoyance. It's how I grew up. Everyone in my family was able to freely state their own ideas with the understanding that the rest of us would do our best to poke holes in their logic and you had to defend your position. As well as loving a good debate, I am also a self proclaimed, "leftist nutjob." Personally I think Americanism such as the Pledge of Allegiance is cult-like and dangerous, countries shouldn't exist, and our currency should be based on something more substantial and easily regulated than the hopes and wishes of a select few people who's best interests are to squeeze every resource out of the lives of people and the very planet itself. I am very used to having to back up my arguments against a room full of people who disagree with me.

My friend has never had this kind of interaction with people, but he himself says he enjoys the challenge of putting up a fight for your ideas rather than just having someone automatically agree with you.

Now, my friend and I were having a debate about guns. I personally don't like guns, but I'm fine with other people having them. With a history of depression I just don't think I can trust myself with a firearm in the house. Our conversation went something like this.

Me: Nobody on the left has ever wanted to take your guns away, that has always been a Right-wing scare tactic. What we want is proper education, licensing, and registration for firearms. The same as a car, different sizes of vehicles need different amounts of training depending on the danger they introduce to people and property, as well as you must register those vehicles to your name so they may be accounted for in case of theft or wrongdoing.

Him: Well if you are going to argue for education of firearms, I say that firearm safety should be taught in schools. It's part of the constitution, so should be included in the public education curriculum.

Me: If we're going to bring Constitutional literalism into this, I say we add onto that Religious Studies classes, and not just Christian Studies, but a complete education on the top ten religions of the world so that people can make informed decisions on what they want to follow in their faith if they choose to follow any at all.

Him: ......I think I agree with you.....

That small agreement opened a small hole of doubt into his world view. We discussed how he claims to support things like gay and Trans rights yet votes for people who do their best to treat those communities as sub-human. We talked about the BLM movement, and I explained to him what systematic racism really is, and how events from hundreds of years ago can still be seen and felt today. He had no idea what Red-Lining or Black Wall Street were. He believes that drugs are a symptom of something like mental health problems, addiction, or pain management when people have lack of access to proper health care, and I asked him why he voted for people who view people who use drugs as criminals rather than victims and would rather lock them in a cell than get them the treatment they need.

Then, today, to my surprise, before we talked about anything else he told me, "I'm switching parties. I feel like I've been shooting myself in the foot just because I've always been told it's what I'm supposed to do."

I don't know what this means for his future, and I don't know what this means for his relationship with his family, but that's already on shaky ground as it is for other reasons. I hope he continues to educate himself on his own beliefs, and I hope we continue to debate in the future.