I have a friend i've known for over 40 years and i keep evading his phone calls

[tulipsandroses]

53. I understand. I have a similar situation. Its hard having a rational conversation with people that consume RW garbage

I've always known that my friend was on the conservative side, prone to believing conspiracy theories. He was a "9/11 truther" in the age of Bush. At one point he believed some of the nutty sovereign citizen nonsense.

Despite his nutty beliefs, we've always had a good friendship. Friends in common, we are both huge sports fans and spent many good times watching our favorite teams. So lots of good memories there. We have both supported each other in difficult times in the past. When his mom passed away after kidney failure and efforts to get a donor kidney failed, I was there for him. Likewise, he was there for me during some difficult times.

Despite him being more conservative, he used to be open to reason. Not anymore. I got him to change his mind about marriage equality. He understood rational arguments about the legal issues of marriage equality. This was pre RW social media.
He can no longer be reasoned with. Youtube has rotted his brain.
I no longer spend time trying to convince him that his beliefs are nonsense RW propaganda. Not worth my mental health. I don't know if our friendship survives. I've avoided his calls since the election. Spoke to him once after the election and he called me an elite. Mind boggling. We grew up in the same neighborhood. I said, really, 3 billionaires, including the world's richest man bought the election, but somehow I am elite? Then he went into bothsiderisms.
Haven't spoken to him since that time.

The only advice I can give is to stop trying to reason with folks like this. Its futile. There is no reasoning. Facts no longer matter.