AITA for acting like a c**spiracy theorist to get out of political arguments with my Dad?

A Redditor explained their tactic for avoiding political arguments with their father, who loves to stir up debates for the sake of conflict. The Redditor decided to play along with increasingly absurd conspiracy theories to make their father back off.

This strategy has been successful, but their mother now criticizes them for appearing dismissive and irrational. Read the original story below for more details on how this approach has played out in family dynamics.

‘ AITA for acting like a c**spiracy theorist to get out of political arguments with my Dad?’

My Dad loves to have political arguments/“discussions” with me and other members of the family. I honestly think he does not care about half these issues and just wants to have fights with me and other people in the family. I have tried to simply opt out of them, but my Dad will get upset at me for “not participating with the family dynamic” and “never talking to him.”

I also don’t really want him to have these discussions with other members of my family, since they almost always end up in hurt feelings. I’ve been looking for a redirect for a while. I read a post online on doubling down whenever someone says a c**spiracy theory,

for example if someone says “they faked the moon landing” you say “haha, you sucker, you believe the moon is real?” I decided to implement the strategy after getting into way too many political arguments and upsetting myself and everyone around me.

My Dad saw something about climate change and started talking about how the Chinese government partnered with Obama to make it all up. I truly did not want to get into this political discussion. Instead I said, “oh, you’ve heard that,

well get this” and discussed my new theory about how the federal government has created a tornado machine to set on people who want to vote Republican in the next election. He was truly flabbergasted at how stupid this was and decided to stop talking to me about this. It was wonderful.

I’ve been doing it even more, and I haven’t had a political argument in a whole month. This Christmas, he had a d**zy planned. My aunt and her wife are feminist and very pro-choice. At the dinner table, he tried to do a toast to the “death of Planned Parenthood.” Let me note that he is pro-choice, really doesn’t care about this issue, and has said so several times.

I think he just wanted to start a fight for the sport of it. Time and place! I said, “oh, thank God you mentioned it, I have to tell you this news I learned” and I talked about how Planned Parenthood does not in fact perform abortions, since it’s physically impossible, but instead removes entire uteruses and replaces them with dog uteruses.

I received a lecture about “not taking people’s political views seriously” from my Mom. I said it was just a strategy I use to diffuse political discussions. My Mom said, “you’re just making yourself look dismissive at best and insane at worst.”

These are the responses from Reddit users:

Scryb_Kincaid −  NTA – Did you know birds all went extinct and the ones we see now are fake?

[Reddit User] −  NTA. Your dad sounds like a s**t stirrer. Is he the type of person who starts an argument and then backs out of it while everyone else argues with each other?

AMPenguin −  YWBTA if you didn’t share some more of these batshit arguments with us.

[Reddit User] −  NTA. At the dinner table, he tried to do a toast to the “death of Planned Parenthood.” Let me note that he is pro-choice, really doesn’t care about this issue, and has said so several times. I think he just wanted to start a fight for the sport of it. Time and place!. […]

I received a lecture about “not taking people’s political views seriously” from my Mom. I said it was just a strategy I use to diffuse political discussions. My Mom said, “you’re just making yourself look dismissive at best and insane at worst.” Your dad makes tRiGgeRiNg tHe LiBs into an entire personality trait and your mother picks on *you* for acting dismissive/insane? :-/

[Reddit User] −  NTA. You’re the real MVP. Of course you’re not the a**hole, this is a tactic called farce where you poke holes in ridiculous beliefs by exaggerating them to improbable extremes. Keep doing what you’re doing.

[Reddit User] −  NTA. “Mom, I’ve tried telling Dad I don’t want to be constantly talking politics, especially when he gets such a kick out of needling people with it. If you’re going to unilaterally sign me up for a game I don’t want to play, you shouldn’t be surprised when I don’t play to win.”

abyssalcrisis −  Ha! NTA because people like your dad are insufferable. (No offense to him, but really.)

singlechickLA −  NTA – your dad is a IRL Twitter troll! You should tell everyone about this fun trick and just talking crazy whenever your dad starts up. Even better pull up nutters on the phone and make him look at it till he gets tired of the ‘fun’.

He can keep playing his game online till he gets bored or trolled by equal assholes. If your mom wants to play his childish games that’s on her she married him but I doubt others enjoy it.

redeye1140 −  Omg this is great! NTA! All I can say is maybe find one topic he is super passionate about like global warming for example and go all out. Predict what he will want to talk about and make a damn binder.

Blow him and his arguments out of the water with facts and sources. After a big burn like that with people around he won’t want to discuss things like that with you anymore.

Zmoibe −  NTA, this is plain brilliant. Your dad sounds like a straight up firestarter and you have figured out how to outmaneuver him and take out most of the fun of his assholery. Likely if you keep this up long enough he will stop with you at least.

If he continues to do this with other people and family members just tell them to do this and boom, his tactics are ruined. If your mom is going to lecture you in some serious way, straight up ask her why exactly it is ok for him to do what he has been doing but not ok for you to do something to stop it.

Is the Redditor justified in using this tactic to avoid political arguments, or have they crossed a line into disrespecting their father and family? How would you handle a situation like this? Share your thoughts below!