Midnight encounter with an ancient Russian Jewish space scientist Trump supporter.

[byronius]

Yeah, tell me about it.

Walking the dog Saturday night, I stopped to let him pass by. He asked about my dog, and we ended up in a mildly interesting conversation while we walked together. Family, Soviet history, German history, rocketry, microbiology -- his accent was incredibly thick and he struggled with words, but it was still reasonably fascinating.

Twenty years he's been in the United States. Divorced, left his kids and extended family behind to come to Davis of all places. Does SEO optimization and writes tech journal stuff. In 1965 he was building space launch vehicles, now he's got to be in his mid eighties at least and working from his home.

He said he was a Bill Clinton supporter but turned on him during the 'bombing of Belgrade'. Then he said he now thinks Donald Trump is the Best President Ever.

I ask him about Radovan Karadzic. Never heard of him. Doesn't want to discusss mass rapes or mass murders of villagers. All lies told by the New York Times and Washington Post, well known purveyors of Soviet-style propaganda, he said. He would know, he assured me. He did not believe the Soviet propaganda even at the peak of the commissar's power.

I want to know his sources. He resists. Not Fox, he insists. Not Hannity. Factual sources that prove Donald Trump is the Best and Barack Obama is the Worst.

What are they? Ah, let's change the subject suddenly. Everytime I ask for this fountain of fact he is drinking from, he dodges.

The Left is violent. The Left is the Darling of the NeoNazis. The Tax cuts have restored the nation to economic perfection! Liberals hate Jews and want them exterminated, there is proof. The Antifa are murdering everyone -- they are the fascists! Cohen and Manafort prove there is no collusion!

Yeeesh, I'm stuck in Crazytown with this old nutcake. I stayed civil and began the process of withdrawing, at one point just shaking his hand and saying goodnight and walking away. I did speak my piece before I left; I told him it was disconcerting that any intelligent person could find their way into such a poisonous and false reality, and that I hope he would read the Mueller report and at least consider that he has made a Terrible Mistake.

Mueller hires only rabid Democrats! Oy with this stuff.

Where are you getting all this? Right before I left, when I'd had enough, I zeroed in. Where would I go to read all of this crap?

"Russian online media."

Ohhhhh.

Got it.

And I walked off down the street. Got home at one thirty after miles of walking. Dog got the best of it.

[chowder66]

1. Wow. I figured it was facebook. nt

[DBoon]

2. you mean reposted Russian online media?

Carefully rebranded to obscure its source and make it acceptable to gullible Americans?

[chowder66]

3. Yes. nt

[harumph]

4. Disturbing how even intelligent people can get sucked in.

And incredibly sad that he actually believes the left is the "darling of the NeoNazis."

"Certainly anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit injustices."

[byronius]

5. I found it startling. But -- old, alone, no one to talk to (his words) --

A stranger in a strange land, and his native-language news speaks in the only language he truly trusts.

I pointed out to him that there were many, many cultured, well-read, intelligent, Christian Nazis and talked about how intelligence is no secure harbor from fascistic propaganda.

He disagreed. "Lies, all lies," was his constant catchphrase.

Trump's message rings loudest in the ears of the mentally ill, the alone, the small, the lost, the angry. He struck me as one of those.

[Number9Dream]

6. I work with a Ukranian immigrant... same news source.

He and wife emigrated to the U.S. for purely economic reasons. He's late 50's. He served a few years in the USSR army. He believes every word on Russian media. We have to avoid talking politics or even current events. He lives in a different reality.

[BSdetect]

7. Another twisted pretzel brain