Plus ca change

The "bubble mate" who left my house in high dudgeon a few weeks agon when I called them out for ridiculous and uncorroborateable accusations against Meghan Duchess of Sussex and her husband. Pronouncements against "Princess Pinnocchio" have become a stock in trade for this friend and it gradually began to grate and then annoy me. I asked them to desist, then begged them and finally warned them before letting them have the full force of my displeasure which they'd not witnessed before causing them to flee...

...They returned last week. Little has changed: they thought the reason I lost it previously was that they had spouted a particularly stupid conspiracy theory which nobody but the people involved could know was true or not AND they'd made a pathetic mistake about what they'd read. They had been "researching" stuff this time in preparation for a round two I was not interested in playing... The fact that the "new evidence" came from the same sources as before was not lost on me. I laughed at them for thinking it was that important to me and tried to finally get them to understand that their sources can't be trusted because they're openly at war with the couple and that I have zero trust for "the media" who are more interested in making stories than telling the truth. My other friend and me accepted it would be business as usual: the friend in question is used to getting their own way- at least within family and friend circles where they are rarely challenged. Interestingly; it is clear that they're rarely challenged because most people can't be bothered with or fear the hystrionics that inevitably follow. I am not one of those people, but I accept that we all contribute to the fantasy world they occupy as payment for a comparatively quiet life when they're around.

It does sound questionable why I should have anyone like that in my life. In fact, for the most part, this friend is fun to be around. Its also true that as they've got to know me they've grown more relaxed or at least less guarded so that some of the (shocking) beliefs and attitudes they hold just come out. It is interesting: I know that if I'd heard them say some of the things they say now when I first met them I would not have made a friendship with them. I don't believe they are knowingly racist, I think they have a chronic case of unconscious bias because they base everything on their immediate experiences. Past involvement in a local Black dance club and the friends they made there have, in their mind, made them Black! -In all sincerity!! "because that's how I feel". Therefore they're immune to criticism of their behaviours towards and comments about "people of the global majority"(!) -which are rarely directly offensive, just depressingly ignorant and uninformed so naturally delivered with immense confidence. 

I find that I can (belly)laugh at most of it. There is a line, however and should it be crossed again, I will have no compunction in cutting them off permanently.