Thank you for sharing your painful story of a father who has swallowed the poison pill of Fox News and the Trump cult. And thank you for your emotionally mature, insightful, and compassionate response.

Your story reminded me of Ionesco’s allegory of fascism called “Rhinoceros” in which the protagonist finds himself in a nightmarish scenario where everyone around him is turning into a rhinoceros, while he does his best to cling to his humanity. Ionesco chose the rhinoceros as his literalized symbol because it is a brutal, mindless follower of the herd — like those who were swept up in, and infected by, Hitler’s toxic charisma. The parallels are terrifying; as a professor before I retired in 2017, I watched with horror as several of my students turned into Trumpian rhinoceroses right before my eyes. I was glad to retire at that point!