I lost my best friend to this crap, too. I miss her every day. The loss is deep, but I cannot, and will not let any of that into my life. It is human nature for survival purposes to reject threats from outside, but somehow Putin/Trump have managed to convince some that the threat exists where it doesn't. I wish there were a solution. There isn't.

@Organist1 We certainly can't develop a solution while Putin has a stranglehold on our politics, and our leaders won't talk about it or do anything about it.

@racocn8 Any solution would take a long time, and would certainly involve some kind of cooperation, which would now be impossible. I'm not looking forward to seeing what's going to happen around here in the next few years.

@Organist1 Things with my twin have been on the rocks since birth, we've always been very different - personality wise - the propaganda over trump's 2016 election and the 2nd attempt to regain the WH pushed it beyond the breaking point. We were never close and now it's pretty well done.
Your best friend though has to be a real challenge.

We have been building to this sort of cyber invasion for a while. Fox media was very blatant about it but the more moterate "left" leaning outlets did little to nothing to counter the far right. The talk radio on AM radio in rural areas is horrible and that constant vile hate has been going on for over 20 years.
I've really never had a TV and the times I did it was for the ex(s) to watch sports or movies. On 9/11 the only TV was off a repeater station above the valley on Peoh Point. We turned it on to get Mariner baseball highlights from the night before. The first tower was on fire and I watched the 2nd plane fly into tower 2. My ex goes "guess no baseball highlites today". But I knew we were in deep shit. So I paid more attention and we signed up for DISH TV.
I knew there were no WMDs and the ONLY time CNN aired the final report that showed Bush had lied was at the start of their broadcast day, 6am east coast time. 3am my time, I couldn't sleep so had the TV on. CNN reported that Bush lied about the WMDs. The story was never added to the daily loop of stories for that day. Of course fox never mentioned it nor did the talk radio guys. We were off to the races and wide open for the "aternative" facts. I and like minded folks I know could see it coming but nothing we said altered the course. WE DID change local politics and state wide water law for a closed basin.

@silverotter11 Your twin...oh no! That awful. I'm so sorry. My best friend actually sustained a traumatic brain injury, which permanently destroyed her judgment. She has no critical thinking skills now, though she seems with it if you didn't know her before. She is now a RABID Trumper and religious fundie. And, she is the daughter of Holocaust survivors.

@Organist1 A bad brain injury certainly explains her thinking and judgement skills. That's so sad.
My younger sister and I can not figure what happened to my twin. Her right leaning goes back to Reagan. Our dad was still alive back then and he was also puzzled by her lack of critical thinking.
My younger sister is pagan, I'm atheist, our dad was atheist and my twin is very religious. The other issue is all my twin watches for news is fox, oann, newsmax and she has added the Epoch Times.

Clearly, we are de-evolving.

Fascists understand human nature well. That's why they are so successful when they exploit the fear of isolation and death. I read Hoffer's book as a young psychology major, and understood it in the context of Nazi Germany and the racist Southern U.S. Rational politicians (most contemporary Democrats in this country) don't seem to get the fact that you can't use reason to counteract cancer. You have to fight back with everything you can muster. The minds of people who believe Trump is the messiah can't be deprogrammed en masse, but they can be contained if they break the law, and must be vigorously.