well, again, I don’t know the situation – when he approached you, has he ever offered any indication these views he’s held are changing? Or is he still actively praising the orange turd? Because if you’ve set a clear boundary that you don’t want that type of person in your life, it’s not a good idea to go back on it. I wouldn’t want that type of person in my life. I don’t. I’m very grateful I’ve not had to cut off any family because of it, yet.

Love them, support them if they desperately need your help, but there is not a single person in my life I know or have known whom I would willingly welcome into my world who pursued an engineering degree who actively espouses harmful ideologies, those that make rich men richer and sets poor people fighting each other over culture wars, or actual wars sending kids off to die in far corners of the world. And when you take those ideologies to their extremes, you get gas chambers and world wars.

If they don’t know the harm they cause (and that they’re assisting in by supporting), then make it a teachable moment. Show them the consequences of supporting fascism – show them Don’t Be a Sucker, show them photos from concentration camps or testimony from the Nuremberg trials, show them how right-wing authoritarianism is harmful to everyone. Show them the parallels between the historical atrocities that right-wing populism has been used to justify, and how they connect to the actions of the men now in power. If they know about the harm and don’t care, I’m not sure how I could actively welcome someone like that into my life.

I’m probably not telling you anything new with my rambling, I’m just spitballing. You’ve probably thought a lot more about this than I have and tried plenty, I don’t know the situation; but I empathize with your predicament greatly. Nobody wants to cut family out of their lives, we all want to see our kin be the best they can be.