My (28F) dad (51m) suddenly thinks the coronavirus is all a hoax used to control people. He's always been level-headed, and just snapped. What do I do?

My dad has always been rather quiet, politically. He's a registered Democrat and votes down party lines, but any time politics comes up he's quick to leave the conversation with "I try to avoid the news." He's been this way my whole life.

This morning my mom called me to tell me she's living with a complete stranger. She said last night something sparked in him, and he started going on and on about how the Coronavirus is all a conspiracy theory by the government (I guess all of them?) that the numbers being reported aren't genuine because most people died from their pre-existing conditions, not the virus, that it's all just a government ploy to control us and exert force on us. Obviously this is ridiculous. Neither of my parents lost their jobs over this, though my dad's hours were severely cut. Why he suddenly feels this way is beyond me. We live in New York, one of the hardest-hit states. In our extended family we've had two confirmed cases of the virus, one requiring hospitalization, and we have an ICU nurse in the family as well. We also have several immune-compromised family members that would die from this if they got it. When my mother started arguing that he needs to learn his facts, he countered with something along the lines of "you can't believe what the news networks say... they are telling you what to think... it's all opinions anyway and this is my opinion."

It escalated into a pretty heated argument that in turn caused my mother to call me about it this morning to basically say "You're father is crazy!" Now I know he is probably getting these ideas from some of his friends or some radio shows he listens to, I'm not that curious about the source; whatever it is it's not going away. Here's my dilemma: obviously I want to address this in some capacity. We have a social - distancing birthday party planned for my mom this weekend, and it's the only chance I will get to see him in a casual setting. I'd love to bring this up to him, to ask about it, but I'm not even sure how to go about it other than "Hey, I heard you are insane now."

What can I do? Also... How do I put him on the correct path of knowledge acquisition if he actually is stubborn enough to refuse to read the news? I don't want my parents of 28 years to divorce because my dad is suddenly a fucking idiot.

TL;DR: Out of nowhere (and contrary to personal family facts) my dad thinks the coronavirus is a hoax. He refuses facts, basically saying they are fake news. How do I help him?

Submitted April 30, 2020 at 12:22PM by whathappeneddad3 https://ift.tt/3cWUgkq