This is not discourse

By the end of the evening, dad was echoing my call for a truce on the political discussions. Mom would not yield. Eventually, the two of them disagreed about something and dad basically said to mom the same thing I've been saying for days: "You don't listen, and you twist my words around." It would probably be unfair to blame Fox News-- she's probably argued this way her whole life-- but her style certainly echoes theirs. Last year I still worked at a place where Fox News was considered legitimate, and I often had no choice but to watch it in the gym at work. One day, Donald Trump was being interviewed on one of the morning shows and he was saying the Iraq war was a debacle. The Fox interviewer asked him why he was pro-Saddaam. And this is the way conversations go with my mom. To appreciate how absurd these discussions are, let's consider one apart from heated political context:

Mom: Are you going to run this morning?
A.: No, my legs are sore.
Mom: So you think fitness is unimportant.
A.: That's not what I said...
Mom: You think the world would be a better place if nobody ran.
A.: As far as I'm concerned, this conversation is over.