I'm not sure this is a hard enough subject for this forum but here goes anyway.

About two years ago, my wife (whom I shall call Ann) got a new best friend, whom I shall call Jill. Jill's husband, whom I shall call John, is on SSI due to a late-in-life acquired mental disability -- paranoid schizophrenia I think, but I can’t swear to it. I know he takes a cocktail of medications for it as well as weekly outpatient visits. Having known him for these last few years, I can see why. At least until lately.

We two couples started socializing once or twice a month to play cards – Spades or Hearts mostly. They are both killer players. Ann and I aren’t bad either. During the game-play John would always steer the conversation to the latest of his imagined conspiracy theories – chemtrails, mind control, weather control, drug experiments, wiretapping, etc. During the first few visits, before I knew him well, I would try to dissuade him from such beliefs but doing so would just irritate him all the more. I was becoming part of “the conspiracy” very quickly. Well, long story short, I didn’t want to infringe upon the friendship my wife had for his and besides, he was a great card player. So instead of arguing with him, and because ignoring him would be (considered by Ann to be) rude, I just started agreeing with him. The first night I did this it made Ann even more angry. Jill wasn’t too pleased either, or so I heard. John didn’t seem to have a problem with it. Whatever he said, I not only agreed but gave further evidence supporting his claim. Needless to say, he ate it up You can’t imagine the hell I paid that night after they left. I hope so because I don’t want to talk about it.

The next time we played I went half the night either not saying anything to him or doing my best to change the subject. After a few beers, the agreement just started pouring out of me. Ann was visibly angry and Jill was getting noticeable nervous. Then, just a little, John started disagreeing with me. Just a little. As soon as he did, Jill went from being notable nervous to notably surprised. The evening ended without further incident. Yes, I once again caught hell from Ann but that’s a different subject.

Right before their next visit Ann asked me if I would do exactly what I did last time. She told me that Jill told her that it was not only okay for me to agree but that she wished I would. So I did and it went pretty good that night. It was a spade night and I was the only person John would partner with. We kicked butt while we discussed just about every conspiracy that exists. I not only agreed, I egged him on all night. So much so that Ann was again angry. Jill, on the other hand, just smiled. I know why now but I wasn’t sure of why then. Near the end of the evening, John actually accused me of overreacting.

This progressed during the next few visits to the point where I was the one that had to bring up conspiracies and John was the one that tried to change the subject.

He’s off all but one of his meds and SSI as well, or so Jill tells Ann who tells me. He’s now has a construction job and is doing quite well.