Would an uncle’s bad behavior worry you?

If your uncle’s social media postings were filled with profanities, misspellings, grammatical errors, bigoted rantings, declarations referring to himself as king and declaring “Long live the king!” and AI images of himself as the pope or a muscled, sword-wielding lord, you’d urge him to visit his doctor for cognitive testing.

If your 79-year-old uncle fell victim to unhinged conspiracy theories like Pizzagate, President Obama faked the killing of Osama bin Laden, the 2020 election was rigged, windmills cause cancer and drinking chlorine prevents COVID, if he believed clearly photoshopped images were real or if he took off protective sunglasses to gaze naked-eyed at a solar eclipse, you’d be worried about his well-being.

If your senior citizen uncle describes everything he sees as “like no one has ever seen before!” and makes delusional statements such as “I run the country and the world” and if he spreads misinformation he “heard” and his holiday messages always include ugly insults and attacks, you’d be very concerned about his mental health.

If your doddering uncle believed toy-maker Mattel was a country and declared two dolls were enough for any child and if he had boasted about kissing and grabbing without permission and had been found guilty of sexual assault by a jury, you’d want to make sure he was never left alone with your children.

Maybe you have an uncle like that. Mary Trump does.

Jane Cox

Wheaton