Mom launched into a 20-minute tirade, imho correctly, about how shitty my redneck stepfamily is (except for my stepbrother and stepdad, who are definitely still Ohio Guys, but genuinely really nice Ohio Guys).

I'm still laughing, especially about the part where she found out they were all exploiting my stepgrandfather's property, and she got to cancel their car insurance and electricity out from under them. It's a long story why Mom had control of them in the first place (keyword: "extreme ingratitude for tremendous emotional labor"), but she got off scot-free because they honestly thought they were ripping Grandpa off in secret.

I think I must have used the phrase "don't exactly see me playing devil's advocate here" about six times during our conversation. :)