My mom lives with me. She will make a political statement. If it's opinion, I just ignore. But, if she says something political that is false, I say "mom that's not true....here's why..." this leads to her bursting into tears and feeling attacked. I hate not being able to have a convo, but I'm tired of this massive guilt trip she puts on me. Any advice?
As for your Mom, why not look up the information together.... there is PolitiFact website, and FactCheck. Both are good, and both are bipartisan. I like PolitiFact's "pants on fire" meter whenever a person has said or written something outrageously incorrect. There is also Snopes for fact checking.
Or just say to Mom "I will check on that later" and hopefully she will forget about what she said.
And if the person has dementia, then there is even less reason to try to correct them. Their brain will not allow new learning and even if you did get through, they would likely forget the conversation, so, I'd let that go too. I mean, if you know it's not true, then, how does it hurt anything if they are wrong in their facts? Why not let her be happy in her own world thinking she's right. Being told she's wrong likely embarrasses her and makes her feel silly. There is no reason to correct her, imo. And there is no reason for you to feel guilty. Just try to let her see it her way and you see it yours.
If you feel the need for her to get her facts straight, perhaps printing out an accurate account of the topic and just leaving it for her to read or not would avoid some of the tears.
I don't know what your mother's impairments are, and that would make a difference. Recovering from knee surgery is vastly different than having dementia or depression. That might make a difference in how to treat this.