My dad is a massive conspiracy theorist and it's so frustrating

I still find it a bit sad. He had some good qualities, but his views became more extreme. Anger at Vaccines, other views revealed him basically as a misogynist. It has now caused issues in his own home

@catin8oots but they're not house-trained. Can't have them indoors I'd rather have a dozen Witnesses at the door.

I've got a family member like this. They won't drink tap water as mind controlling chemicals are being added to it, won't get their children vaccinated against anything, the illuminati exist and the day of reckoning is upon us. I've given up arguing with them. They 100% believe everything they spout. Sadly, friends and family are beginning to avoid them.

I suspect deeper rooted mental health issues.

I have a friend whose husband is like this. He's racist, homophobic, anti-Semitic (an actual real life holocaust denier) and one of the most unintelligent people I've ever met. Why my friend is still married to him I will never understand.

People like this think they are very very intelligent, and the rest of us are idiots. They are the “only ones” who have worked it all out. We are all “sheep”

Rather than they are easily led people, who interact within an echo chamber of other fantasists, who desperately want to believe they are important, but in reality, have very little personal power.

Oh I love me a conspiracy fantasist! I find them fascinating and hilarious in equal amounts.

BIL is the same - each time a “theory” gets debunked (eg microchips inside vaccines) he moves onto the next one. Wayfair shipping toddlers for sale inside furniture was a particularly enlightening one! And all controlled by Hilary Clinton apparently.

Believing in bollocks because you're not bright enough to understand how things actually works is pretty common.

If one person believes in bollocks they're mad.
If a hundred people believe in bollocks they're a cult.
If a million people believe in bollocks they're a religion.

It's still just bollocks.

It's really sad isn't it. Vulnerable people preyed on by conspiracy theorists spreading their weird rubbish.

As @Jewel1968 says, isn't the issue the fact that he keeps giving his views and ranting rather than the views themselves. It's interesting isn't it. There are many things in life that my views don't align with friends or family but we just accept it and don't bring it up. We certainly don't try to persuade others to agree. It seems the more niche the theory the more vocal the conspiracy theorist is.

We had a friend like this. He seemed to become worse since Covid. No longer any contact as he would dominate conversations with his views and it became too much.

So he believes the really horrible racist/anti-semitic stuff? Can you reduce your contact with him?

You can spot them a mile off. They have stock phrases and 'sheep' or 'sheeple' and 'non believers' or the 'unawake'.... it feels very cult like

Oh god yes! My sensible, intelligent father has gone down a rabbit warren of social media nonsense and can’t tell fact from fiction. He thinks Trump is a great guy and conversations are impossible. I miss being able to talk to him.

Sadly some people are more prone to this. A tiny grain of truth and some will then believe absorbs of things. I mean who in 2024 thinks the earth is flat. It feels like intelligence is failing some who watch YouTube and twitter

My sister is bordering on this, but hasn't quite got to this stage. She is still in what I call "Daily Mail" mode.

If she starts on a rant I have started saying "is this from the daily mail or is there any actual truth in it". It did take the wind out of her sails the first time I said it 😁

My mam and her friends are a lot like it, sharing videos of what's really in our food and water, everything is a conspiracy to get us to vote a certain way (though this is every election so I never understand WHO is meant to be setting this up 😂)

It's a cult like all other cults. I swear if Trump or Russell Brand suggested they all drink the Kool Aid, they would do it. Even if it were true, and we are 'all being controlled' for some unknown nefarious purpose, so what? What are 'they' going to do to us? Apart from 'controlling' us. Presumably there's a greater purpose yet to be revealed.

God I wouldn't encourage getting involved with campaign groups. We had a march locally to do with a conspiracy theory. They just encourage each other.

I'd encourage engagement with something small scale and real - a gardening volunteer group, reading to young children, delivering for a food bank, helping out at Cubs. And I think just saying 'oh well I don't believe all that Dad. Anyway, the local have got a guest beer on, shall we go?'

Oh I know a few of these.

They spent lockdown berating the rest of us for "living in fear" whilst simultaneously spending a lot of time trying to convince everyone that we are all going to die of the vaccine, microchips are secretly being inserted into our children, the elites are trying to depopulate the world, the great collapse is on the way, and martial law is coming to the streets any day now.

I know who I think is "living in fear" 😂

I genuinely believe that COVID fried some people's brains, created more incredibly paranoid people, especially when people were already mentally vulnerable.