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

Yes same…I used to argue back but I realised he will never change. He’s nearly 80 and I just humour him now as the conspiracies are harmless ones, just infuriating they he actually believes them.

Colleague is fully into everything vaguely CT. He says they aren't conspiracy, as they are the truth. If it comes from 'authority' it's a lie.
He spends every available minute researching his 'truths'.
I usually just say 'so what do you intend to do about it?'

The thing I don't understand is why don't they try and do something about whatever rather than rant about it. It's something about a sense of powerlessness I think. If you don't like the loss of cash, get involved in a campaign group (there must be one) or write to your MP or something. Don't rant at your loved one who can't change anything.

You can’t reason someone out of a believe that they haven’t reasoned themselves into..

My dad is a bit similar and I just told him he needed to stop because I was on the edge of insanity about it all already and I can only cope if I buy into it all since we can't change it - as if I kind of agreed with him but couldn't talk about it. It was fairly effective tbh.

My MIL is the same. I have gone very low contact with her. I do worry what shit she is feeding my husband though as he thinks a lot of what she is saying makes sense.

Oh I can relate and sympathise. It sucks the joy out of everything. My ex never met a conspiracy theory he didn't like.
I have no solution. If you reckon to agree with them it gets worse, if you disagree you get phrases like sheeple and wake up.
My usual response was 'that's beyond my sphere of influence' and attempt to change the subject.

This sounds hilarious 😂

she’s a middle aged housewife who really needs to get a job.

Would she need to get a job, if she was content to stay in her box and not have opinions you disagree with? Or perhaps all middle- aged ‘housewives’ need to get a (proper) job, rather than having too much time on their hands to think! How patronising!

Get him to watch The Why Files on YouTube.

They delve into absolutely every conspiracy theory there is - and debunks them at the end. The co-host is a goldfish called Hecklefish and he wears a tinfoil hat 😆

Isn't the issue the fervour with which they express themselves? I know a couple of people like this and they can hardly pause for breath. Thing is there might be nuggets that are true within their rant but they lose all credibility with the panic ranting way of speaking.

I listened to podcasts and read stuff looking for tips in how to deal with them. The suggestion I tried was to calmly engage with the rant and ask calm questions about their beliefs. Gently pull it apart. I tried that and it kinda helped but not really. I would simply say things like - what evidence do you have that supports what you say about the loss of cash being a control issue? Who is trying to control us? Can you name those that are trying to control us? Why are they trying to control us? What is the overall point of the control? And so on. But I warn you it's exhausting and not sure it makes much difference.

I have a Facebook friend who is like this, and it all started around covid time. She was a lovely person before, but now seems very angry and aggressive.

SIL is like this. We’ve all basically phased her out. We see her on birthdays etc, but we’ve set up different group chats so she can’t spam us with her latest nonsense.

She gets most of her classified information from Facebook, she’s a middle aged housewife who really needs to get a job.

My Dad is exactly the same. Lockdown sent him funny, he wasn't like this before but he spend 2 years on his own with nothing to do and spent too long on the internet.

No advice just solidarity it's infuriating.