Covid denier

Exactly. And as a pp pointed out, once you start searching things about your niche views, you get bombarded with affirming content.

Do front line nurses have the skills and access to equipment to sequence the genes in the virus and then compare the results to see if it was natural genetic drift or something else? If not, how do you suggest one can find out if it's "man made"?

I see lots of out and proud anti vaxers on dating apps

Respectfully why would one random nurse know better than all the experts around the world 🤔

Perhaps invite him to a date at the edge of the earth … you’ll meet him there, then block

Respectfully, if she was, as you say, 'on the frontline' and reckons it was 'man-made', why do you assume to know better than she does?

There are plenty of them out there. They really are that dim. And they're off a lead !!

Just raise a (digital) eyebrow and then block him.

Yes.

Also, the days before broadband, smartphones, algorithms and AI.

When people used to have to make an effort to get online, they were less vulnerable to wild claims. Sure, they could switch their computer on, connect their dial-up and find websites but they got most of their information from non digital sources with clear ownership and provenance. They read the articles that were in the newspaper they chose to buy, not ones that Google selected for them based on data that Google had collected about them. If they did come across eccentric claims on a website, after they'd removed themselves from the internet they'd have a conversation about it with the next real life person they spoke to, someone who actually knew them, and get some distance and clarity.

Now, a person reading eccentric claims will be fed more of the same, by a device that they have with them all the time without which they struggle to access commercial transactions, entertainment, social activities and, often, work. To an extent they can still be pulled out of it by a friendly chat. But when this coincides with a period of isolation/withdrawal from regular human contact, through eg illness, personal difficulty, pandemic, some of that protective effect is lost.

Plus as you say the eccentric claims are given extra clout in the first place by this moronic notion that all opinions are valid, that personal experience trumps knowledge, that anecdata is significant information.

I have a friend who’s a total fruitloop. Covid denier, anti-vaccine (& she’s survived leukaemia!), anti processed foods, gov’t is using our phones etc to track us - pretty sure she also thinks that the moon landings were faked.

On the plus side, she has a heart of gold and will do anything for any of her friends. So we just challenge her more idiotic ideas and nod along with the others (I might have texted to say I was getting my microchip replaced when I had my booster).

Then we have my closest friend’s husband. He has gone totally off his rocker with conspiracy theories. Also denies COVID despite seeing how ill I was when I got it. With him we’re doing our dammdest to change his mind as it’s also changing his character.

I agree though that it’s far easier for people to fall down these rabbit holes now and harder to change minds because the more they research / respond to conspiracy stuff the more they see links to them and wilder ones.

Had to laugh at one I read somewhere,Flat earthers were going to have a global conference😁

The days when they were a lone voice surrounded by other people who'd tell them they were wrong. The days before they could connect with others across the globe and have their theories affirmed and be introduced to new ones. The days when there was a clear distinction between facts and feelings and the latter wasn't considered as valid the former when defining reality.

I mean, if he’s past 35 ish and still single as a man, there’s probably a reason. Now you know why, because he’s a right fruitloop.

Sorry I read that as denier as in 40 denier tights and had to click to see what you meant!

Some of my colleagues and relatives are Covid deniers to some degree and were a bit off with me when I got DC vaccinated for all routine vaccines plus paid privately for others.

I don’t know what days you have in mind, but there have always been nutters. Certainly if you didn’t conform to the received opinion of your contemporaries, you’d be criticised

I thought about getting some gold at one stage, but not bars, which are phenomenally expensive. I came to the conclusion that in a crisis, they’d be highly impractical.

Since we decided that 'we're all entitled to our opinions' it's been a slippery slope. I remember the days when if you voiced an opinion that made you sound like an uneducated lunatic, you'd be told pretty sharpish and would think twice about airing it again. Now nobody has to leave their basement to find like minded lunatics to egg them on, and normal people have been persuaded that we should respect other people's opinions, so they don't put them straight either.

I'm sure Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend aren't planning a cull on the human race.
The Who.
Jokes aside he's a nut.

@x2boys her theory was they all had underlying conditions so they’d have died anyway. No one who caught Covid and was fit and well beforehand died. She’s also had it 3 times (not that she ever tested but her symptoms were exact) but according to her it was a bad cold. She refused all jabs, apart from the first one as it was mandatory at that time in NHS and refuses to test when she’s ill.

How did she justify the deaths?

DH’s uncle has recently got divorced after 35 years of marriage due to exactly this. Started during Covid as well. He believes the world order will be reset and he has been hoarding bars of gold in his cellar for 6 years as a result. Drove his wife so crazy she couldn’t cope anymore. So in short, yes they’re nuts. He’s a well educated man as well, just fell down a rabbit hole and got lost.

One of my friends is a nurse in the NHS. She was on the frontline during Covid. She’s a Covid denier. It was literally staring her in the face every day and she’s adamant it’s just a bad cold/manmade. Batshit!!

First poster nailed it