Radicalisation of older people

Plenty of older people dislike Trump extremely. My elderly (90) mil detests him, despite voting Tory.

Also, all this "art of the deal" stuff. There's no art. It's just common or garden bully boy tactics.

I don't think religiosity has much influence one way or the other for belief in conspiracy theories. US conspiracy theorists tend towards the religious but so does US society as a whole. UK conspiracy theorists less so.

I have found fit sporty strong people who get old and start having mobility issues and health issues seem to get more anxious about their security. They are used to feeling strong and able to look after themselves and others. Not being able to, and maybe for the first time feeling threatened by groups of teenagers, seems to hit these people hard.

I was thinking this just sounds like religious belief and wondered if there was any data on whether the religious may be more prone to believing conspiracy theories. But I guess it's probably the opposite - religion provided that structure and, now it's influence has fallen away, those who fear randomness now resort to conspiracies.

One of the theories about belief in conspiracies is that people can’t cope with the idea of random chaos and need to make up stories about there being some kind of grand plan and control. It’s too scary otherwise. I wonder if folk become more fearful and therefore more prone to this as they get older? Not that young people aren’t susceptible as well.

As far as I remember, the research suggests that one someone believes one conspiracy theory they’re more likely to believe another.

It's addictive. Once you think you're in on some big secret and need to decode what's 'really happening' you get a superiority complex about how everyone else is so stupid/blinkered that they can't see the truth.

It would be an absolute anticlimax to go from that exciting world where everything is a conspiracy to the real world where there are some controlling Machiavellian types but mainly things happen by bumbling along a bit chaotically.

It's by no means all older people but SOME older people fall for it through loneliness, feeling disconnected etc.

@SwedishEdith If he has always been like that, not much you can do.

I don't think it's ageist in an offensive way. Any more than setting blocks on children's gadgets is ageist. If your relative is older tell them about the latest scammers. HMRC, bank, etc.

My GB News swallowing relative is very pro U3A. He's always had GB News type views though, he's not a fully fledged conspiracy theorist just a "not allowed to say anything racist now" type. But, he's always talking about how great YouTube is so only a matter of time 👀.

Absolutely this.

So you think Greenham Common and Greenpeace protestors were behaving badly? What an odd view .

There is a fair amount of radicalisation of older people, especially men. However, it's often people who were racist to start with, and sone with mental health issues.

Anyway I'm older, and I'm definitely not either a racist or a conspiracy theorist!

Bereavement, illness, being the older generation in your family and realising you and your peers will die next, is all very tough mentally.
I don't know if anyone whose parents are getting pulled into this stuff would consider getting involved in University of the Third Age? Still being involved in the local community, meeting new people and talking to others in real life all helps dilute and challenge this radicalisation.

On MNs anything that is slightly negative about older people is ageist even if it's acknowledging something true. I also think the average user is much older than the media image of MNs suggests

It is not 'ageist' to think that there maybe something going on with vulnerable older people, such as brainwashing and coercion from groups. Use some critical thinking and don't just assume its 'ageism'.

Not sure why you are getting jumped on for being ageist, it's very well known and documented that older people are more prone to falling for scams, by post or in person or online, and this isn't too far off that so I'm not sure why it's ageist to point out it happens, noone suggested it's all old people at all!

If I see something interesting in the USA I follow the local paper. The LA fires the coverage in the LA Times was so different to the news coming out of Washington and NY.

I read the comments to see how real people are doing, what they think. It's very interesting. Local papers in the UK vary. Some are good, some crash all the time.

Here I'll read lots of different newspapers. Like different news channels.

As pp said we're all individuals with our own experiences.

@MaggieMistletoe
There is a ton of information available on why child sex abusers are protected, it's freely available online, start with the Jay report.

Never watched GB news but I doubt it's all crap. The BBC is full of lies. Look at all the millions they took from the Biden gov to spout whatever rhetoric needed peddling, look how they've protected child sex offenders. I'm sure the elderly are vulnerable to a lot of the rubbish that is declared on the Internet, but its hilarious how mumsnet users think they know it all. So convinced that there can be zero truth to a single 'conspiracy theory'. Naive, sanctimonious fools aplenty on here. And as for those speaking scathing of the 'anti-vaxers' - if you don't realise by now that you are a complete and utter plonker for rushing out to get the untested, unsafe covid vaccine then you are a lost cause. How can anyone still now be calling people 'conspiracy theorists' because they are seriously concerned about the pharmaceutical industry, agricultural industry, what is in our water, the integrity of our political leaders, the ethnics and truth behind the whole covid debacle, why child sex offenders are protected/largely go unpunished, the war on free speech, Rotherham cover ups, dark agendas like trans ideology infiltrating our education system.. the list is endless. Its a worrying trend on mumsnet to sneer at anything that isn't in line with mainstream media reporting.

Hi OP. Sorry to hear about your father.
In answer to your question, there has been successful research carried out in the US (2022) into ways to help older people be more “resilient” to misinformation and online radicalisation.

They found a technique that works very well in trials. I don’t know if it’s been tested in the UK.

The paper summary is interesting and touches on many of the reasons older people can be vulnerable to online conspiracy theories. Of course different demographics have different vulnerabilities to it but older people are an understudied group. Most research focuses on youth.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-08437-0

Why don’t you sign them up for The Week or online the Times so they get some more sensible info -although could be right or left leaning but better than GB news.
im an oldie and just signed up for the New York Times to get an American slant on what’s happening it was only £20 for the first year .

Yes. Definitely because he's "older". We're all like that.