Radicalisation of older people

I equally have a problem with the far left (or right) targeting young people. But this is not what the thread is about.

I sympathise with this. It's happened in my extended family and can be deeply damaging. We were once talking and they said something horrible and provably false. I showed evidence and explained how it couldn't possibly be true and what the person spouting this rubbish had to gain through the lies.

They would not hear it. I asked 'what evidence would make you believe it's false? What could I say or show you that would introduce doubt?' and they said firmly, 'nothing, I know its true and all counter evidence is fabricated to cover it up'.

Thats when I realised you can't argue with it. Its not political debate its a religion. Its faith and belief. All I know is my focus will be on my children learning critical thinking skills straight off the bat.

The devil makes work for idle hands
😈

One factor in this stuff is social isolation, which can be a risk for some older people- the harder it is to get out and about and meet a variety of people, the more likely you are to look for social contact online, and you don't get the counter-effect of the fact that the rest of the world is just getting on with life.

(FWIW the only person I know who's gone down this rabbit hole is in his 40s.)

This you tube obsession has flown under my radar I rarely use it, then only for music. We've been warned about tik tok many times. No-one makes a squeak about you tube.

And quite a lot of those who did are dead now. I wasn’t in the Brexit voting over 65 age group nine years ago, now I am. We don’t magically change our views when we move up into the next age group.

I’m in my 70s, and was a teenager in the 1960s. I was “radicalised” then (though in a different way), and have remained pretty much so all my life, like many of my contemporaries.

What you describe is just a bog standard credulous person, to be found in all age groups.

Usenet, BBS's and CompuServe were very different animals to Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.

Exactly, but as so often on here let’s not let the facts get in the way of accusing people of being ageist .

This documentary is from 2015 and is fascinating.
https://www.thebrainwashingofmydad.com

Is your Dad socially isolated, OP?

Why do you think they want to lower the age for voting.

Why do you?

I assume it's due to the ageing population, we already have more over 65s than under 15s.

and how compliant they will be", hence the massive campaign of fear, and increasingly absurd rules.

How do you make millions of people be compliant? Fear, people were scared and wanted to lock down. It's not a conspiracy, it's logic that the majority of the population had to be on board & willing.

Well I’m old and have opinions. Those opinions may be different to those commonly expressed on mumsnet but I’m entitled to hold them.

I can’t be bothered to express my opinions on mumsnet as it will result in a nasty pile on - I doubt I’m alone in this. The result is that folk here believe there are no other relevant opinions except their own.

My mum, 71, for better or worse, isn't particularly interested in what's going on in the world so doesn't go for right wing politics or conspiracy theories.

My dad, 75, gets all of his 'news' from The Sun, The Daily Star, and TikTok and has extremely right wing views these days. What always surprises me is that he will thrust his phone into my face with a 'watch this/read this - you won't believe what's happening with migrants in Doncaster', without ever thinking that I might have different politics to him - as someone of a differing generation who has been to university, moved away from where I'm from, spent time living in a large cosmopolitan city and married someone who doesn't come from the same background as me.
It's interesting to see totally different content than any algorithm would suggest for me - and I'm centrist, not a lefty by any measure.

It can also be linked to being lonely and spending too much time online.
As the government forced us to do both in 2020, all in the name of saving granny, who is now freezing to death, because people are impoverished. Lots of us felt radicalised, especially as the government kept moving the goalposts by stealth, to maintain the status quo of lockdowns. The "conspiracy theorists" started looking for explanations for the "madness", as most of what the government said didn't make sense, and there was no debate allowed at all. That is a massive danger sign.

I don't believe many of the things on that list. However, in an attempt to find some people who agreed with me that lockdowns caused much more harm than good, I did mix with people who believed everything on that list, and more. I took care to be sceptical about such views, just as I was sceptical about what government and BBC said.

The trouble is, many of us simply don't know who to trust with information. I certainly don't trust the BBC any more, now that we've seen how easily people can be "cancelled" if they say something that doesn't suit the authorities. By the same token, I took care to be sceptical about the "conspiracy theories" that I heard, the most popular one being "the vx which they made us take is population control", as well as the usual ones like chemtrails.

One theory I do believe is that while the virus (and possible danger) was real, somebody in government said "let's seize this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to experiment with exactly how much we can frighten the public, and how compliant they will be", hence the massive campaign of fear, and increasingly absurd rules.

Your father has strong views. Very little to do with “older people.”

One can always rely on MN for casual bigotry about age.

Neither group has to go to work or look after young children.

Hopefully, when the better weather comes, they can get out in their gardens so they don’t read/watch all this rubbish.

This is what I find odd too, the fact that most people I know that believe in one conspiracy, believe in them all, without being able to explain why.....and are absolutely obsessed with it. It's almost like they're desperate to grab onto an alternative way of thinking. I'm all for thinking outside of the box but I'm yet to hear a convincing argument.

Unfortunately, it's not limited to just the elderly and I can't really offer you any advice just thought I'd share that I can relate. During the pandemic, we actually distanced ourselves from friends due to their obsession with this kind of stuff, it was all they talked about and we found it really odd. Another friend who lost his job during Covid and has since spent all his time on YouTube watching conspiracy videos believes all the same non sense. I honestly find it quite concerning and believe it's starting to filter down to to the younger generations.

Now I'm all for people being independent thinkers and doing research to form your own opinions. My family didn't have the Covid vaccinations as it is a new type of vaccine and I didn't feel it has been researched enough, and since we had all actually had Covid by the time it was offered to us, I chose not to take the risk and I'm glad I didn't to be honest. But generally, I believe in vaccines because the evidence proves them to be safe and they're the reason we no longer suffer from things like polio, measles etc. However, recently due to the concern regarding the Covid jabs, people have just completely stopped vaccinating their kids and we are now seeing cases of measles etc. I also know of others that have completely stop all medication and go on to end up seriously ill. It is really concerning and not really sure what can be done about it.

It's the internet. My nan is the perfect candidate to get radicalised/develop conspiracy theories - she has lots of spare time, she has visitors but really not enough contact during the day and she's very interested in the news and world events.

However she doesn't conse industrial quantities of YouTube - she knows enough to order a weekly shop online and then appears to put her iPad down after that. Her primary news sources remain the BBC, newspapers, radio. If you started shouting off about chemtrails she'd think you were mad.

For all the handwriting about teens and the internet, I do think older people - maybe retired, maybe in poor health, maybe lonely - are a prime group for getting self radicalised and no one talks about it as much.

Hi op,
I understand you're worried about your dad's health and sorry your thread has been derailed by arguments between others and a nasty response to your post. I can't really answer your question although I understand that maybe getting out and meeting people in real life may help lessen things a bit?

excuse me, we INVENTED social media.

yup....how DARE we continue to exist.

I've reported that one. Hateful.