Could you be friends with or date a conspiracy theorist?

[annabel85]

This is priceless. Just heard from a friend about a mutual acquaintance who has been dating this man for a month or two. They'd been out a few times and he'd promised to surprise her on Saturday for the date and got they got the train into London (i'm assuming with masks).

As they got there it turns out the surprise was 'to see David Icke' at Trafalgar Square. She thought it was a joke but it turns out he's this blokes idol. He'd sold himself as being 'anti-establishment but in reality he believes all the 5G theories and all of Icke's theories.

What's less funny was she went along with him and didn't wear a mask the whole time as that was the point of the protest, therefore she felt really uncomfortable. Needless to say she doesn't want anything to do with him and he thinks she's being unreasonable and 'shallow'.

Would you be willing to be friends with a conspiracy theorist? I kind of know an old friend who's gone down that road and it made me realise i've been giving them a wide berth.

Where do you draw the line?

Well, at least she’s shot of him now. No, I couldn’t be with someone who believes that rubbish either.

Friends with? Maybe if it didn't dominate their life & conversation. Just like I can be friends with people on all sides of the Brexit debate, and with people of different religions and none.

Date - no way.

Why didn’t she turn around and leave when she realised what the surprise was?

Hard to be super close with someone so wrong, the Brexit debate is different because that is a difference rather than complete fantasy.

No. I can live without the idiocy, lack of reasoned thinking and cherry picking facts. It would be exhausting.

I don’t think the friendship would last long, I wouldn’t be able to help taking the piss out of them

That's up to her, they aren't compatible. It could be any reason, it doesn't matter.

Nope, I'm guessing that those Lizardy people eat a lot of flies - that's not my idea of a nice meal out.
Although being able to scale a vertical wall would be rather cool.

@Nicolastuffedone

Why didn’t she turn around and leave when she realised what the surprise was?

Apparently thought it was all an elaborate joke until the event started but did leave before the end after they had an argument.

I have a Facebook friend who is an Anti vaxxer and doesn't believe in Covid. (Plus is adamant about the benefits of MLMs). That is tricky enough. Dating one? No way.

DP buys into quite a lot of stuff he reads online, until I tell him to stop being so bloody ridiculous and explain that he sounds like a lunatic, then he will drop ot and see sense.

She thought all those people turned up to prank her??

God no, my life is challenging enough without having people like that in it.

Wow. I'd have got back on the train home.
One of my close friends has recently outed herself as an Icke fan (whilst working in thr NHS) and its definitely soured our relationship and that of mutual friends with her too. Even her family seem to be keeping their distance.

Hard pass from me.

My best friend is a conspiracy theorist, but not too nutty for me.

I couldn't date that man described though.

No.

I find them supremely irritating and usually lacking intelligence.

Definitely couldn't date someone who believed in that kind of stuff. I'd struggle with a friendship, especially if they tried to convert me.

I'm just about old enough to remember David Icke as a sports reporter. I can remember when he first started going on about lizard people. Everyone I knew thought that he was having some kind of nervous breakdown. We thought that it was wrong that he was being allowed to embarrass himself by being given tv time to spout these outlandish theories. We would never have believed that he would still be going all these years later, let alone that he would have so many admirers.

Friends yes, relationship with no. I find some of my dh's beliefs hard enough to take. If he tips over into that bullshit it will be curtains for us. That 'question everything, do your own research' sounds ok at first but the slightest dig reveals people who don't understand much deciding that the reason they don't understand is that it's all elaborate lies, not that they are ignorant. It's like me saying, sorry, don't understand the science around black holes therefore they cannot be real and you're all conspiring to pretend otherwise to control me.

Also their websites are always so ugly and sooner or later someone starts on the Protocols of the Elders of Zion bullshit. Cannot be arsed with the conspiracy mob.

My DH can be a bit like this. It's extremely tiresome and I don't give him the time of day if he starts

I have friends who are into UFO stuff, think the moon landing was faked, that sort of thing. But I couldn't be friends with someone who worshipped an anti-semite like David Icke.

I have a friend, not close, whose DP seems to believe some weird stuff. When friend says "DP has been doing some research" I just tune out. Definitely couldn't be close to or get involved with anyone as bonkers as that - and as pps have said, there are often some pretty unpleasant beliefs lurking underneath.

Nope. They're so boring and repetitive.