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?

Funny how "doing some research" nearly always means watching nutty YouTube videos ; never reading scientific papers.

...and clicking on the first link that agrees with your theories

Covid really seems to have brought out the conspiracy weirdos doesn't it? All I see on our local news social media replies are anti vaxxers, 5g conspiracies, anti maskers and they all now seem to be under the group of this save our children bandwagon. I see the hashtags of "sheeple" "new world order" "masks kill" blah blah blah. They seem to have sprung up more prominently since covid. I steer clear. There is no point arguing with stupid.

She won't drink drinks with artificial sweeteners in, but she'll happily smoke a 10 pack of cigs every few days.

Ah but you see, tobacco is a plant so it's all natural, ok? Artificial sweeteners are chemicals so they are bad but plants don't contain any chemicals so they are good! /s

I have a friend like this. When she goes on I mention her tin hat and the conversation ends. What does bother me is that her children also believe this nonsense and are clever kids, so i do spend time explaining to them how it is batshit and even if they do believe it, don't tell anyone if you want to get anywhere in life.

I just don't think most conspiracy theories are very well thought out. The scenarios are illogical.

*She won't drink drinks with artificial sweeteners in, but she'll happily smoke a 10 pack of cigs every few days.

Ah but you see, tobacco is a plant so it's all natural, ok? Artificial sweeteners are chemicals so they are bad but plants don't contain any chemicals so they are good! /s*

Ahh yes the old man made is bad, nature is good argument. Then you watch their heads explode when you tell them the most toxic chemicals to humans are completely natural! The botulinum toxin for example.

@user1471565182

Im glad somebody else has noticed the link between MLM people and conspiracy nutjobs. They're increasingly one and the same. Whats all that about?

Gullibility

She is MLM too. Strange.

We have argued about MLM from the start. I did manage to persuade her that this wasn't a basket to put all her eggs in.

In the process of being anti vaxed right now.

Also believes in LOA and that bad things happen to people who give out negative energy.

My god, the amount of stuff we cannot discuss, but she is a good person. Just gullible.

[quote cariadlet]@JimmyThe Brave MLM is multi level marketing. It's an updated form of pyramid selling. Basically people who are all over social media saying the cosmetics (or whatever else they're flogging) are wonderful, have changed their life and they can't believe how much money they're making. They try and sell to their friends or - better still - persuade their friends to buy enough stock to become sellers themselves, on an even lower rung of the ladder. [/quote]
Oh yes, Forever Living, Tropic - that sort of shit that crops up every now and again.

Absolutely not. They are deluded, obsessive nutters who are unable to reason. They are utterly narrow minded and, frankly, a bit dim. Away with them, dont indulge their lunacies.

@longwayoff

That's easy for you to say when you haven't been sucked up into a spaceship hovering, unseen by anyone, over Bracknell and then had various Probes (yes with a big 'P') stuck into various orifices.
Actually it hasn't happen to me either but my friend Kevin knows someone at the Ping-Pong Club and their milkman said that early one morning a man on a bike with a WW2 German helmet on told him that his friend (also called Kevin) had been in the woods when...
... actually I'm probably as bored as you lot are now.

Probably not. I'm not keen on people who are sort of one trick ponies and seem obsessed by one thing be it politics or religion or conspiracy theories!

No.theres enough stupid about without shagging it or regularly meeting it for coffee.

Oh well, @WhoWouldHaveThoughtThat, in that case . . . Bring on Mr Icke and the Lizard People

BUT!!!

What if they are really hot with good musical taste, and incredible in bed?

Asking for a friend

I have an acquaintance who believes Bill Gates is funding research into a Covid vaccine so he can use it to exterminate humanity.

@Settleandcalm

BUT!!!

What if they are really hot with good musical taste, and incredible in bed?

Asking for a friend

Doesn’t matter. My vagina clamps shut the minute they start muttering knowingly about fake moon landings, 9/11 being an ‘inside job’ and chemtrails.

@Settleandcalm

BUT!!!

What if they are really hot with good musical taste, and incredible in bed?

Asking for a friend

Being a pathetic gullible fool or a lying liar are the ultimate turn off.

Especially combined with the smug use of the term "sheeple" which is the hallmark of of a weak mind.

My vagina would shut up shop at the very thought.

Neither she, nor I, find Stupid sexy.

There are plenty of hot guys out there who don't think we're being ruled by lizard people.

My ex was a bit of a conspiracy theorist, but not in the sense that he was worshipping Icke or thinking the govt are lizards etc. I could not be friends or date someone who loves Icke and believes in nonsense such as lizard people, no.

However some of the stuff my ex talked about has been literally happening these last few months, so much for it being a conspiracy theory.

And no, conspiracy theorists do not lack critical thinking, quite the opposite. The way they come to their conclusions is by thinking about things critically instead of just blindly believing anything that the media tells them (again, I'm referring to more mild "conspiracy theories" and not stuff like lizard people)

It's a shame every so called conspiracy theorist gets lumped in with Icke because there are things that were branded conspiracy theories that were later proven to be true.

THAT JK, he doesn’t believe in Lizard people, he did think critically, is he right probably not, but blindly believing isn’t right either.

I find Greg debate sexy

I'd have been so intrigued I'd have stayed for the date, listened to the madness and then never spoke to him again

Don't have much time for it, you get several people witnesses something and they all give a different account. So much of 'history' is wrong, I'd like to stick to facts.

I was asked to give testimony about a criminal case years ago and I got a colour wrong. I was more interested in that than the case.

But no not interested in conspiracy.

Could I date someone who thinks Princess Diana was potentially killed - yes.
Could I date someone who thinks Princess Diana was a lizard - no.

I think someone who has a degree of cynicism about what we are told and what we "know" is fine, but someone who believes that the government and royal family and Beyonce are all conspiring to have us all chipped, or converted or whatever ... probably quite hard to have a rational conversation with them.