Friend is now full on Trump-supporting, QAnon-believing conspiracy theorist

[Offskki]

I just can't believe it and I'm a bit gutted to be honest. Any advice on how to deal with this?

You've still not said if this a close friend Well, I suppose I don't really categorise friends in that way. She's not very close, no, but I like a wide circle of friends and different friendship groups.

Btw computers in Italy is a new one for me!

It's all there on the internet, just open your eyes and stop believing everything the lamestream media tell you

If she's not close, then I'd forget it. Don't return messages, when you see her next just smile and be nice.

Don't return messages, when you see her next just smile and be nice.

I know what you're saying. I'm hesitating because she's told me how she already feels isolated by others. I hope things are better when I do get around to seeing her again.

I cannot tolerate this shit and certainly couldn't maintain the friendship tbh.

I just can't get past the fact that she's not pulling my leg. She actually believes this shit How does that happen??

I don't like it when people calling it "this shit" etc. It's a mental illness. They need professional help. In a way, they are the victims of modern world.

I do feel scared how things like this can spread to so many normal people, and I don't want to call them names.
So, your action really depends on how the person mean to you. You can stand by them and hope they will come out of it eventually, or walk away. I don't think it's an easy task.

I don't have any solutions but am in a similar position, my sibling keeps posting batshit videos from Gemma O'Doherty plus other stuff (has mentioned 5G in the past). We have geographical distance but are a close knit non-confrontational family so I've yet to tell them to fuck off with that nonsense.

@Offskki

I just can't get past the fact that she's not pulling my leg. She actually believes this shit How does that happen??

Maybe it's the freaky factor affecting your mind more than the fact it's someone you know, if that makes sense.

I was at a drinks thing a few years ago when conversation turned to all this. I was genuinely astonished and it preyed on my mind for days. It was a whole bunch of stuff I'd never heard of and tbh I wish I still hadn't!

I would tell her directly 'you can form your own opinions, but I would be careful about the company you are keeping online because you may be vulnerable due to your bereavement and the last thing you need is to be alienated from your real life support and family.' Then step away. It might make her think.

I don't like it when people calling it "this shit" etc. It's a mental illness.

I wasn’t referring to her state of mind Conspiracy theories don’t have health.

Maybe it's the freaky factor affecting your mind more than the fact it's someone you know, if that makes sense.

No, I listened to that anthill podcast so I was familiar with some of the stuff, it’s just that I can’t believe a British, science-trained professional believes all of this.

Looking back it started with those phone mast protests, then 5G in early 2019 but it’s obviously just escalated since March 2020.

I wasn't referring to you, OP, I was referring 1FootInTheRave's comment.

Maybe you should look up what conspiracy theory really is, and why people believe them. Conspiracy theory may not have health, but it's a mental health issue.

Just stop with the mental health card.

It is frankly insulting.

Tricky one Op . I was at Uni with a woman , we were both mature students studying a medical based subject, she believed that you could pummel the skin and remove clots of evil blood ! Someone asked her to do it to them to prove it but she didn’t have the right powers

I just avoided her in the end , the frustration of listening to it drove me mad.

Why is it insulting? Do you really believe people with normal state of mind can believe all these stuff?

What @ScrapThatThen said.

And yes this is not a legitimate point of view. It's deluded nonsense with no basis in fact.

A really good friend of mine is fully absorbed into all this. I’m very measured when she starts speaking about this so I’ll start to question her, more to try to understand what she’s trying to explain. For example she’ll tell me that the vaccine is here to kill all the old people. I’ll ask ‘why do they want to do that?’
‘For population control and to close all the care homes for saving money.’
So I’ll ask ‘what happens when more people start getting older?’
‘Oh they’ll kill them too’
‘Right. Are they doing this to everyone? Do we all have a cut off age now?’
Then she’ll go mad at me and ask me to stop disrespecting her

If she wants to go around spreading anti semitism, conspiracy theories and supporting fascism then treat them as you would anybody else who does. Gets fuck all sympathy from me.

Not sure that being gullible is a mental health thing in its own right, but I expect people with other MH issues might be more vulnerable. Or anyone who has had an emotional trauma.

Yes the world situation is currently unsettling and that will be a contributing factor, but a lot of this stuff started well before that. I've been watching conspiracy theory accounts on youtube for years now since I discovered by chance that Flat Earth is really a thing.

Some of them (eg Flat Earth) are relatively harmless, but they are like gateway drugs. Before long they are saying that it's the demons coming through the CERN portal that want it kept secret that the earth is flat so we won't suspect that the Lizards who run the world are beaming thoughts into our heads. (usually in ALL CAPS)

And THEN they start talking about murdering people who they think might be lizards (or freemasons etc) and now it's a whole new and dangerous thing.

If you have a friend who is starting to stray into that kind of thinking then yes it's worth trying to steer them off it.

However we should call out those who are fully in and not humour them.

Do you really believe people with normal state of mind can believe all these stuff?

Unless they are kids or teens?

There are many many many who do not have mh issues that believe this shit.

To suggest otherwise is an insult.

Likewise there are many many with mh issues who do not believe.

Studies show people dont have to be mentally unwell to believe this stuff, but they do tend to be hugely narcissistic. They love the feeling of feeling special and in the know. Loads of personality disorders among them.

They also dont have experience of the news, real world and obviously lack critical thinking skills. Their life up to this point is often just a series of inter family dramas until they've found some world news they dont interpret as 'boring'. One of these idiots who ive now cut off (due to their mad ranting about 'black communists' and vaccines) who was once a good friend sent me 2 different 'WORLD WAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!' articles from 2 different areas of the world from the daily express worried they were going to die & asking what was happening. Yet they still think they're in a position to tell others what loopy shit to believe.

Wow having different beliefs is now a mental illness fml are you even listening to yourselves when you say that! Seriously, people are free to challenge and believe in something that doesn't fit the status quo and not be mentally ill. Jesus isn't this exactly what was in the press a while back about silencing people who dare to say anything different...hang on isn't that what China does since when did we or America become like China?

And irrespective of what you think of Trump just think about this for one second, we have twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Google and apple now silencing a president and anyone close to him. Just put aside your thoughts on trump and think when the feck did corporations have that much power! Why haven't they silenced extremists the left wing fanatics etc.?

This is just the start and its alarming, cancelling people, social media blackouts, rewriting history. I'm no conspiracy theorists but after seeing social dilemma and now whats happening, it'll be a dystopian world soon.

When did corporations become the government that have a duty to give people free speech and not private companies who can have who they want as members?

Who are these left wing fanatics'?