How do you talk to corona deniers?

[Eagly456]

If they are actually your friend and you like them but they follow conspiracy theories?

Point and laugh. Conspiracy theories spread when people are too polite to say it's nonsense. Covid deniers, flat earthers, Anti-vaxxers. it's all the same thing.

@MysweetAudrina

I'd treat them the same as anyone else who was suffering with their mental health, with kindness and would also gently refute with rational responses

So any one that has a different opinion to you has mental illness... wow.

OP your friend isn’t a denier. She just has different opinions on how contagious/serious it is. Your not really friends though are you? As I don’t write posts about my friends like this.

I have a friend who’s dh is a flat earther. He owns multiple businesses, not your typical tin foil hatter. I listened to him talk about his views with fascination tbh. Do I believe it? No. Do I rush off to MN to make a thread about it so people can scorn and say my friend has mental illness. No because I’m not a dick.

People are allowed to have different views on everything - shocking I know

Just grow up maybe?

Stand by your decision to wear a mask ar all times and not go to the pub without claiming your friends are CV deniers or conspiracy therorists when they're clearly nothing of the sort.

@ICouldBeTheOne It’s not. It’s about the fact that friends of our have called other friends of ours names, have tried to guilt-trip them because they choose to be careful (wear a mask, do not go to the pub).

They hold the opinion that they are just liberal sheeple, that’s its associated with a certain political opinion and they cannot be one of them. It’s not hurtful for me at all because I never saw myself as one of them.

I don’t care what they say about me because their opinion doesn’t matter to me. I always thought they were rather odd.

But their opinion matters to people I care about. Also their opinion is not based on facts. It’s not true young people never die or experience severe illness. Young people have every right to be as careful as they wish to.

My point is: I do not want an argument with those people. They are important to people I care about and I just wish that they wouldn’t put pressure on those people.

Destroyedpeople Do tell. Are the secret lizard rulers up to no good again?

I couldn’t care less if people called me a liberal, because I AM a liberal and pretty proud of it.

Wear my face mask with pride not because I am afraid of catching the coronavirus but because I know it keeps other safe. It’s not the point how they think about me. I simply never cared about their opinion (Know that they didn’t have a high opinion of me from the time we met on when nobody had heard of corona) But it means much to people I care about.

So not really deniers then, just more pragmatic.

I don't believe it started as a way to control people, but it has certainly shown how easily they can be in the right circumstances and how they can get fellow citizens to turn on each other.

If it wasn't so scary, it would be fascinating.

@TheGreatWave agree entirely.

@Todaywewilldobetter It actually has nothing to to with patriotism but they think something like
wearing face mask=liberal political believes=lacking patriotism

It’s not me who thinks so. Have been a liberal and a patriot all my life. Something some people just do not get + of course not all of those who choose to wear a mask are liberals.

"We'll have to agree to disagree, let's talk about something else."

@TheGreatWave
Why should the governments of all the countries in the world try to “controll“ and “turn citizens on each other“? How would they benefit rom this?

That’s not what @TheGreatWave said??

Honestly, no-one gives a shit if you want to go to the pub or not but don't claim that people who engage in a permitted activity are deniers or conspiracy theorists when that's not true at all.

They're not dim. They don't think younger people NEVER die of CV and I doubt they said it, they watch the news and know a very small minority have. But that is a FACT, a very small minority. You want to present them as idiots when they're just disagreeing with your over-cautious approach because you feel silly.

Just get on with you're doing and don't try and 'convince' someone they're wrong when they're not.

I think you're being over-cautious. That's okay. It's okay to disagree. Doesn't mean i'm a CV 'denier' (i'm a nurse, have worked front line shifts during CV but mostly WFH, all friends are nurses, all think the same, we've been to the pub), or an idiot or a conspiracy theorist.

I have said to friend imagine saying that to a relative of someone who has lost their lives to caronavirus. You'd get a well deserved smack in the mouth. The conversation soon ended

I don't engage with idiots.

@TheGreatWave

So not really deniers then, just more pragmatic.

I don't believe it started as a way to control people, but it has certainly shown how easily they can be in the right circumstances and how they can get fellow citizens to turn on each other.

If it wasn't so scary, it would be fascinating.

Absolutely

@WellAmThatBad

I have said to friend imagine saying that to a relative of someone who has lost their lives to caronavirus. You'd get a well deserved smack in the mouth. The conversation soon ended

So you closed down a conversation with the implied risk of a smack in the mouth...

What’s hard to extrapolate is where cause and effect comes in.

We can probably all agree that there are currently low levels of community transmission. But how much is that due to precautions like hand gel, face masks and people staying home, versus the virus having a low infectivity rate. Who knows?

Of course if the government is right, then people avoiding precautions are more likely to be infected, so we can see how sick they get and if they start recommending face masks after all.

[quote Eagly456]@TheGreatWave
Why should the governments of all the countries in the world try to “controll“ and “turn citizens on each other“? How would they benefit rom this?[/quote]
As mentioned I didn't actually say that, but you cannot think of any reason why a government would want to do that?

One of my best friends, a highly intelligent woman who runs her own business, is like this. She thinks it's all made up by the government as a way to control people. Absolutely absurd! Why she thinks a Tory government would want to bugger up the economy and pay out millions to people is beyond me. I've tried making her see reason but she gets upset, tearful and angry. I also find myself getting very angry that she's being so ridiculous. I end up thinking about what she's said for days after the event and still feeling annoyed! So we've just agreed that we will never discuss COVID again. It suits us both. To be honest I'm distancing myself from her a bit because I can't get over how irrational she's been. I think if someone can't see reason you should just not engage with them on the issue. It's too frustrating!

From a safe distance ask them about it, I read something the other day that said the best thing to do was engage rather than argue with someone that's one. Keep asking them questions to push deeper into their beliefs and they may just start to unravel.

Are you in USA?

I have never met or heard of corona deniers in UK

@babba2014

OK so Babba - you said this:

You said "Bill Gates is not a doctor yet he has a master plan"

I said this at 1014 ish:

What is his 'master plan' - I am sat here ready to listen to what he is going to do...?

A few others also asked what the master plan is. I thought I would come back and read up on the master plan. You haven't replied. Please can someone explain what Bill Gates master plan is! That's all, just wondered. I keep seeing that he has a plan for us but I just wondered what it was.....

@ICouldBeTheOne
I say it again: This is not about me going to the pub. I never went to the pub because I cannot stand pubs. Why should I start going there now that COVID is around? I couldn’t care less about how other people think about it.
This is about them guilt tripping other people calling them names because they choose to be careful. I am not talking about me here. I am talking about people who actually care about what they have to say.

How do you know what they said? Have you talked to them?

A friend of ours is a young women with type 1 diabetes. She is 22 and is in good health overall. However she chose not to go to the pub and then they tell her she must be a coward because young people “do not die of COVID“ and that those who did have far had severe pre existing conditions and would have been dead two months laters anyway.

@babba2014

Great so I ask a perfectly reasonable question 'What is the master plan that Bill Gates had?' that Babba was going on about. I wasn't rude just wondered what it was. A few others also wondered what the master plan of his was.

Guess what @Babba2014 has vanished into thin air - either left or name changed rather than answer a question. Strange that. Perhaps Bill Gates heard this person suggesting he has a master plan and master planned said person away..... who knows