To worry there is a serious mental health crisis amongst conspiracy theorists?

[BlooperReel]

Maybe it's because I've been online more now due to lockdown, but conspiracy theories seem to have really ramped up, people I know are now peddling some of this nonsense. Adrenochrome, pizzagate, 5G etc all seem to have sucked in people I'd assumed were rational people, and they are almost rabid about it and wil not hear any other viewpoint.

A bbc documentary called Viral - the 5g conspiracy theory interviewed some individuals who quite clearly need help.

I've seen the likes of Bill Gates, Chrissy teigen, Ellen DeGeneres and others get so much appalling abuse on social media over these theories and I can only think that the people who wholeheartedly believe this stuff must have psychological issues, the levels of paranoia are truly astounding. Is this an emerging mental health crisis?

Perhaps I just don't spend enough time with people like ^this! Perhaps in times past they'd have been believing in fairies and the like instead. Is it a perception or a reality that more human imagination is being invested in creating scenarios of planetary or human doom?

@GinWithRosie it's strange how brainwashed a lot of these people are, they come out with the same phrases and responses, whilst maintaining the rest of us are brainwashed and paranoid. Your description of your friend nearly exactly describes the friend I know (except mine hasn't done a video.. yet!!). It's weird how some people seem to fall for it hook, line and sinker and then others can see straight through it. My friend was talking about Wayfair, Tom Hanks and singing Trump's praises recently .

I read that sometimes conspiracy theorists have a hard time dealing with reality (which might be because of drugs, or they take drugs to escape) sometimes due to previous trauma. They don't want to believe that bad and evil things just 'happen' sometimes because it makes them feel out of control, so to ascribe events to some malevolent force pulling all the strings is somehow more comforting to them? My friend talks of seeing 'the light' and that she 'loves light', yet most of the subjects she talks about are dark and twisted. She also has an air of superiority which annoys me, says things like she ' feels sorry for cretins who are conditioned by the media and who believe in the virus'. It's actually very dangerous because it encourages people not to follow guidelines and put themselves and others at risk.

My lovely friend has got herself deep into these theories. She’s a really good friend but I’m finding her insistence on covid being faked by governments hard to deal with. Likewise, she gets frustrated with me and says things like ‘don’t tell me you believe it’s real. I thought you were really intelligent!’

She believes that 5g is the cause of any ailment she has and that Bill Gates wants to chip everyone through a fake covid vaccine.
She has no substance to back up anything she says just that she reads and researches a lot then sends me links to crazy sites that also seem to have no substance to them.

It’s all so bizarre and I can’t figure out how she’s fallen for this.

@AlphaJura same with my friend re 'the light'. In fact, her 'tag line' currently on FB is something like 'keep sharing the light'. Lots of her posts talk about 'The Light'. I'm very much afraid that this is some sort of cult thing 😥 as the language used by her and all of these brand new 'friends' is all very similar...the light, the elite, sheeples, 'Wake Up'...and the videos shared are just beyond ludicrous! No critical thinking at all, no science, just pure conspiracy. It's quite worrying when you watch a friend (or relative I imagine) going down this route as there is really no way you can talk to them...they blindly believe it.

I know a few conspiracy theorists and it's just another manifestation of several other issues these people have.

This rings true to me. I met someone recently who seemed reasonably together at first and then bit by bit things came out about what a fuck-up he was and the various conspiracy theories he believed in. Every area of his life just seemed to be a disaster.

The one I know is a heavy skunk smoker who enjoys telling me I'm just ignorant, that I need to open my mind, that I'm uneducated about the "truth".

"Those who believe in nothing will believe in anything". Can't attribute that quote but it seems appropriate.

Can anyone tell me what Wayfair and Pizzagate is?! Can I google or is it better not to know?? Feel like I’ve been living under a rock for the past 6 months after this thread...

Wayfair is a company that sell furniture. Someone noticed a pricing error on their website had several items priced at tens of thousands of pounds. Their items are named after girls’ names, and some people online cross-referenced the list of names of the items, with the list of children who’d been reported (98% of children on the list are found within a few hours) and discovered some overlap. Although some of the ‘missing children’ on the list are no longer missing but safe home with their families. They now believe that Wayfair is engaging in human trafficking and that if you purchase a £10,000 cabinet named ‘Tiffany’ you will actually receive a kidnapper child whose real name is Tiffany.

I dont think believing in some conspiracy theories makes someone mentally ill but many mentally ill people may be drawn to them. You can tell the ones who become rabid and believe every single theory and just refuse all mainstream views, choosing to spend their days online communicating with other cts. They choose to believe so ferociously with no proven facts and believe everyones out to get them. The extreme paranoia is a sign of not being healthy mentally.

Pizzagate concerns a Washington DC pizza restaurant that Hilary Clinton and her campaign staff used to order from. Right wingers invented a conspiracy that “pizza” was actually a code for “child sex slave” with the various pizza toppings being code for different kinds of children, that the pizza restaurant was holding loads of children prisoner in its basement, and that anytime Hilary ordered a pizza they’d select a child from the basement and have it sent over for Hilary to rape and murder in a Satanic ritual.

Authorities investigated and it turns out the restaurant didn’t have a basement.

If anyone wants to check the extreme side look at facebook groups like eyes wide open. I was invited but had to leave as it was infuriating me the shit people believe.

@blurpityblurp thank you for that! It’s actually more unbelievable that I thought it would be! How does someone go from a pricing error on a furniture website to child trafficking
And there’s more than one person who believes this nonsense?

The majority of people I know who are conspiracy theorists have 2 things in common, they smoke weed and they back up everything they claim with you tube videos!
I used to enjoy arguing with a few of them but their only argument is always do your own research it's all there on you tube! Oh and that I'm a sheeple 🤣

Someone asked my friend for some evidence and she said, check out 'Pizzagate' and Quanon. Which they did and quickly concluded it was rubbish . I mean, I heard about this pizza gate thing a while ago. I thought it was common knowledge it had been debunked and what happened with that guy was actually a lesson in how dangerous these theories can be and what extremes some people might go to, in the name of 'righteousness'. How that can be 'evidence' absolutely baffles me.
I actually think it is some sort of cult or religion. They seem to parrot the same lines about waking up, doing your research and 'sheeple'. They believe the elite are going to be exposed. My friend shared a post with a 'prediction' that certain celebrities will be arrested and the bank will crash that week. But the date on the post had already passed and this hadn't happened! None of it does but they still believe it. It's quite sad because I feel as if my friend is starting not to like me because I'm not on board with all this. I feel it upsets her to go against her arguments, so I just end up saying nothing! She seems obsessed with fake stories about child trafficking and pedos. She doesn't seem as happy or have much of a sense of humour any more, but keeps saying that everything is going to be ok and 'you'll see'.

What I don't get is that most of them voted for the elite that they seem to think will be exposes

Yes, Poulet, entertaining though it is to envision the current incumbents of the White House and Number 10 as friends of the common man, I doubt realisation will ever penetrate the fog of unknowing that these disinformation conspiracy theories perpetuate in their believers. Awful. Look at Scientology. I remember when L Ron Hubbard was a fairly unsuccessful scifi writer before he started a new religion. For a laugh. Now look. Bloody. Hell.

@Mycatsmellsbad Yes, I know that! he's buying gold and weird crypto currency as well and is sure I'll "know the truth" on July something or other. I'm bored of not being able to hold a normal conversation with him, and yes he's off with his online QAnon buddies who all bolster reach other up.

Yes op I agree! Don't think it's so much of a mental health crisis, more just being mental.

There's also a direct correlation between how much time a person spends online and how many conspiracy theories they believe I have noticed. The worse ones I have met don't seem to have much of a real life and spend too much time watching YouTube etc

I don't know...one of the worst conspiracy theorists I know doesn't actually spend any time online. Also he prefers alcohol and amphetamines to weed.
Bloody good thing too as our mutual friend said......

A friend who's a mental health worker describes the same as a few posters have already mentioned - it's a coping mechanism after a traumatic childhood or life, in that they must seek explanations for everything. Nothing could possibly be cooincidence or chance, nothing could ever be random or unpredictable. It feels safer to them if everything has an answer and an explanation, even if it's bonkers. They also like feeling as if they are enlightened and in-control, having an advantage over others.

Yess that couldwell be true of this friend
. He had a very traumatic childhood .
He says himself that he doesn't need a psychiatrist he needs a team of them with clipboards, working round the clock...
Poor guy. But Yeh definitely the idea if having some special knowledge that is hardly worth explaining to others....

@TempestHayes

A friend who's a mental health worker describes the same as a few posters have already mentioned - it's a coping mechanism after a traumatic childhood or life, in that they must seek explanations for everything. Nothing could possibly be cooincidence or chance, nothing could ever be random or unpredictable. It feels safer to them if everything has an answer and an explanation, even if it's bonkers. They also like feeling as if they are enlightened and in-control, having an advantage over others.

That's very perceptive.

@BlooperReel YADNBU

My husband is an AMPH (he detains people inter the mental health act) and one of his acquaintances on FB has been spouting exactly the extreme stuff You have described. He is genuinely worried and consider it to be a sign of psychosis - he said he would consider detaining someone who presented like this and indeed has done in the past when their delusions have gotten out of hand and strayed beyond SM into the real world.