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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

AIBU To feel like I'm losing my sister to conspiracy theories?

309 replies

Thestreets · 04/08/2020 13:24

My sister is a very intelligent, funny, interesting woman but recently , probably since lockdown she has been spending more and more time online and reading into conspiracy theories about the Hollywood elite and politicians and child sacrifices and all kinds of ludicrous claims.

This has utterly consumed her, you cannot have a conversation with the her that she does not turn to her trying to show some you tube video as "evidence". I'm so worried but do not know what to do as everything I say is met with "well that's what they want you to think".

OP posts:
CatsArePeopleToo · 08/08/2020 08:01

My mum and dad find most outlandish stuff from Russia. Really beats the mainstream western conspiracies.

But my personal favourite remains the Flat Earth. It's the best wind up in conversations.

StarUtopia · 08/08/2020 11:35

bibbibity

I told you... Watch Out of the Shadows. Start there.

michael The Clinton Foundation is indeed the stuff of nightmares. But most people are just walking around with their fingers in the ears and their eyes closed.

MaybeDoctor · 08/08/2020 12:22

I am in my mid forties, so lived a fair proportion of my adult life before the internet was prevalent. As a teenager I enjoyed chatting to my friends about conspiracy theories (UFOs, the supernatural, prophecies and all sorts), but that was all that it was - teenage chat. I was intrigued by some of these theories but to take it further would have required a lot more effort - buying magazine subscriptions, trying to locate a group or requesting particular books to be ordered into our tiny library. Apart from the BBC, ITV and Channel 4, the printed press was the main source of information and at least that was somewhat regulated by means of the Press Complaints Commission and also by readers writing in to point out inaccuracies. The most sinister form of alternative information was chain-mail - anyone else remember those?

Nowadays any teen with a smart phone can join conspiracy-promoting groups at the touch of a button. Yes it is free choice, but if any group or individual is actively evangelising towards children and young adults then I struggle to see where promotion, recruitment and grooming begin and end.

bibbitybobbitycats · 08/08/2020 13:58

@StarUtopia

bibbibity

I told you... Watch Out of the Shadows. Start there.

michael The Clinton Foundation is indeed the stuff of nightmares. But most people are just walking around with their fingers in the ears and their eyes closed.

No, I asked you for some reputable sources. Which you can't provide. No-one ever can.

Show me the research.

Oswin · 08/08/2020 14:38

Got 32 mins into that video and it's not in any way proof. It's just a man talking about what he thinks is going on, with short clips of other people saying similar to back him up Confused

bibbitybobbitycats · 08/08/2020 15:38

@Oswin

Got 32 mins into that video and it's not in any way proof. It's just a man talking about what he thinks is going on, with short clips of other people saying similar to back him up Confused
Yes, he starts off saying something like, "don't believe everything you see and hear" which I agree with, then basically asks the viewers of Out of the Shadows to do just that! 'Tis bonkers as conkers and more than a little dangerous.
bibbitybobbitycats · 08/08/2020 17:11

@StarUtopia OK, I am wading through the documentary and am losing the will to live. All it seems to be doing is using tiny grains of truth to build a very precarious sandcastle of conspiracy, although I am still not sure what the conspiracy actually is. Maybe the pelvic floor therapist will come back and explain at some point?

CatsArePeopleToo · 08/08/2020 17:31

I watched that video. Opium for the masses.
That aside, things like this exist to cover up other goings on. And if you disagree with, let's say particular vaccines or covid craze, you must be one of conspiraloons.

startrek90 · 08/08/2020 18:17

One thing I have always wanted to know from flat earthers is why? Why would every government in the world want to hide the fact the earth is flat? Just why?

CatsArePeopleToo · 08/08/2020 18:44

startrek90 to hide the Creator.

Iminaglasscaseofemotion · 08/08/2020 18:47

My dp tells me all these things that he's read on the internet as if they are fact. I've had to tell him to stop repeating these ridiculous things to me because it's making him sound really thick.

TheHoneyBadger · 08/08/2020 20:35

Tried to read the daily beast article but can’t without signing up.

A lot of it is what I’d assume to be common sense, eg media (including entertainment media) has an agenda and messaging and is used for steering beliefs and perspectives. Homeland anyone? Enjoyable show but very obviously supportive of the dangerous Arabs, heroes America (if a little shady here and there) narrative.

I’ve always taken part of my job as a parent and a teacher to be encouraging critical thinking and teaching how to unpick visual media eg what’s this trying to sell and to who ds and what fears/inferiorities/aspirations is it exploiting to make the target audience think they need it? Etc.

That obvious stuff is presented as radical expose you must be very special if you can see it stuff.

The idea that the overstimulated ever seeking a new thrill super rich and powerful could well be more inclined towards, or easily tempted by socially abhorrent acts such as child abuse also seems pretty obvious to me. Just as the fact that by the time you’re a multimillionaire in a world of poverty it’s clearly no longer about the money in terms of security or what you can buy but has become about power and control and immunity.

None of these things are that surprising really to me at least or even secret.

The presentation of these facts as a deep dark scandalous secret that few are ‘awake’ or brave enough to face actually seems to work in favour of them continuing unchecked imo. Anyone trying to get justice for their maltreatment can be labelled a nut job.

In reality it’s pretty obvious and always has been that dirty power crazed individuals abuse their positions over women and children. We all know that surely?

Sensationalising and talking about clubs and satanical ritual elements detracts from the, very sadly mundane and commonplace, abuse of women and children by powerful men.

TheHoneyBadger · 08/08/2020 20:41

Hope that made vague sense. Wine and sunshine is quite the cocktail

TheHoneyBadger · 08/08/2020 20:50

The insulting thing is poorly educated, and/or incredibly insular youngsters suddenly thinking they’re enlightened (by seeing what is clearly bloody obvious) due to watching a YouTube video telling you you’re asleep or a sheep.

Yeah no shit power corrupts and the more powerful you are the more you can get away with. That knowledge has been around forever and it’s a little tragic you’ve only just seen it and think it’s revolutionary and assume the rest of us don’t know anything about it.

Has your new found zeal resulted in any action? Are you linking it to everyday realities like vanishingly small conviction rates for rape and pathetic sentences for repeated sexual offences against children or just essentially getting off on YouTube videos about the rich and famous for a few months before moving onto your next obsession.

It’s actually offensive.

bibbitybobbitycats · 08/08/2020 23:29

Yeah no shit power corrupts and the more powerful you are the more you can get away with. That knowledge has been around forever and it’s a little tragic you’ve only just seen it and think it’s revolutionary and assume the rest of us don’t know anything about it.

Exactly!

BibiBlocksberg · 09/08/2020 00:34

Very easy to get sucked into that world imo. Spent a bit of time reading up on the strange underground way of the world a couple of years before the current world situation & again when the pandemic first hit.

Always arrive at the same conclusion eventually though, being that, if any of it is true, how do we either fight back or protect ourselves?

None of the conspiracy theorists have been able to provide an answer to that imo (well, beyond the doomsday preppers) so have filed it under ‘stuff that's deliberately meant to upset us’ i.e ‘Fear Porn’

A fearful populace is easily controlled after all

Pandacub7 · 09/08/2020 00:44

I mean, the media is guilty of exaggerating things and biased towards a certain political agenda. There’s an inquiry into why “covid deaths” are really high in England. It’s because people that have tested positive are NEVER taken off. This means if people die months later, their death goes on the covid death count. Even if they died in a car accident. So many people said it was a conspiracy, that Public Health England would never do that... but this has turned out to be true. Not saying all your sister’s ideas are true (whatever they may be), but you can’t believe everything you read in the media.

BelleHathor · 09/08/2020 01:03

how do we either fight back or protect ourselves? it's hard to tell right now with the world currently as it is. I have followed Q. since he/she popped up in 2017 on 4chan. And I think the reason this particular "conspiracy" has resonated with ordinary people (also why the wayfair issue blew up so quickly) is the fact that it has to do with children being trafficked on an industrial scale. When you realise that Epstein was a small cog in a much larger wheel. There's also John of God and NVIXM who were arrested. After Savile, the Dutroux affair in Belgium it's not hard to believe. The FBI also released the Finders documents last year.
The “Finders” were a CIA Operation, often described as a 1960s-style commune, in reality they were a cult that conducted “brainwashing” and used children “in rituals.” The FBI has now unsealed a 324 page document that details this operation and the US Intel Communities role in ritual child sexual abuse.
vault.fbi.gov/the-finders/

ChavvySexPond · 09/08/2020 06:15

She could be right OP, have you thought of that?

No.

She isn't.

It's all obvious made-up bullshit.

Not saying she is but who are you or anyone else to say she's wrong.
You can only conspire against something you know to be correct, so unless you know, how do you know she is wrong or that her opinions are conspiracy.
^
They're not her opinions. ^

They're not anyone's opinions.

They're lies that she repeats.

CrunchyCarrot · 09/08/2020 09:42

Well I just spent an hour reading about and watching some David Icke stuff and oh boy is it crazy! Shape-shifting lizards and aliens from the planet Draco, LMAO. And people actually believe this stuff?

It is interesting though that this conspiracy seeks to blame these reptilian aliens for the evil in humanity such as child trafficking, drugs, wars, terrorism. Instead of we humans taking responsibility for our own heinous actions, which I believe we must do.

bibbitybobbitycats · 09/08/2020 10:27

@Pandacub7

I mean, the media is guilty of exaggerating things and biased towards a certain political agenda. There’s an inquiry into why “covid deaths” are really high in England. It’s because people that have tested positive are NEVER taken off. This means if people die months later, their death goes on the covid death count. Even if they died in a car accident. So many people said it was a conspiracy, that Public Health England would never do that... but this has turned out to be true. Not saying all your sister’s ideas are true (whatever they may be), but you can’t believe everything you read in the media.
Yes it is true that PHE had an issue with this which has resulted in an over count of PHE's figures of about 4,200. But we knew that ONS figures are the most accurate are still higher that PHE's adjusted figures will be.

So where is the conspiracy? Why would PHE deliberately fiddle England's figures upwards, especially when we all know that ONS figures and the excess mortality rate are more accurate at giving us the true picture?

Pandacub7 · 09/08/2020 11:06

@bibbitybobbitycats you’re right, it is odd. Makes you think.

SeaEagleFeather · 09/08/2020 12:31

It reminds me frighteningly of the irrational beliefs that used to sweep societies from time to time. Claims that people didn't have the literacy or critical thinking to know how to refute.

It's the same sort of hysteria. Luckily not as dangerous, yet thinks of the witch trials

bibbitybobbitycats · 09/08/2020 12:38

[quote Pandacub7]@bibbitybobbitycats you’re right, it is odd. Makes you think.[/quote]
To be clear, what I am saying Panda, is that there was no conspiracy over PHE counting, just ineptitude on its part.