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

[Thestreets]

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".

Oh god I don't know why I have quoted you, Lofty. Must be the Russians involved.

@Twatalert

Oh god I don't know why I have quoted you, Lofty. Must be the Russians involved.

@Twatalert can you not see that being so obsessed with something is harmful regardless of beliefs and who is right and wrong? Especially if there is a small child being subjected to these strong beliefs on a daily basis?

@Thestreets

I think you are right she has been smoking weed she's says due to boredom. She is in her 30s by the way and does have a full time job.

She is signed off sick at the moment as she was struggling to homeschool (single mum to 5yr old) and wfh but I guess it has more to do with sinking deeper into this cult. I'm so worried as it has seemed to completely change her personality

I have a family member who is exactly the same (always has been) & has smoked weed continuously since his teens. Correlation is not causation blah blah but anecdotally there does seem to be an overlap.

@thestreets Who defines obsession? Do you think people who talk about the BBC News every day are obsessed? Are you shielding your child from the BBC?

You have no idea how ridiculous you sound.

Before you mentioned it, I was going to ask if there was cannabis involved. Unfortunately I have known similar situations with people who smoked a great deal. Suddenly you would hear about the Bildeberg group and the Rothschilds and how everything is controlled by a few wealthy individuals.

[quote Twatalert]@thestreets Who defines obsession? Do you think people who talk about the BBC News every day are obsessed? Are you shielding your child from the BBC?

You have no idea how ridiculous you sound.[/quote]
I think obsession can be defined as something that impacts heavily on every day life. I am not sitting up until the early hours of the morning falling reading BBC news. To the point where I have signed myself of work and cannot look after by daughter.

And its me who sounds ridiculous?

Thestreets you handle it by saying ‘my minds not ready for that yet’

I have some in my family that is on this bandwagon. The problem is there is grains of truth embedded in this.

I went down a YouTube rabbit hole with my family member and it was mind boggling and when I went home I did a tiny bit of research on what I’d see to fact check. And to be fair I did find a grain of truth.

And I think that’s what these people build on regardless of what they are adding on is just fabrication.

However the media news/google/Facebook/YouTube do heavily filter what you can read and it’s politically driven. She is right about that. My family member ha said some fucking odd stuff about Tom Hanks and Oprah Winfrey ect el and that the truth is about to come out and tbh I hope it doesn’t because I think every ones heads will explode

Not sure about Hillary Clinton being a witch and sacrificing children - but who knows..

YANBU, when people feel their lives are out of control it can help to have someone to pin the blame on.
In reality its a short term fix that doesn't help. If just feeds their paranoia. Nothing changes and they have to keep looking for another fix.

By all means, address the weed problem. Especially since there is a child in the household, but her view of the world sounds as crazy to you as your view sounds to her. Leave her be.

Personally, I am happy that more and more people question the establishment, hollywood etc. Covid has triggered something.

You sound quite condescending in your OP. Youtube etc.... well, your sister has decided to seek out other channels to remain informed. I applaud her, because switching on the TV and watch what we have always known is much easier. What alternative sources for information are there? None. Youtube, Twitter, insta... the dark web (bohhoo) will never be good enough sources for you because that's not where Boris appears.

Thestreets: you are drip feeding. Now, apparently she is unable to look after her child. As I said, address the weed problem. That's more likely the source of her messed up routine than discovering things on youtube.

Also conspiracy theories have always been around, especially in times of stress (historian checking in) but they've been absolutely turbocharged by social media. It crosses the ideological spectrum too - I'm a liberal Labour voting Remainer type & I've had to step away from some acquaintances who genuinely believe that the Tories are using Covid to cull the elderly (their core voters...makes total sense to me????) or that Boris's baby is a fake brought in to distract the public. These people weren't always like that. They just got very sucked into the wilder end of the FBPE community online where everyone reinforces everyone else's views. Its really sad

@Twatalert can you not see that having different views is not an issue even though I believe some if hers are wildly ridiculous and she believes I am blind to what is really going on. It is the fact that all conversations with her are brought back to these topics and it is taking over every aspect of her life. Surely you can agree that is not healthy?

I wonder if sometimes people use conspiracy theories as anchors in difficult times to try and put reason to uncertainty. We are in the midst of a pandemic, on the verge of a recession, there’s a lot of political unease and fears about wider issues like climate change etc - I can see how it might be reassuring to ascribe everything to all knowing, all controlling boogeymen who are orchestrate all of this confusion and hardship.

It might be a more comforting alternative to the idea that everything is random and we are all at the mercy of sheer chaos at any time, with nobody really knowing what’s in store.

Groups that perpetuate conspiracy theories and cults have a lot in common and do have tendencies to focus on people at their worst (which is a lot of people right now). It's far more about people wanting answers and part of a community that has answers rather than mental illness. YANBU OP to be concerned about the drug use and be drained by the constant talk about it, but that also means as someone she still views as part of her community, you can try to find alternative ways for her meet those needs.

It’s like 90% of people keep drinking that bloody kool aid!!!
Off topic, but I learned recently that many of the people who died in Jonestown didn't drink the FlavorAid, but had it shot into their mouths with a needles syringe or were injected with cyanide by others (some in the back...).

@JingsMahBucket
Yep, pizzagate is at the top of my sisters topic of conversations. And you're right about twatalert. I just find this so frustrating when I can see my beautiful sis literally changing personality in front of my eyes

The problem is there is grains of truth embedded in this.

There always is. That’s how you get sucked into conspiracy theories. That and they get you to ‘construct’ the ‘truth’ yourself so that you are more wedded to it than if you had simply been told the ‘facts’.

I’ve been on a few conspiracy theory websites and they ask what seems like a simple question, and when you fail to answer it, they push their interpretation so that you had a hole in your understanding and you grasp gratefully at their ability to fill it rather than be left with a gap.

I’ve been on 9/11 sites where they’ll post a picture of the Pentagon after the plane crashing into it and say ‘where did the wings hit the building’ and you think ‘gosh that is strange, where did the wings go?’ And then they’ll say ‘doesn’t it look more like the result of an explosion?’ And you go ‘I think you’re right’.
Similar tactics for the twin tower collapse - you need to have in-depth knowledge of construction and demolition to dismantle their argument for the towers having been blown up rather than collapsing, and because you don’t have that knowledge, you’ll go with their ‘simple’ explanation. Bearing in mind that they’ve presented you with a skewed version of events that would naturally lead to their explanation, you really do have to give your head a wobble and remind yourself of what they are trying to do before falling for it.

Same tactics on holocaust denial sites, anti-vax sites, and sites that believe that the world was created 6000 years ago.

Someone else on the thread mentioned a good reason why people get involved in this stuff. They’re scared the world doesn’t make sense for them and they’re looking for order. Things are changing and certain types of people are losing their place in the (Western) world so that is really bedrock shaking for a lot of them.

Can you talk to your sister and ask her what her fears are/were pre-pandemic? Get to the root of it. Maybe also ask her about her social media YouTube usage and ask how it has affected her life. Relay to her that you’ve been feeling “too digital” lately and maybe would she want to do a digital detox with you so you can mutually support each other. Giving each other time limits, formulating new activities to do together or separately that aren’t online. Essentially removing the habit and instinct to constantly check things online.

The thing with pizza gate is that Hilliary Clinton did delete thousands of emails. And out of the 12 cops that found the lap top with the emails on 9 have committed suicide and their still hadn’t been an investigation by anybody.

My family member showed me this rabbit hole but I checked on it later. There is elements of truth embedded in their some where and that’s why these stories end up getting out of hand.

It’s odd. All of it is.

I just thought bill gates made computers. You don’t want to go down that rabbit hole..

Someone else on the thread mentioned a good reason why people get involved in this stuff. They’re scared the world doesn’t make sense for them and they’re looking for order. Things are changing and certain types of people are losing their place in the (Western) world so that is really bedrock shaking for a lot of them

I don’t think it’s that for everybody. I think some times people pick up a thread of something and it hooks them in. People think that folk who listen to theory’s like this are drug taking people who’s life is spiralling out of control - it’s not always.

Tom Hanks has been battered on Twitter. You type Tom Hanks in to twitter and there is thousands of tweets about him being a pedophile, a young lady is accusing him or abusing her when she was 13. He has just moved to Greece and become a citizen. Greece has no extradition agreement with USA so there is lots of videos and tweets about it.

It’s really strange that he hadn’t made an public statement about it tbh. His twitter account is ruined.

A frequent claim in conspiracy circles is that the Clintons are associated with various suspicious deaths that have been recorded as suicide.

She's not entirely wrong is she?
Do you believe what the media tell you to believe or do you have a mind of your own.

I don't get this view. The very people/groups conspircay theorists (CTs) claim are controlling the media own most of the sites that these CTs get their "evidence" from. So surely if their "evidence" is on the surface web it's what "they" want you to see? You'd think some all powerful media controlling cartel would at the very least make sure any evidence against them was kept on the dark web. Interestingly I've yet to meet a new CT who even knows how to access the dark web, let alone navigate it.

She could be right OP, have you thought of that?
Not saying she is but who are you or anyone else to say she's wrong.

And this sort of view really gets my back up as it's irresponsible and dangerous. Imo there are two camps of conspiracy theorists, the old and the new.
The old tend to put together quite detailed theories on things like the NWO or ancient astronauts. While still out there (and often easy to disprovel) they can make for interesting and entertaining reading and I can see why they're appealing to people. The Denver Airport one is a particular favourtite of mine, especially since the airport itself started playing along, but believing that sort of conspiracy theory doesn't put the believer or the general population at risk.

One the other hand the new conspiracy theorists seem to just read a few memes or watch a couple of videos and swallow it all as unquestionable truth. That in itself wouldn't be too bad if it wasn't for the fact that there seems to have been a huge surge in people believing things that are not only demonstrably false but actually dangerous i.e. the covid hoax/anti-vaccinations. These people seem to take whatever random article or post they've read as gospel and make real life decisions that could have far reaching consequences for them and others and nothing changes thier mind. You can literally show them physical evidence of why it's false and they just dismiss it as "that's what they want you to think, wake up sheeple". It's fucking terrifying and frankly these people need professional help asap.

I think some times people pick up a thread of something and it hooks them in.

There were those MN threads obsessed with the idea that Louis Tomlinson’s baby was fake and that Louis Tomlinson was actually in a gay relationship with Harry Styles but they were hiding the truth and there would be a big reveal shortly.

I wonder what happens to these people when it becomes blatantly clear that the baby is real and that everything they read into videos, interviews, coded messages etc was all wrong.

The trouble is that she believes it 100% and wants to spread the "word".
It's like a new convert to a religion. They becomes zealots.

There is a lot of truth in most of these theory's. Just look at the Epstein scandal and the high profile people involved. Why would
Prince Andrew continue to associate himself with a convicted paedophile and meet him the week he was released from prison?

I think the best thing to do is try to convince her to quit the drugs and agree to disagree. She is free to think a certain way as are you. Tell her she cannot force you into her beliefs as you can't force her to your beliefs.

My dsis is the same. She's just told me she's anti-vax and believes the government deliberately released Covid so they could force us to take a vaccine. I tried to tall her back round but gave up pretty quickly. She's absolutely adamant she's right, and has been sending me random youtube videos of 'experts' (none with a science degree of any kind though ) and screenshots of comments on facebook. She does have mental health problems, and has fallen victim to mlm's before. I iist shut it down whenever she starts to rant about it, but I'm not sure what else to do.