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".

There seems to be so much of this kind of thing online over the last few years; conspiracy ideas, subtle changes in the use of language etc and it seems to be having destabilising effects. It's starting to really concern me.

The same sort of thing happened in 1918. This article was written before COVID 19 emerged. It concludes that If we face another deadly pandemic, this spread of misinformation could have a potentially catastrophic effect on our ability to contain the outbreak

wellcomecollection.org/articles/XXIeHhEAACYAIdKz

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
Yeah I think I'm going to need to see the receipts for this claim.

@Watdafark

Who here admits to bring a reptile?

turns her head side to side to observe the doubter, first one eye then the other, hissing slightly and scratching her bellyscales with her hind claws

@Miafey

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 Yeah I think I'm going to need to see the receipts for this claim.

I'm waiting for the "do your own research" type of reply.

To the poster who mentioned 'new' channel RT - it's not new, it's a rebranding of Russia Today. A network run and controlled by the Russian Government. It masquerades as a regular news channel but it was created to push an agenda and propaganda for the Russian Government. It pushes out conspiracy theories all the time.

I wish people would stop just saying "everyone is entitled to their own opinion, leave them to it" - sometimes that 'opinion' unchecked creates very dangerous situations.

For example the guy that fired into a cupboard in that pizza restaurant because he thought the (non existant) basement was housing a pedophile ring run by Hillary Clinton. Or the poor parents of the six-year olds killed in Sandy Hook elementary who have people hounding them and claiming they are crisis actors and their children never exisited.

This is a really interesting article on the history of conspiracy theories and their development to the more mainstream in the current day.

www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/04/22/whats-new-about-conspiracy-theories

As that article I posted mentions it's great business for YouTube, Facebook etc to have people drawn into these conspiracy theories because they then spend more and more time on the platforms watching and talking about them.

It mentions one researcher who found a distinct pattern by YouTube pushing viewers to more and more controversial material to keep their attention on the site.

This could be my SIL. I’ve had to block her on SM, but she still sends me links to her theories. I’m really worried about her MH.

I recently read an excellent book about the Salem witch trials. At first, I wondered why people who were facing so many genuine perils in their lived reality would focus their anxiety on imaginary foes. But I suppose it makes the same sort of psychological sense as the latching onto conspiracy theories. It distracts from the true sources of danger and also may give an illusion of control.

The one conspiracy theory that is true is that most (if not all) threads on forums about conspiracy theories are started by deep state agents. Anyone who posts agreeing with any conspiracy theory, or along the lines of 'there is some truth to this', gets their details captured and are entered into a massive secret book known as the "Big Black Book of Fucking Morons". That is then used as a database for whenever idiots are required (for example, to vote Tory)

@FarTooSkinny

The one conspiracy theory that is true is that most (if not all) threads on forums about conspiracy theories are started by deep state agents. Anyone who posts agreeing with any conspiracy theory, or along the lines of 'there is some truth to this', gets their details captured and are entered into a massive secret book known as the "Big Black Book of Fucking Morons". That is then used as a database for whenever idiots are required (for example, to vote Tory)

@TenCornMaidens

The point ISN'T necessarily what you believe, but to what extent you feel you have to convince other people you are right to the detriment of real relationships. There are ways of politely disagreeing and moving on, and this is what most people do. You realise someone has different views to you on x y z and you change the subject to maintain sociability. It isn't hard.

This is my view exactly. If something is detrimental to real life relationships it crosses over from being a belief to being a problem

@FarTooSkinny I've been called a lot of things in my life but never a deep state agent - i quite like the sound of it

We are having the same issue with my sister. She is posting conspiracy theory videos constantly that everyone appears to be ignoring 🙈. They seem to be quite pro Tump, which I'm sure she would be horrified about, except she has been completely taken in with it all.
She believes masks are dangerous to our health due to breathing in our own carbon dioxide 😬
She is ignoring any discussion I am trying to have about it 😫

@Sosogrow its exhausting isn't it? If DSIS was only doing this in her spare time I think I would be able to turn a blind eye and smile and nod but she has been signed off work due to stress and I really believe that she is sitting on the Internet for over 12 hours each day getting more sucked in

[quote Thestreets]@FarTooSkinny I've been called a lot of things in my life but never a deep state agent - i quite like the sound of it [/quote]
Sorry, I have outed you. Expect a member of Dominic Cummings's death squad to knock on your door shortly

I'm not a bonafide conspiracy theorist. I'm an HCP and don't touch the Devil's lettuce.

I have looked in to many conspiracy theories over the past few years, honestly they are about as full of shit as the MSM is.

The truth is out there, somewhere in the midst of what TPTB want us to believe and what the full blown tin hat brigade want us to.

Its not in anybody's best interests to be too liberal with the truth and giving it to the general populace.

Yep @Thestreets. My sis also isn't working and has she a young son to care for. She is quite chaotic anyway and things like this are fairly typical for her, but it's impossible to have a conversation as she thinks she is right.

I think a lot of people just feel inferior with their level of knowledge, and arrogance leads them down an easy way to explain things through this complete rubbish, rather than doing the very hard work of actually learning about the world. THose who are fairly successful get hit even harder due to some sort of imposter syndrome.

Combine that with older generations who didnt grow up with the internet and are more willing to trust what they read, along with obvious vendettas (isnt it odd how celebraties at the centre of these accusastions are always against trump) and its a recipe for disaster.

A way for the stupid to feel clever. The same reason a lot of them like Jordan Peterson- the ultimate fool's idea of a clever person.

A way for the stupid to feel clever.

THIS!!

Conspiracy theories frustrate me so much because for the majority of them it is so easy to find out the truth by doing their own research using the internet but they don’t bother and just blindly follow the crowd.

This is exactly the issue 😬.

Reminds me of the character from Viz comic.

@FrontToBackTree

Personally I think the reason conspiracy theorists have latched onto covid is for them thinking that the government is controlling it all is less scary than the actual scientific truth, which is that life is we know it could effectively be over for good.

Exactly. Instead of trying to make sense of it all, their brains short out and blow a fuse then look for the easiest answer... "This big entity is behind this THING I don't understand. My world is different than it used to be and I don't know where my place in it is anymore."

@Thestreets you're very welcome. Good luck because you may have a long road ahead of you.

Also, people need to stop blaming weed for this. There are hundreds of thousands, even millions of people who believe this QAnon, Pizzagate, flat earth, and anti-vax shit and they're not weed smokers at all. They're people who are scared of the world they don't understand or can't comprehend for some reason.

@redbushtea
There have in fact been studies showing that mask wearing can be dangerous.

QAnon conspiracy cult bullshit.