To feel intimidated by conspiracy theorists

[famousforwrongreason]

I have a lot of friends who seem to have moved into plandemic territory, masks are evil etc. Some people are who I'd least expect to have these beliefs, rational people.
They have linked covid to 5g and are now crusading for the save our children campaign saying anyone who doesn't join them is complicit in child abuse and people trafficking.
They literally say this.
this is not even one group of friends, but disparate unconnected from each other.
I feel like they're dropping like flies.
I have every reason to believe that these campaigns have right wing connections, many of them are using American spelling for things which are also being shared by qanon people and there is some crossover.
I am not keen on our government, not overly happy with masks but also not overly bothered, I'll do what I can to help get things back to normal, maybe I'm being naive there
I just want to rant really, I keep inadvertently insulting people when I bring it up irl and each time a new person tells me their thoughts on it all I just become more alarmed!
I would also do anything I can to protect children, I just feel that linking up with these militant groups is not the only way.

Plus the friends who are heavily involved seem to have become friends with some really heavy and sinister Tommy robinson types.
I feel worried about the mass hysteria, but also sad I'm losing friends and worried about where this will end.
Is anyone experiencing this?
Aibu to feel this is slightly sinister?

IME the extremes of views and opinions are often products of fear - either minimising a threat ('it's just like the flu') or blowing it out of all proportion (take your pick of Covid related conspiracy theories).
It's either self-soothing reassurance that things won't be as bad as described by authorities, or there is such a convoluted and complicated backstory that is only one could get the 'baddies' all would be well.

Complex, ever changing, insecure, shifting knowledge about a new threat? FAAAAAAR to scary to contemplate, so people fall back to what they perceive as reassuring.

It's one thing following a charismatic leader, and a whole other thing following him to the extremes. I think faith is something one either has or does not have and is certainly not incompatible with rational thinking. There does seem to be a certain kind of vulnerable individual though that craves the security and certainty of having somebody else take control, or seemingly take control, of their life and destiny.

@Zippy1510

I honestly think it’s because everyone is fed up with covid restrictions but obviously don’t want to announce to the world “well I’ve decided I’ll do what I want because I’m a selfish twat and don’t care if I am contributing to the spread of a potentially life threatening infectious disease”. So instead they dress it up like “it’s all a big conspiracy and I’m so clever for seeing through it unlike all you sheep”. Then they can go about their lives as they please without openly outing themselves as being selfish and inconsiderate.

I suspect this is true. What they seem to miss is that approach makes them look selfish, inconsiderate and stupid instead

Out of curiosity, upon viewing the Deagel website, what is it the makes you think 'this might be credible'? Particularly given that you've already observed its predictions haven't transpired to date.

I didn't say I found it credible - just that it seems to be designed as a serious website, using a lot of drily-presented statistics, regardless of their veracity or not - and that it claims to get its data from the US government, military and colossal corporations. It doesn't appear to be a satirical website (or if if it is, it's spectacularly missing the mark) and it isn't presented like the frothing rants of a lunatic blaming 'the Jews' for everything and justifying their 'facts' 'because aliens' - the sort you can normally spot a mile off. It just seems quite nonchalant and passive in giving its data without any real analysis and I wondered who was behind it and what was the purpose of it.

Ffs Bill gates is not trying to kill Africans with vaccines or whatever bullshit conspiracy idiots have thought up now.

I never said that he was - just that some of the things he's said could easily be questioned as potentially being interpreted that way. I don't know the man at all, so I'm unable to vouch personally for his character and intentions, but maybe you do know him?

I don't know if he is any more or less likely to make evil plans than any other individual in the world - all I know is that, just supposing he were one of these people with evil intent - and unless you believe that all worldwide court convictions are one big conspiracy and all people charged are actually innocent, you won't deny that there are some terribly evil people out there - he would be in a much better position to put his plans into motion than somebody who drives a bus in Basingstoke.

It seems to me that a lot of foundations that are set up and named after their founder seem to be at least partially vanity projects. I'm not saying that they don't also frequently do a great deal of good in the world, but I do wonder what drives some of them and whether some/all or none of their motives are beyond reproach. The Blair Foundation for one seems a particularly odious and ironic one to me.

The B&MG Foundation offered to match all of the donations received by a recent charity telethon (Comic Relief maybe?). Very admirable, of course - but it's extremely good PR for people who just had that money and loads beside it already sitting in the bank. Why did they wait until the telethon before giving it? Did they really not already know of the urgent need for it? Water Aid advertises that they hope to ensure that everybody in the world has access to clean water by (I think) 2032, and the sums of money they're talking about needing sound like small change to a billionaire. If I were one, I'd just pick up the phone, ask how much they need and, without any fanfare or ceremony, send them a well rounded-up cheque to get the job done.

@WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll

Anyone can put any old crap on the internet, and Deagal is obviously a load a crap. Hard to know if the motivation is for conspiratorial reasons (seems likely) or just the fevered dreams and questionable modeling of some idiot somewhere.

Why did you even bring it up?

Anyone can put any old crap on the internet, and Deagal is obviously a load a crap. Hard to know if the motivation is for conspiratorial reasons (seems likely) or just the fevered dreams and questionable modeling of some idiot somewhere.

Why did you even bring it up?

Just bringing it up for discussion on a public forum and asking for opinions. I presume we don't have to only stick to a centrally-prescribed list of 'approved' websites to mention? Why did you see fit to respond to my mentioning of it?!

You brought it up twice and directly asked for people's opinions on it. I looked and it's obviously a load of crap which should be readily apparent to anyone with more than a couple of brain cells. I'm curious to know why you're interested to know people's opinions on such ludicrous nonsense, that's all.

Fair enough - thanks for your opinion, then!

According to one website (which people may or may not believe to be credible), 'Whois' named the person behind the website as "forrmer US government insider, Edwin Deagle."

"Deagle was Undersecretary of the Air Force under President Bill Clinton. He later became Assistant to the Secretary of Defense and the Deputy Secretary of Defense under Clinton in 1994."

"Edwin Deagle is also listed as an active member of the CFR."

"Deagle is the Director for International Relations for the Rockefeller Foundation, one of the leading eugenic supporters in the world."

Apparently, that's the 'idiot' behind it. If it is indeed him, he's clearly an extremely busy man.

Yes I saw that, along with a post pointing out that the whois search was actually for deagle.com, not deagal.com.

Just to add: it does sound on the face of it that it's a load of hogwash, but I don't see it as a weakness to keep an open mind about what could or could not happen and not just scoff and dismiss it out of all distant possibiity - especially when it appears to be suggested by very eminent people.

I'm in no way an eminent person whatsoever myself, but if I'd told you in the Autumn of 2019 that, within six months, the PM of the UK was going to, overnight, be ordering British people not to leave their homes except for a very few prescribed permitted purposes, forcing thousands of legitimate businesses to close their doors and close all the schools - which of these would honestly have more closely resembled your response to me?:

A. "Well, it sounds extremely unlikely indeed - I can't see any way whatsoever how that could come about, but I suppose you never can know for absolute certainty what could be around the corner."

B. "You're a ridiculous crazy lunatic, coming out with laughably stupid conspiracy rubbish and I pity anybody who gives your idiotic theories the time of day."

Yes I saw that, along with a post pointing out that the whois search was actually for deagle.com, not deagal.com.

Fair enough, then - it sounds like it might well be a weirdo with far too much time on their hands, if that is the case. Thanks for the constructive point. I still stand by my preference to look into the logical reasons and any evidence behind the origins of surprising things I see and hear and then come to my own conclusions.

Predicting the exact onset of the pandemic, and world governments' particular response to it, would have been a massive long shot, but at least suitably qualified people were warning of the likelihood of a pandemic at some point in the not distant future. There would be a basis for thinking your prediction could come to pass, even if some of the particulars were guesswork.

Deagal.com is a largely anonymous website that has been making hilariously inaccurate predictions about mass migration and suicide for a couple of decades, with zero reason to give it any credence and plenty of reasons to be highly skeptical.

So.... conspiracy theories on a thread about how awful it is to discover previously reasonably sane and pleasant people of one's acquaintance were in fact mouth-frothing, rage-filled lunatics.

I have had to mentally cull many of my former friends for the sake of my own sanity. It has been a shock. I almost daren't contact anyone now. (And also have learnt to trot in the opposite direction, if sighting any in the distance in the supermarket, etc, as they are never wearing masks!) It is more peaceful to not encounter such things.

I still stand by my preference to look into the logical reasons and any evidence behind the origins of surprising things I see and hear and then come to my own conclusions.
Except that isn't what you're doing (or you're certainly not doing a good job of it). There is zero evidence (that I can find) to support Deagal's incredibly outlandish claims and a whole load of evidence to the contrary. It did not take long to research either. You seen to basically be willing to consider (and spread) any ridiculous crap you hear, from anonymous sources, regardless of whether it has any real evidentiary basis.

I blame the drugs

I love winding them up!

Two colleagues at work (neither spring chickens either) seem to have bonded over this crap and were tag teaming me every time we worked together. Always some new nutjob theory.

They're largely giving me the cold shoulder now though as I pissed them both off. They were banging on about chemtrails and I started with the 'didn't you know it's actually vitamins/minerals they're spraying, like the ones they used to add to the water.' They tried to argue and I just kept on with 'but didn't you know, only 5% of the population gets the RDA for potassium, it's for our own good.' Just kept countering with duff statistics and twisting real ones. 🤭

Conspiracy theorists generally seem to hate positivity. You won't find many benevolent conspiracy theories IME.

Thankfully not friends but a close enough relative who I don’t see in person very often. Her partner is a very educated man and has introduced her to all kinds of theories and conspiracies and she has well and truly lost the plot.

She turned up unannounced at our house last year ( lives quite a way away ) and had my then 8yr old daughter petrified as was going on and on about 5G, how dd’s iPad was being watched by the government, how my smart meter is listening to us, Alexa is listening to everything and reporting back and even our mobile phones are hacked, never mind the lampposts full of poison.

I ended up changing the subject a million times but she was relentless. She phoned my brother up not long after and told him that his severely autistic children could be cured and then sent me a David Icke book through the post.

I will be avoiding her completely now. Her partner is also quite influential and they’re involved in all kinds of protests and rallies and are going to end up in trouble.

When she left, dp and I felt freaked out by her and agreed to not talk about it in front of dd as she had listened to enough.

Just to add: it does sound on the face of it that it's a load of hogwash, but I don't see it as a weakness to keep an open mind about what could or could not happen and not just scoff and dismiss it out of all distant possibiity - especially when it appears to be suggested by very eminent people. I'm in no way an eminent person whatsoever myself, but if I'd told you in the Autumn of 2019 that, within six months, the PM of the UK was going to, overnight, be ordering British people not to leave their homes except for a very few prescribed permitted purposes, forcing thousands of legitimate businesses to close their doors and close all the schools - which of these would honestly have more closely resembled your response to me?:A. "Well, it sounds extremely unlikely indeed - I can't see any way whatsoever how that could come about, but I suppose you never can know for absolute certainty what could be around the corner."B. "You're a ridiculous crazy lunatic, coming out with laughably stupid conspiracy rubbish and I pity anybody who gives your idiotic theories the time of day."

Not a good analogy, because that's not how conspiracy theorists "work". They don't set up to predict the future, they distort the past.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Holocaust

Aren't you all woke yet 😂 sorry 🙊

Yes I'm seeing it too.
Its slowly creeping in on life.
From what I see it looks like a bored obsession. People who would ordinarily be working (and in an awful lot of cases ive seen are both very vain and or/political) first objected to wearing masks as they were 'hiding our identities' (I took that as they didnt like being hidden and not flaunting it), then the government were using it as a means to control us (previously government were being accused of using face tracking technology everywhere by the same people🙄). Now the cases arent real and it's a significant hoax and they cant catch it and are trying to get away without masks, are posting videos all over SM of how useless masks are, (except the videos are completely useless as they bear no comparison to the role they are supposed to be serving).
I think in general these people don't like the fact their lives have been affected. They dont like change and invivenience. they are inflexible to change for whatever reason, superior beings who have special powers (ie deluded in general) and will find any scapegoat to blame for something that unbalances the status quo that they are happy with in life. I believe its people who are insecure and inflexible who hold these attitudes not to mention bored.

I'd recommend the film below for a little insight into there thinking.

www.netflix.com/gb/title/81015076?preventIntent=true

Apparently, that's the 'idiot' behind it. If it is indeed him, he's clearly an extremely busy man.

Lol, my thoughts as well. 🤣🤣🤣

I'm confused, how do they think covid links to sex trafficking/child abuse?

Lots of consipracy theories have an element of truth to them. The more people deny them the more people question what they have been told when this element of truth is exposed. For example, the whole international paedophile network, made up of a lot of rich and famous people that had been dismissed as a big right-wing conspiracy seems to have a lot of truth to it.

People see things like this and then go on to question other things. Also, if people are always being told that what they see with their own eyes and experience on a regular basis is hysteria or delusion, they are going to start questioning what the mainstream media is saying and why they are being told their experience has no value.

People love to mock those who refer to Orwell, but so many things from "1984" are here - things like "hate speech", memory holes (the rewriting of history and uncomfortable truths), the eradication and silencing of certain groups or opinions. It's all slowly got quite dystopian.