to be utterly shocked and heartbroken at how many intelligent, lovely friends and acquaintances have totally bought in to the radical global conspiracy theories...

[fuschia2000]

Seeing so much conspiracy stuff on Facebook threads, its totally alarming.... the folks can really make a good argument, with pseudo science, lots of data etc but we are looking at radical q'anon right wing conspiracy theories breaking through into the normal discussion groups and online groups.....

Yes, but do you think I can't reset Windows 10 because I didn't have a Bill Gates micro chip in the vaccine I had 2 weeks ago? I think I need a micro chip to be more intelligent,

@bp300

Just found this regarding Bill Gates and Epstein

www.reuters.com/article/uk-factcheck-bill-gates-epstein-island-idUSKBN22R2C4

@Graciebobcat

Social media has done this to us and it's utterly evil...

Bollocks. What about all the lies and misinformation spouted by the traditional media?

Which bit of the traditional media invented the whole microchip thing then?

Don’t QAnon think the US is run by a giant paedophile ring?

Are your FB friends really that weird, or are they just cautious about the vaccine?

I don't read it, why give it oxygen?

Oh god don’t get me started on the paedophile part! My group of friends bar myself and one other have all fallen down the Qanon rabbit hole! At Christmas we met up. We avoided any real discussion about covid which was a blessing and I thought for once we had managed a social occasion without their bollocks! I then put on John legends Christmas album.... which was switched off as he’s paedophile apparently! Toy story wasn’t allowed on for the kids to watch either! same reason!

piefacedClique

Well, no sensible person I know talks to me about any of this stuff. 😂 I do have some friends who are concerned about the safety of a vaccine but I don’t think they’re conspiracy theorists.

You're 'heartbroken', OP?

I dont think the paedophile ring stuff is farfetched at all. You don't have to look far into our own establishment to see it.

I dont think the paedophile ring stuff is farfetched at all. You don't have to look far into our own establishment to see it.

Do tell.

Yes they don’t talk to me about it now generally! I literally walk away or mute group chats when it starts 🤣

Savile's royal connection for starters...

Savile's royal connection for starters...

Was he the Queen’s chief corgi wrangler, or something?

Really? It's not a joke, and a really odd thing to be making jokes about.

Do you think our establishment are squeaky clean in the regard?

A lot is well documented and not denied. Edward Heath for example.

I had one person on my FB and I unfriended him after he kept spreading quite ridiculous anti vax rubbish.
The only place I encounter some of the conspiracy theories now is a wacky neighbour, that hates Bill Gates with a passion, is anti vax and seems to spout some bizarre things she believes in and a general news group on FB. Easy to ignore those, Many just laugh at them

@ClarencesMum

Really? It's not a joke, and a really odd thing to be making jokes about.

Do you think our establishment are squeaky clean in the regard?

A lot is well documented and not denied. Edward Heath for example.

Well documented by who, though?

Kind of crucial to your argument.

ClarencesMum

I am making a joke at the expense of the idea of a giant, completely unproven conspiracy. Prove it and I’ll look at it very differently.

The problem is that there are some truths amongst the nonsense. It’s one of the ways these conspiracy theories get people hooked.

This tool in the guise of a game to help people interpret and recognise misinformation was made as a way to fight internet misinformation surrounding Covid-19.

www.goviralgame.com/en/play

You have to go “viral” with misinformation

I think, fwiw, that the Bill Gates thing maybe spread form something he actually did say, 2010? about wanting to reduce the world population. Until recently, it was widely available to see him make the statement in a presentation he did.
Whether people have made 2+2 = 100 I have no idea.

Hokiecokie, yes- Heartbroken so many lies are becoming normalised, and so many folks are led down a rabbit hole of paranoia and misinformation and corruption, and that collectively humanity is in such a mess

Just get off Fb and Twitter.
Humanity is doing an amazing thing in taking control of a pandemic - everywhere, some faster than others but EVERYONE in the world should be safer within the year - that is a stratospheric success for mankind.

You are one of the fear and doom-mongers OP.

Another one is the John Hopkins institute[a big fish institute in the US] having on their own website, again, widely available to see until at least recently, an article about how they were testing what would happen in a worldwide pandemic, only a couple of months before....a worldwide pandemic.

As @ElephantsNest says, there is some truth amongst the nonsense.

I figured this sort of stuff must have gone mainstream, when there are up to 20%, especially amongst the young, refusing the vaccine. Someone said France for example, has 40% refusing, 20% not sure, and only 40% planning to have it. Ditto Poland. The UK is actually supposed to be the most likely to have the vaccine amongst European countries.

ClarencesMum - it is not far-fetched that there are paedophiles and that a few of them are in high-up positions, or even that they are/were protected by some other high-up people. That is not at all the same as claiming that an organised ring of celebrity paedophiles is in charge of the country/world/media etc. What do you count as 'the establishment'? And who do you think is claiming they are all 'squeaky clean'?

But the problem is that there are plenty of ways that governments and corporations are actually fucking us over and are not held to account because of all of the fictional stuff. I know there is a grain of truth in some of it but there is no peer review, no limits, no facts. I don't know what the answer is really and I know that the shady behaviour of governments and corporations are the root cause of this but just because we don't trust them doesn't mean we should trust any Tom, Dick and Harry with an outlandish theory

this, exactly.

every conspiracy theorist i know struggles with poor thinking skills, poor education and poor- non existent- knowledge of history, politics or the way things work.

they confuse cover-ups -which are rife, yes, and can be evidenced- with nonsense and often anti-semitism. their failure to look for facts, evidence, reasoning, and their use of stupid slogans reminds me of germans in 1930 - these people are ripe for dictatorship.

Am I right in thinking it is younger people that have bought in this sort of stuff?
Amongst the large groups of older people I know
a. they are rushing to have the vaccine and
b. they may not have even heard of Bill Gates[largely because they are not on social media I presume].