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.....

@Helmetbymidnight I dont know all the answers.
But people are also putting two and two together, as he funds, or puts money towards, vaccinations.

I imagine you know in your own life, people who come up with things and spread them. Whether being partly right, or way off mark.

No idea whether BG has talked about microchipping. Never bothered to find out. But if he has, once a rumour has started and taken hold, then people look for other things as well, to add to the theory, and in their minds, confirm it.

But people are also putting two and two together, as he funds, or puts money towards, vaccinations.

BG has been involved in anti-malaria jabs and reproductive health measures for years and years.

The only people who could possibly imagine this constitutes evidence of BG trying to kill people must be struggling intellectually - as are most conspiracy theorists ime.

@Foofedifiknow

Came off FB after Brexit so mercifully &largely spared the looniness- a subscription to Private Eye has been illuminating too. Not sure how id manage a friend spouting the nonsense - how do you respond OP?

Well done on the PE subscription, you'll be years ahead of some of the biggest stories!

@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?

Conspiracy theories have always existed, a friend of my late OH was in Dallas when Kennedy was shot and he said there were dozens of theories doing the rounds within a couple of hours of his death.
What Social Media has done though is make it easier to reach a lot of people and to orchestrate campaigns of disinformation and violence. I honestly believe that the increase in poor mental health is directly related to the rise of social media, looking through posts on here it's clear that sicial media had played a part.

QAnon followers were actively hoping for a military takeover and public executions of democrats. There is a serious level of hatred and anger within them, and yes it is terrifying and ‘heartbreaking’ to see the depths a not insignificant proportion of the populace have fallen to. Just look at the QAnon casualties subreddit, at the people who have had their families and friendships ripped apart by dangerous conspiracy theories.

My sister and a very close / good friend are in the grip of Covid conspiracy right now. I find it very hard to communicate with either of them as it is all they talk about.

We are all going to wake up very soon apparently.

They have moved into very worrying territory and that either fluoride, 5G or the C19 vaccine will ‘get us all’ if ‘we’ don’t wake up soon.

The people who think this is about intelligence, what about young men with Phds who have been radicalised to believe if they martyr themselves they will have sex with virgins in heaven? Clearly some of these people have been highly educated.
Similarly there are plenty of well educated people who are radicalised as incels. Also plenty of cult members. There is something going on that is about emotion/mental health/isolation/social exclusion. Labelling people who become obsessed with these things as stupid really doesn't get us anywhere.

No-one believed the earth was round, or that smoking caused cancer, or that the Nazi's were killing all the Jews or that councils used cheap dangerous cladding on tower blocks - everyone spouting these views would have been ridiculed and called conspiracy theorists in their time - until the evidence stared people in the face.

No where near all conspiracy theories are right but the Government and professionals DO lie to us all the time.

We need people who question everything we take for granted in society - as often in hindsight they are proved right.

It's often about mental health problems or dysfuntion/traumatic experiences imo. That doesn't mean it's not down to a simple lack of intelligence in some cases though.

Price "QAnon followers were actively hoping for a military takeover and public executions of democrats"

I found out about QAnon because of MN.

But re the following, I am in touch with a senior academic at a top university who was genuinely waiting for this and upset it didn't happen.

I am also in touch with someone in a high ranking profession who is being investigated at work now for her social media comments on it.

I have certain topics that are off limits for discussion but know a business owner and a project manager with a pyschology MA who both texted me to ask if I was watching the stuff that went on at Capitol Hill.

I wasn't. I suspect they won't want to be friends with me any more because I just refuse to talk or listen about that stuff now.

I have been surprised by some comments on this thread about the '"type" of person who believes in this.

The fact that one man, "Nick" is it, in the UK, was taken so seriously tells you a lot. Everyone has a different definition of stupid, I guess. But one poster said "I can't imagine these people sitting through a lecture". Not the experience for me at all. Probably all the people I've named read widely, mix with big names, attend every lecture in town, remember political details from their lives in a way I never could.

questioning everything is good - using science, looking at the evidence and using rational/critical thought is how each of these things were proved or disproved.

Most conspiracy theorists are as far from that as possible to be.

They're loads on twitter right now -

"If we woz in a pandemic, then there wouldn't be any sport."

"If there was a pandemic, people would have boils and be dying in the street."

None of that is looking at science, looking at the evidence or using critical reasoning. They're just looking in at their own very limited experience of the world - and ignoring rational debate.
They ARE the flat-earthers, holocaust deniers here. -
And as pp pointed out repeatedly, they are getting in the way of holding the Govt to account.

@LadyfromtheBelleEpoque

I do think we neglected to properly protect vulnerable people when the internet was unleashed (don’t know how we could have done this, though).

It was a landscape rife for misinformation and as someone said upthread, it coincided with lots of social changes: globalisalisation, accession of former Eastern bloc, Labours agenda on education and I think it left people desperately looking for some narrative to hold all these disparate ‘facts’ appearing online together. We don’t study history, etc this way - we contextualise everything. I think a lot of people were really scared, felt under pressure and opportunists filled a need that society had previously provided.

Interesting idea, but the internet was t really intended for everyone to access openly the way they do now.

These people would previously have just bought National Enquirer, yes?

My sil says that although covid is without a doubt real, it is being used to gradually bring in a cashless society and businesses to go bust, therefore people relying totally on the government for support, which she says can be taken away at will. Its all pre planned apparently.

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3cszl4r

This is well worth a listen on all this.

My father has become a conspiracy theorist. This documentary points out that these conspiracy theories actually cause major rifts in families and that’s almost what’s happened with me and my dad. I am my parents’ only child and he’s turned from a reasonable, gentle person into a conspiracy theory looper. Lockdown and unlimited access to the internet, internet algorithms plus less social contact has exacerbated the problem.

It’s heartbreaking.

@Piglet89

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3cszl4r

This is well worth a listen on all this.

My father has become a conspiracy theorist. This documentary points out that these conspiracy theories actually cause major rifts in families and that’s almost what’s happened with me and my dad. I am my parents’ only child and he’s turned from a reasonable, gentle person into a conspiracy theory looper. Lockdown and unlimited access to the internet, internet algorithms plus less social contact has exacerbated the problem.

It’s heartbreaking.

I have dreams about physically disconnecting their internet. My Dad isn't as much of a conspiracy theorist but does spend too much time on FB. He hasn't read a book in over a year. I fantasise about disconnecting their internet for a week or two just to break the pattern.

In my experience, people don't set the bar very high in the first place for intelligent. So long as someone makes it through the day without falling over their own feet, they get lumped on as "intelligent". Same goes for exercising basic professional competence.

Of my ten closest friends, I'd say two were sharp enough to be called intelligent in an all rounded sense: emotionally mature and in tune, professionally capable, engaged with the zeitgeist and with a decent brain in their head to work through information and problems.

DSS thinks Covid is all a way of making money for Big Pharma through vaccine sales, and that most of the people who get ill and/or die have caught it in hospital. I asked him how come the Oxford vaccine was being distributed at cost, and he was adamant that their "costs" were inflated so that they'll actually make a massive profit.

There's possibly a genetic element to CTs in his family though. His GM believes the moon landing was faked.

I've muted them now. One broke my heart to as we've been mates for years and I thought of her as a very sensible person but they are well in there with the covid is fake and set up by the royals great reset 5g massive.
It was doing my mental health no good to read it. The final straw was when I said about how hard it was, probably my youngest parenting moment, having to tell my DC's their fave, not even old, teacher had died of it. That it was so difficult to see them so gutted. Her reply was to tell me I was wrong to tell my children "government sponsored propoganda" and he had probably "died of something else they'd kept quiet".
If I hadn't muted and if she lived near I would have punched her. I was so angry, as DD is old enough to be on Facebook and saw the comments.

*toughest not youngest

I have been surprised by some comments on this thread about the '"type" of person who believes in this
The same type who are still bleating about Brexit or wanting to hold the Gov to account

It will be interesting in the US - the powerful cos. Like Amazon and Google were utterly anti-Trump and pro Democrats, and are very left wing . But there's a huge number either suspicious of them or hate them. It does nit bode well.

Mildly surprised and somewhat disappointed, yes. Utterly shocked and heartbroken? No.

@PinkyParrot

I have been surprised by some comments on this thread about the '"type" of person who believes in this The same type who are still bleating about Brexit or wanting to hold the Gov to account

You mean those are the types commenting on c theorists or those are the types who are c theorists?

So much room for misinterpretation! 😂

Joking aside, all this stereotyping and polarisation might be a factor in how we got here.

It is heart breaking in a way because many of these people end up estranged from their families and spending Christmas and birthdays alone. They can become desperately sad, lonely people who look to their fellow conspiracy theorists for online company and validation. They annoy me, but I also feel very sorry for them.