Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask if you know any ex-conspiracy theorists?

104 replies

Merryoldgoat · 24/04/2021 22:04

A friend has got caught up in the ‘covid isn’t real’ party and I’m a sheeple and won’t see the truth blah blah.

I’m not getting into a big fight with my friend but she’s well and truly fallen down the conspiracy theory well.

Do you know anyone who realised and came ‘back’? Or is she gone forever?

This is an intelligent (I thought) professional who seems to have become unrecognisable over the last 4/5 years.

It’s very sad 😔

YABU - lots of people wake up from this crap

YANBU - she’s gone forever I’m afraid

OP posts:
HaveYouSeenMySerotonin · 24/04/2021 22:06

Voted YABU as I used to believe that sort of bollocks - albeit when I was 20 and a student but there we go

Original poster
Merryoldgoat · 24/04/2021 22:11

Was there anything in particular that made you stop @HaveYouSeenMySerotonin

OP posts:
HaveYouSeenMySerotonin · 24/04/2021 22:13

I think realising how many people would need to be kept quiet for various theories to be valid helped. Other than that I imagine it was a combination of growing up and giving up smoking lots of weed with like minded people 😂

Original poster
Merryoldgoat · 24/04/2021 22:20

🤣🤣

Unfortunately this is a 45 year old accountant so unlikely there’s much growing up to do!

OP posts:
Theunamedcat · 24/04/2021 22:20

I love a good conspiracy theory like Marilyn Monroe death not being an overdose jfk being shot by the fbi things like that but looking at conspiracy theories from the last 20 years seems ghoulish to me it has to be historical! I dont take it too seriously I understand they are theories not facts and tbh I haven't bothered reading about them lately it literally was a phase i grew out of

The covid theories are fucking batshit the government is turning us into 5G masts we are having trackers inserted its part of a great reset it was created to get Biden into office

Who the hell believes that shit

paintfairy · 24/04/2021 22:22

I dunno, it's hard. Basically you'll always be fed what people want you to be told. So there is never any way of knowing if you are being told the truth or not? Which means if you sit thinking about everything too much, you'd drive yourself bonkers!
Most companies, the media, anything to do with politics all goes back to very few people at the top. It's scary really. I prefer to not watch news, not pay attention, not believe what they spout, but also not sit worrying about it. Just live my life. Its stressful enough without worrying about what I cannot control.
Does she really believe covid is a lie though? Or just that it's not what it seems? If it's the latter she's not that unreasonable, because there are so many inconsistencies, only time will tell though. If its the former then it's more worrying. You can't deny people have been ill. Most people now have known someone that was ill/died, even if indirectly.

Original poster
Merryoldgoat · 24/04/2021 22:24

Exactly @Theunamedcat

And you know, there ARE cover ups so it’s not like I don’t think things like that are possible but Christ the covid ones are bonkers.

I know someone who was in intensive care with covid - he is utterly broken by the experience. The idea people think it doesn’t exist is just shocking to me.

OP posts:
Heretooutthere · 24/04/2021 22:28

I’ve just encountered my first conspiracy theorist in an old friend with whom we sporadically keep in contact. She’s mid-40’s and appears so militant in her views that I highly doubt she’d ever become an ex-conspiracy theorist.

According to her Covid is a massive con with the world’s governments all collaborating to control us all with lockdowns and vaccines containing microchips. She says it doesn’t matter about the old and vulnerable dying as they were going to die earlier anyway and Covid has just “given them an express ticket to heaven.” And that comment is just the tip of the iceberg in her opinion about Covid.

She’s turned into someone I no longer recognise or want to know. Vile.

Thisisthepoint · 24/04/2021 23:00

I’m sure I read somewhere recently that people who are sucked into these conspiracy theories often, but not always, have underlying emotional issues and conspiracies give them something to latch onto. Could be a load of rubbish but to some extent supporting conspiracies in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary must mean something’s not right.

louleey · 24/04/2021 23:57

@Thisisthepoint

I’m sure I read somewhere recently that people who are sucked into these conspiracy theories often, but not always, have underlying emotional issues and conspiracies give them something to latch onto. Could be a load of rubbish but to some extent supporting conspiracies in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary must mean something’s not right.
So out of interest let’s take covid for example, what is the ‘overwhelming evidence to the contrary’ I don’t think anybody Is unreasonable for having many questions over this current situation we in
louleey · 25/04/2021 00:00

@Merryoldgoat

A friend has got caught up in the ‘covid isn’t real’ party and I’m a sheeple and won’t see the truth blah blah.

I’m not getting into a big fight with my friend but she’s well and truly fallen down the conspiracy theory well.

Do you know anyone who realised and came ‘back’? Or is she gone forever?

This is an intelligent (I thought) professional who seems to have become unrecognisable over the last 4/5 years.

It’s very sad 😔

YABU - lots of people wake up from this crap

YANBU - she’s gone forever I’m afraid

So anyone that questions this situation are they bat shit crazy conspiracy theorists 😂 I love how people who think it’s exactly as the BBC say it is consider themselves superior 😂
Hawkins001 · 25/04/2021 00:26

Part of the problem is history itself tends to support the fact that not all conspiracy theorys are strange, e.g. The whole advantages of the chemical ddt ect, so therefore I guess time will either prove or disprove the covid information.

coconutmonkey · 25/04/2021 00:27

Tbh, it's more sad that you think of your friend this way. Just because it's your truth, doesn't mean it's everyones. Remember, your friend may well be thinking and asking the same questions about you...

Sparklesocks · 25/04/2021 00:27

Not as such, I only people who were very into them as teens/young adults and then grew out of them.

JesusWearsPrada · 25/04/2021 00:35

I’, 40, reasonably intelligent and educated and always been interested in theories. If you Google “conspiracy theories that turned out to be true” you’d be very surprised. But covid hoaxers are different imo, sadly it’s fear-based self-delusion that leads them to believe its a scam. Normalcy bias. They probably just need a big hug and to hear everything will be alright. I think she’ll come round eventually.

ChristmasAlone · 25/04/2021 02:33

Had two friends that got very involved in Qanon which has to be the least leg conspiracy theory going

Unfortunately both people were people I'd consider fairly intelligent which doesn't give me much hope for the rest of the world

kirlali · 25/04/2021 02:51

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

Jamboree01 · 25/04/2021 03:07

Exactly this z👌🏻

Gregorsgirl · 25/04/2021 03:17

I don't t see why it's so threatening that a friend has a different viewpoint, just carry on and nod and smile. If it's, all they talk about fair enough.

Quaagars · 25/04/2021 03:29

Voted YABU only because it's far too easy to get sucked into stuff online.
Things get posted as facts, and people all post together and against you sometimes making you question yourself.

toconclude · 25/04/2021 07:38

@coconutmonkey

Tbh, it's more sad that you think of your friend this way. Just because it's your truth, doesn't mean it's everyones. Remember, your friend may well be thinking and asking the same questions about you...
Oh for God's sake. There is no such thing as "relative truth" in medicine and science. People really need a better education before posting (and thinking) this sort of shite. 'Oh, can't we all just get along' doesn't cure sick people or protect populations.
Survivingmy3yearold · 25/04/2021 08:51

I have a friend who has gone completely down the rabbit hole Confused She believes that there's a Hollywood elite who are harvesting adrenochrome from babies and wayfair are selling children disguised as furniture. The comments she has posted online about Chrissy Teigan have been absolutely vile.
She is also very militant about Covid being a hoax, we're all sheeple for wearing masks and getting vaccines because all vaccines cause autism and they're giving them to children without parental consent. I've tried to engage with her before when she's asked for people's evidence that she is wrong. She will automatically discount anything from mainstream sources as they're all in on it apparently. She's only interested in videos from the dregs of YouTube, such as David Icke. I commented that as she wouldn't accept anything that I posted as evidence that maybe I do me and her do her. I am responsible for my family and she hers. I got jumped on by all her conspiracy theorist friends and told that I should do my own research. They seemed unable to accept that I have done my own research and have come to a different conclusion, they seemed to take it as a personal affront that I didn't agree. I think when they say "do your own research and make up your own mind" what they really mean is "agree with everything I say and do exactly as I tell you" It's bonkers Confused

Original poster
Merryoldgoat · 25/04/2021 08:59

To just clarify a few points:

I’m not threatened and I’m not upset because she has a different viewpoint.

She is anti-vaxx, she thinks all of our freedoms are about to be taken away, she thinks Covid is a conspiracy and not real.

All she does is post videos about how ‘the truth’ will be out soon and we’ll all wake up soon.

I have many friends with different opinions to me - political and religious, deep and superficial. That’s no problem for me at all.

I am perfectly open to the fact we aren’t necessarily told everything and that there are some issues surrounding how covid has been dealt with by the government.

But I’m not open to being told masks do nothing, covid isn’t real, asymptomatic transmission doesn’t exist and that ‘I don’t need vaccines as I have an immune system’.

Replies on this thread suggest it’s more widespread than I realised.

OP posts:
Theunamedcat · 25/04/2021 09:10

In our area we have had very low numbers so we have loads of people challenge the narrative me and the kids probably had it last year (prior to the testing outside of hospitals) my ex apparently had it too, but since then he has gone off about how fake it is and how he won't be muzzled and the vaccine is poisen (but told ds he was having it) he refuses to wear a mask claiming ptsd (but carrying one in his car in case he is refused service) its batshit crazy he tried telling ds they were turning them into WiFi stations ds thought that was so cool he was disappointed to find out it was a hoax

Original poster
Merryoldgoat · 25/04/2021 09:14

A colleague was in ICU and several people on his ward died.

Try telling them it’s a hoax.

OP posts: