How to tackle conspiracy loving relative without causing major upset?

[TheNaturalBronde]

I have a relative , loving and caring in many ways and has always been a little woo and into ‘finding the truth’ all of my life , but since finding YouTube it’s fed the echo chamber , shall we say…
im not by any means a ‘believe everything you read’ type person AT ALL , my belief is that the vast amount of information about powerful people shows that they cannot be trusted and in no way a controversial belief I.e government lockdown parties etc

However,I’m receiving videos on a weekly basis about all sorts, they actually were very vocal about me having the covid vaccine when I was a little bit hesitant (past bad reaction) but now are fully against it and cite it’s dangerous and send me videos about it. -Now, something about a trump advisor recently talking about vaccines causing ASD , it’s all feeling a little intense.

When i gently push back I often get , watch the video you might find it enlightening …🙄😕

not sure where to go from here

It’s been researched and found that those with chronic illness and a past negative experience in life are more prone to believing conspiracy type messages and cannot be swayed otherwise.
So you will need to set boundaries and gently step away.

Interesting, there is a marked peak after a certain incident I can think of
i I can imagine also then Covid and then our feckless government, just reinforced every belief, sadly.

Bumpx

Save your breath. You can't talk to stupid.

just Ignore them. If they start demanding agreement from you, at that point say I am not telling you what to think, don’t tell me what to think. Just be blunt. Speaking from experience we have some rules about what can be brought up in front of me and my children and it’s for my relatives sake too because they wind themselves up.

I have one of these. Long ago I made it clear that we didn’t agree on some things and it was better that we didn’t discuss them. It’s become much better.

Thanks for the responses did they stick to that boundary you find? @MatildaTheCat

similar thoughts being shared I don’t want to stop talking just more manageable

My relative will occasionally start and then say oh bonsai says I’m not allowed to talk about this in a kind of “isn’t she silly, you’ve got time to listen to me won’t you” way but fortunately no one falls for it anymore.

What are you bumping for. What do you want anyone to say. You either tell them to stop or you ignore it. I'd personally just ignore it. Mute the whatsapp chat or whatever. Just delete without reading anything you don't want to see.

Delete, ignore, never refer to it. Don't engage. Same in person: "Oh, I'm not really a conspiracy person, ha ha!". Never get into a conversation about any of it.

You don't tackle them. You avoid contentious subjects where possible, watch what's happening around media outcries and get the facts before you see them to counter if needed.

I refuse to watch any YouTube video, I ask them to send me the original data without the opinion of commentators so that I can research it myself (I don't watch or follow any contributors or influencers, regardless of where the recommendations are from).

We agree to disagree. My focus has been to maintain a relationship with a person I barely recognise anymore, that is my priority.

I'm sadly in a same position with a relative, interestingly going on about vaccinations causing Autism,etc and other conspiracy theories. I don't bring it up but even if we are in each others company for 5 mins they will bring it up. it makes me very nervous. they never use to be like that. it's so hard..I have no ideas to stop but you are not alone.

and when I say "let's not down about x, y and z".. I get told that I'm sensitive or a leftie liberal.

I have a relative who is similar. He verges on psychotic. We all need to wake up apparently.
Luckily he lives far away. I muted him on social media but then he would tag me in stuff so I blocked him.

I have a relation like this. I ignore all videos, if pressed I say, 'Oh, you know me, useless with technology it won't work and I don't know why.'

I have in the past said to them 'We see things very differently, probably best we don't talk about stuff like this'. If they start now I just look blank and say things like, 'Oh goodness me, what a nightmare' or 'Crikey, that's a minefield, do you fancy a coffee.'

A little distance and looking vague goes a long way.