How are your conspiracy theory family members/friends?

[MuddyWalk5007]

My friend is full on conspiracy theorist. Believes in all the covid is hoax, bill Gates is chipping everyone with the vaccine, Trump is our saviour, rescuing children from elite paedophile rings and so on.

I haven’t spoken to her in a few days but I think Bidens inauguration is a bit of a pivotal moment for them? I believe many of them thought it wasn’t going to happen and they’d all be proven right in some way?
I’m sure they’re probably moving the goalposts or some other theory is being bandied around. Any ideas from anyone?

(Apart from this craziness, which I’m putting down to her vulnerability from feeling low, isolated and having a toxic family, she’s a lovely person who I’ve know for years, so I’m not going to cut her off)

Conspiracy theories. Meh

Some of it is batshit but some has elements of truth. It's sad that we've come to a place where general questioning of situations and events has people labelled as conspiracy theorists. It really does cause division and pushes some of the more blatantly bonkers rhetoric further. People just dig their heels in and feel even more justified in their beliefs.

Question the long term safety and efficacy of the covid vaccine = anti vaxxer

Question a tech giant's involvement in vaccine medicine development and rollout = conspiracy theorist

Question the possibility of celebrities and politicians being pedophiles = conspiracy-theorist

We're heading towards censorship by ridiculing those who are openly questioning things. Ok some of the answers they come up with are nuts, but the questions they ask aren't necessarily out of bounds to be asked.

Sad state of affairs.

I have no issue with questioning. It’s the batshit stuff that I find difficult.

The longer this nonsense goes on, the more the conspiracy theorists are being proved right

"Questioning the long term safety and efficacy of the covid vaccine when you have no medical training so no basis other then prejudice and superstition does indeed = anti vaxxer

"Questioning a tech giant's involvement in vaccine medicine development and rollout" based on some stuff on youtube about chips and the lizards behind the new world order. yep that one too.

I too am eager to see where the current batch go now trump is gone, but expect they will latch onto another conspiracy theory soon enough. I think they are pretty much interchangeable.

Dowser yeah the Queen is a lizard and the earth IS flat. You know it's true.

Mine is really concerned about MY mental health in a “worried about you hun. You need to get out and about more for your mental health.” way which is infuriating as I’ve been advised to Shield and she is travelling all over (to other parts of the U.K.) on public transport, going and spending weekends at other people’s flats, house parties etc, meeting guys she met online and sleeping over at theirs, travelling in cars with other households, getting out and about at every opportunity. She’s constantly pressurising me to meet up. She frequently needs to see NHS workers face to face and I worry about the risk she’s putting them under.

Due to my health I will get the vaccine. She keeps saying she’s really concerned about “all these people who think it’s a vaccine”. She’s an evangelical Christian (I’m Christian too but not an evangelical/bible bashy/preachy person) and keeps saying she things the vaccine is the “devil’s work” and all those who get it are showing they are turning away from God and following the devil and she just hopes it’s not irreversible. She has turned up to church services with Covid symptoms, mixing with vulnerable people but believes that the tests are lies. She’s really worried about all the people who are “just conforming” “what’s all that about? It’s so disturbing!”

But it’s ME that’s “unwell”.

Oh and she thinks that ignoring lockdown rules is for the best because it’s done wonders for her mental health.

I’m finding it really hard to be normal with her at the moment. My family are all medics. I know the realities.

@LastTrainEast

"Questioning the long term safety and efficacy of the covid vaccine when you have no medical training so no basis other then prejudice and superstition does indeed = anti vaxxer

"Questioning a tech giant's involvement in vaccine medicine development and rollout" based on some stuff on youtube about chips and the lizards behind the new world order. yep that one too.

I too am eager to see where the current batch go now trump is gone, but expect they will latch onto another conspiracy theory soon enough. I think they are pretty much interchangeable.

Are you actually suggesting that anyone not medically qualified isn't intelligent enough to read the vast amount of information available and come to their own conclusion?

I'm saying that if you're not medically trained and you watch a couple of youtube videos and decide you know more about it then people who spent their lives working in the field then you are deluded.

People who are deluded in this way rarely realise that they are and assume it's a plot against them.

Google Dunning–Kruger too

@popgoestyeweasel

Conspiracy theories. Meh

Some of it is batshit but some has elements of truth. It's sad that we've come to a place where general questioning of situations and events has people labelled as conspiracy theorists. It really does cause division and pushes some of the more blatantly bonkers rhetoric further. People just dig their heels in and feel even more justified in their beliefs.

Question the long term safety and efficacy of the covid vaccine = anti vaxxer

Question a tech giant's involvement in vaccine medicine development and rollout = conspiracy theorist

Question the possibility of celebrities and politicians being pedophiles = conspiracy-theorist

We're heading towards censorship by ridiculing those who are openly questioning things. Ok some of the answers they come up with are nuts, but the questions they ask aren't necessarily out of bounds to be asked.

Sad state of affairs.

Totally agree

And the response of @LastTrainEast confirms it. No valid evidence just she has decided that the 'evidence' she follows is correct and anyone who questions what she believes in must be shut up with insults. which is a very scary premise.

Being wary of a new vaccine and believing that vaccination is beneficial are not mutually exclusive, neither is being a lockdown sceptic whilst also believing that Covid is a nasty virus for some people.

Currently my conspiratorial family and friends are relatively quiet at the moment. This has a lot to do with the fact the virus had finally landed on their doorstep and they now know of someone who has died or are in ICU.

Putin is Q, or at least his agents are.

@popgoestyeweasel

Conspiracy theories. Meh

Some of it is batshit but some has elements of truth. It's sad that we've come to a place where general questioning of situations and events has people labelled as conspiracy theorists. It really does cause division and pushes some of the more blatantly bonkers rhetoric further. People just dig their heels in and feel even more justified in their beliefs.

Question the long term safety and efficacy of the covid vaccine = anti vaxxer

Question a tech giant's involvement in vaccine medicine development and rollout = conspiracy theorist

Question the possibility of celebrities and politicians being pedophiles = conspiracy-theorist

We're heading towards censorship by ridiculing those who are openly questioning things. Ok some of the answers they come up with are nuts, but the questions they ask aren't necessarily out of bounds to be asked.

Sad state of affairs.

This. Spot on.

Mine is digging his heels in that it is all a hoax.

I don’t know as I cut contact with them when my mum was dying of covid.
I just can’t listen to their drivel anymore.

I have someone on my radar who full on shouts at me for being "part of the problem" because I find it hard to keep a straight face at his nonsense. With spittle flying and eyes popping (his, obvs)

I gave him a pass the first time because he'd previously said his MH wasn't great, but he now seems to think I'm an easy target for a lecture about masks and sheeple (peppered with misogynistic and infantalising language). I must admit that after the last lecture a brief fantasy flitted through my mind in which I ambushed him in the woods brandishing a lump of wood .

The only batshit one on my FB friends list is now unfriended - I cannot be bothered with his ;research' from YouTube. He is pretty dumb and should have been dumped from friends list a long time ago.

Others that have said they are a bit worried that vaccine was rushed through and so 'unsafe' are now saying they cannot wait to have it since most appear fed up with the lock down.....
Quite a few friends from science backgrounds have had vaccine and posting a frame thing over their profile picture to show they have had it.... spreading the news. Mainly positive friends.

@wlv12

I don’t know as I cut contact with them when my mum was dying of covid. I just can’t listen to their drivel anymore.

Best way is to dump/unfriend and ignore - some of them just repeat certain words sheeple/MSM/Big Gates plan/Great reset/why don't we do research (watch batshit YouTube videos)..... they are pretty laughable really.

@BlueBlancmange

Mine is digging his heels in that it is all a hoax.

Is he one of the 'it's just the flu' brigade or just that people are not really dying of covid but it's all made up to keep us indoors whilst 5G is rolled out?

The ones I know have all ascended to the 5th dimension so they have no need for their previous 3D arguments about trump and covid (that's convenient)

Posted this before but many people would benefit from watching The Social Network on Netflix and how the content algorithm on Facebook and other platforms will repeatedly show content based on what you’ve clicked. Read a few ‘conspiracy theories’, here’s some more, until that is all you’re shown and believe that is what’s totally true. Many examples of this for true batshit stuff not just things we’d disagree with. Also the case for political opinions and how various elections have been won. Also read about Cambridge Analytica. Also the case sadly for people with mental health problems and have sadly reportedly resulted in some suicides.

It’s no longer questioning, it’s complete lack of critical thinking as people believe their feed and that’s it. Get your insights and facts from multiple reputable sources.

What I don’t really understand is if covid is a hoax, what do they is wrong with all the people in hospital? A bad cold?

Also, how many of them would happily go into a covid ward without PPE and have close contact with some patients? I mean, if it’s a hoax there’s nothing to worry about is there?

Do they think*

@FanciedanewnameAnne

He thinks it is just the flu and that the restrictions are just to control us ready for the New World Order and Bill Gates' nanochipped vaccine.

@AuntyClementine they think it’s flu, like every year or people are dying of something else and drs just put down coronavirus.
I was hoping my friend might have had second thoughts now as things didn’t pan out how they thought they would but no, she’s still full on.

I have a friend who thinks corona is just like flu and that the vaccine is dangerous.

I don't think that is a conspiracy theory. The idea the whole thing was orchestrated as part of "Project reset" is a conspiracy theory. People's perception of risk or their views on lockdown or vaccines aren't.