How would you feel if a friend went on freedom marches and posted multiple times a day on FB about vaccines, etc?

[Invasionofthegutsnatchers]

Childhood friend of mine lost her job due to covid and has chosen not to be vaccinated as she feels it is unsafe and untested. She fears the government have pushed the vaccines on to people who don't need it in order to gain control of the masses. Why vaccinate healthy children etc.

I disagree, am fully vaccinated and am concerned with what seems to be an obsession she has with attending protests and sharing controversial posts on her feed. There is virtually nothing else on there.

My stance is that yes, the vaccines were accelerated for approval but also a lot of the research already existed due to flu vaccines coming first. Both my children are vaccinated for everything else that was offered to us.

She doesn't believe that vaccines have chips in them or Bill Gates is the lizard master or any of that nonsense but she is clearly unhappy and spending a lot of time online with people who seem to have unconventional views.

Unfollow her. Simple.

I would just ignore her Facebook or defriend her or whatever you do on Facebook if I wasn't interested or disagreed with what she had to say

Preferring the company of people with some basic grasp of science really isn’t creating an ‘echo chamber’……

They think they know more than all the regulatory authorities and experts in the world - they are deluded ignorant idiots. Why would you even call them a friend? Friendship is not an unconditional binding contract for life.

Why are you repeating her posts on here in your posts, just ignore if you are not interested.

I have a friend like this. She’s had a rubbish time of it during the pandemic and ultimately I think her attitude is indicative of really poor mental health.

Luckily in person she mostly keeps it low key. I don’t bother confronting her on it, just smile, nod & ignore, and talk about other stuff.

I'd think that we had nothing in common anymore and didn't share the same values.

I'd move on with our separate lives.

I have a friend like this and I just feel sorry for her, to be honest. She’s a very fragile person mentally due to abusive relationships and has, over recent years, developed a persona of “A Victim Is Who I Am”. Covid has exacerbated this and she’s gone down a rabbit hole of conspiracy theories, posting on FB that it’s all a scam and going on “freedom” marches.

I keep her at arm’s length now for the sake of my sanity (there’s no reasoning with her and I can’t do anything about her views) but I do worry about hers.

I think I'd be taking a friendship break - wait till she's come to her senses.

I'd think she was a right nob.

It's all very well saying that people should allow others to have different opinions and so on - as long as those 'opinions' aren't potentially dangerous.

Do you have to agree with everyone you know?

I used to tell people my opinions on things. I don’t bother now because there are some people who cannot bear it when someone doesn’t share their opinion on something.

Just because I might think differently to you, it doesn’t mean that I’m not a loyal friend and a good person. A lot of people don’t see things that way though.

You could now tell me the sky was pink and I smile and say yes it is, how lovely. I can’t be arsed.

I’m re-posting my post from the uplifting ‘Posts that never make it to MN’ thread, the moral of which is - it doesn’t have to be a drama!

My friend is very wary of vaccines and has decided not to get the Covid jab. I am fully vaccinated. We had an interesting discussion about our respective points of view, then we had coffee and cake, chatted about other stuff and completely forgot about the vaccine.

The snooze or unfollow buttons are very useful for managing people who are being very tedious about any topic.

Filter out her posts but remain her friend.
It sounds like you care about her, and if all voices opposing her belief disappear from her life, it's far less likely she may eventually moderate her view, and feel more hopeful.

@fallfallfall

I just don’t follow people with hugely different perspectives to me. Stay friends but only check their FB page weekly and only “like” stuff I like. S

This, including a couple of close family members and at least one long term friend...not over Covid, but because of their views on Brexit etc.

I’d think they were a bit hard of thinking.

I would just unfollow them.

I had a friend who was similar but I think she’s finally coming round to the fact that it’s getting a bit boring now. She has a friend who is absolutely obsessed and bombards her with videos about it all. It’s pretty sad really, most people have moved on with their lives now. I worry about what will come of them when they realise it’s not some grand conspiracy and we won’t all drop dead in 2 years time because of the “experimental vaccine.”

Generally there are ways to stay 'friends' with folk and unfollow some types of things they post. Mute the facebook originator or snooze the poster, etc.

I have a friend who constantly posts gently mocking things about vaccine skeptics or saying that mandatory vaccination would be great and "a natural consequence". I snooze him a lot.

My aunt posts a lot of political stuff I don't agree with. Facebook has figure this out & suppresses almost everything she posts. I look at aunt's page a few times a month for the bits of family gossip that I like to read from her.

I'd unfriend them. It pisses me off so much. My 20 month old daughter's father is like this. He's worse actually. He thinks that the vaccines have 'nano bots' in. FFS

These wankers spreading the disease and revelling in taking no care are despicable IMO.

@Guineapigbridge

A bit of skepticism is a good thing though, because it shows a healthy willingness to think about things.

Yes but in my experience, most people who are like this about covid now are also those who started off completely over the top about it, not collecting their bin for 6 hours, bleaching food etc.

Then they just couldn't cope with it any more so did the full 360.

They also tend to be very controlling people.

They would no longer be a friend

I wouldn't have a problem with someone going in a freedom march as I don't think there should be covid passports to do everyday things like going to a nightclub. I couldn't be arsed with posts on FB all the time though.

It's a difficult one. I've had distant relatives go down the full 5G / Bill Gates / plandemic rabbit hole. These people cannot be reasoned with, so after one attempt I distance / mute on social media and move on.

Casual acquaintances that've gone full David Icke, I distance, avoid and remove from social media if they're constantly posting about it. I feel sorry for them, but I can't get through to them and I can't countenance what some of them are doing (spreading shite to hundreds of FB followers about Ivermectin, calling people sheeple, aggressively suggesting those who vax their kids are 'abusers' and so on.

People who complain about / campaign against restrictions because 'freedom'? Meh. I know a few & they obey the rules here in Scotland, so we agree to disagree & we've not caught up in person for a while .

I will confess I have a few friends who've gone full 'Us for Them' and that stuff really boils my piss (partly, I suspect as an adult who is CEV). We're still friends but I'm not sure the friendship will ever be the same again tbh.

I think the friendship would end.
I have no problem with anyone making a personal decision, it is the relentless shit that comes with the choice.
The old joke = How do you know if someone is vegan? They'll tell you, similar to the anti-vax crew that use fakebook as a news source.