Dealing with a Conspiracy theorist?

Paddy223

My brother (28) has turned into a full-blown conspiracy theorist since Covid started and has become an absolute torture. He lives at home with both his parents and is the kind of fella that lives for the weekend and enjoys going to pubs and clubs. But everyday he now usually scrolls through Facebook on Covid conspiracy pages and even goes as far as sending silly fake YouTube videos to our inboxes. I totally understand it’s a tough time for him but, it is the same for everyone and this could be here for years so there is no point pointing fingers and blaming others. Our mother and father are elderly, and my father has had previous trouble with his heart so they are high risk category. Just as recently as last week my brother broke out and went on a pub crawl before things closed and one of the pubs, he was in had an outbreak. I have tried numerous times to explain the facts to him, but he just disregards them and says the mainstream media cant be trusted and that the factcheckers are funded by globalist Billionaires. So, at the moment I just ignore him but, my god it is getting hard to listen about 5G, Bill Gates and New World Order day In and day out. So, does anyone have some advice on what we could do or should we just keep trying to ignore him until he turns our brains to mush?

The Mighty Quinn

Probably worth being moved to personal issues forum, might get some constructive responses.

MeMen2_MoRi_

My brother lives at home with "his parents"?

Paddy223

Our*

TheRepentent

Paddy223 wrote: »

My brother (28) has turned into a full-blown conspiracy theorist since Covid started and has become an absolute torture. He lives at home with both his parents and is the kind of fella that lives for the weekend and enjoys going to pubs and clubs. But everyday he now usually scrolls through Facebook on Covid conspiracy pages and even goes as far as sending silly fake YouTube videos to our inboxes. I totally understand it’s a tough time for him but, it is the same for everyone and this could be here for years so there is no point pointing fingers and blaming others. Our mother and father are elderly, and my father has had previous trouble with his heart so they are high risk category. Just as recently as last week my brother broke out and went on a pub crawl before things closed and one of the pubs, he was in had an outbreak. I have tried numerous times to explain the facts to him, but he just disregards them and says the mainstream media cant be trusted and that the factcheckers are funded by globalist Billionaires. So, at the moment I just ignore him but, my god it is getting hard to listen about 5G, Bill Gates and New World Order day In and day out. So, does anyone have some advice on what we could do or should we just keep trying to ignore him until he turns our brains to mush?

Paragraphs man...paragraphs

Truckermal

How about giving him a good kick up the hole?

NIMAN

Social media has created these folk.

We all grew up having our doubts about the odd world issue, be it moon landing or who shot JFK, but social media has really multiplied the amount of these folk and the things they think are fake.

I know one or two as well, thankfully not family members. The seem to believe every single theory, never saying a single one is nonsense.

But since social media now feeds you the stories you want to see, the effect is simply being magnified, so your brother is likely to only get worse.

If he's an adult there ain't much you can do. Simply delete his links or emails etc, and tell him you aren't on his wavelength.

Darc19

Tell him there's a reason he's sitting at home twiddling his thumbs doing nothing just like all the other gullible conspiracy theorists online.

Ask him how he became so stupid.

SEPT 23 1989

Whatever he thinks

He is still your brother

Jimbob1977

When the crisis passes, he will return to the pubs and clubs.

He won't even give conspiracy theories a second thought.

The monotony of life under Covid-19 has affected different people in different ways.

circadian

Yeah it's hard to come to terms with in fairness.

My brother in law is successful and I'd consider him intelligent, he's certainly very good at his chosen profession in which requires excellent skills.

However, he's gone down the rabbit hole and has been there for a long time. He voted for Brexit (despite it being not in his best interests.) Doesn't believe in climate change and is definitely on the Covid isn't bad train including facemasks take your oxygen/other crap.

He has sent us videos about climate change, articles about Brexit and videos about covid -(including one with Dolores Cahill which really boiled my piss).

I've knocked it all back with facts, politely but he either goes quiet or gives me a "well that's like, your opinion man" response.

He has always been contrarian and argumentative. I wonder if it's just for the craic, taking the other side of the debate to challenge people but I also wonder if it's a personality thing. It feels like he tries so hard to go against the grain, he was a particulary difficult child apparently. Who knows.

Either way, I know how it feels. It's eased off recently but I know a few people I would consider very intelligent sending me the most bat**** unverified stuff.

Social media on the whole needs to be regulated. As this pandemic goes on the audience for this crap grows. This puts any social efforts on danger but it also creates echo Chambers of conspiracies. Facebook/youtube/instagram feeds will continue to push it if you show an interest.

Open an incognito tab and search for some conspiracy crap on YouTube and watch a few videos. Then check the YouTube homepage. A lot of people aren't aware of this and to them, this is what's going on in the world right now. As far as they're concerned this is what everyone sees when they open YouTube.

NIMAN

It's strange how they have got more extreme though over recent years.

To have supposedly intelligent people who hold down decent jobs saying they genuinely believe the world is flat in this day and age, should have them committed.

Deebles McBeebles

Paddy223 wrote: »

My brother (28) has turned into a full-blown conspiracy theorist since Covid started and has become an absolute torture. He lives at home with both his parents and is the kind of fella that lives for the weekend and enjoys going to pubs and clubs. But everyday he now usually scrolls through Facebook on Covid conspiracy pages and even goes as far as sending silly fake YouTube videos to our inboxes. I totally understand it’s a tough time for him but, it is the same for everyone and this could be here for years so there is no point pointing fingers and blaming others. Our mother and father are elderly, and my father has had previous trouble with his heart so they are high risk category. Just as recently as last week my brother broke out and went on a pub crawl before things closed and one of the pubs, he was in had an outbreak. I have tried numerous times to explain the facts to him, but he just disregards them and says the mainstream media cant be trusted and that the factcheckers are funded by globalist Billionaires. So, at the moment I just ignore him but, my god it is getting hard to listen about 5G, Bill Gates and New World Order day In and day out. So, does anyone have some advice on what we could do or should we just keep trying to ignore him until he turns our brains to mush?

The Mighty Quinn wrote: »

Probably worth being moved to personal issues forum, might get some constructive responses.

Actually, CA seems apt.

Foxhound38

Paddy223 wrote: »

My brother (28) has turned into a full-blown conspiracy theorist since Covid started and has become an absolute torture. He lives at home with both his parents and is the kind of fella that lives for the weekend and enjoys going to pubs and clubs. But everyday he now usually scrolls through Facebook on Covid conspiracy pages and even goes as far as sending silly fake YouTube videos to our inboxes. I totally understand it’s a tough time for him but, it is the same for everyone and this could be here for years so there is no point pointing fingers and blaming others. Our mother and father are elderly, and my father has had previous trouble with his heart so they are high risk category. Just as recently as last week my brother broke out and went on a pub crawl before things closed and one of the pubs, he was in had an outbreak. I have tried numerous times to explain the facts to him, but he just disregards them and says the mainstream media cant be trusted and that the factcheckers are funded by globalist Billionaires. So, at the moment I just ignore him but, my god it is getting hard to listen about 5G, Bill Gates and New World Order day In and day out. So, does anyone have some advice on what we could do or should we just keep trying to ignore him until he turns our brains to mush?

I have an uncle who is the same - gone completely down the rabbit-hole since Covid and spends most of his time in the murkier parts of Youtube, and filling the rest of our inboxes with crap from the likes of Gemma O'Doherty.

It's long gone past being an excentric foible and I'm bloody well worried he's going to get himself infected and seriously ill in an attempt to prove some sort of point.

suicide_circus

It comes from a place of fear and helplessness. The need to feel that someone somewhere is in control and knows what they're doing because you're neither. Same with people who find jesus or convert to islam/buddhism/hare krishnaism in adulthood.

RWCNT

A shocking amount of people I know are getting sucked in by this crap. It's genuinely baffling. They'll share basically anything that contradicts the mainstream thinking on the virus even if the different theories contradict each other. If pressed they'll make vague statements like "This about CONTROL/FEAR/their AGENDA" without being able to coherently explain what they think is actually going on. It's quite difficult to argue against as they don't seem to know what it is they think they believe in.

suicide_circus

People are scared during the pandemic and are clutching at straws

listermint

I've said it before and say it again. Facebook needs to be broken up, the EU needs to start a monopoly action against it. They are the biggest media publication business in the world with none of the responsibility of a media publication organisation.

They are actively damaging rapport , they have people being poisoned by bombarding them every minute of the day with nonsense. It's very hard for the individual to get away from it frankly and is more like the results of a physical drug.

YouTube is the same.

miezekatze

My cousin is like this too, but he was already a little bit into this stuff before Covid and it just got (a lot) worse. We had to throw him out of the family WhatsApp group as he was constantly spamming it with this nonsense and was asked several times to cool it and didn't listen. He also lived with his parents at the start, but was encouraged to move out as he wasn't following the guidelines and his other brothers didn't want to visit with their children anymore because of that. We all eventually unfollowed him on social media too. It's sad because he's a nice guy in person, but there is just no getting through to him and it's all he talks about. Maybe it would be good for your brother to move out so that his actions will no longer impact your parents.

Wanderer78

A cousin went down that rabbit hole years ago, never came out of it, lovely fella, but small doses, tough one op

4068ac1elhodqr

Be careful not to confuse the lower end of the IQ specturn CT types, with actual super-forecasters, trend indicators, as well as any type of professional level variations of Futurists.

"Futurists are people whose specialty or interest is futurology or the attempt to systematically explore predictions and possibilities about the future and how they can emerge from the present, whether that of human society in particular or of life on Earth in general".

Of course some folks would prefer to hear from neither: the fingers in ears, live for the today types, unable to plan nor consider general likely outcomes.
These are the types that always run out of cash at the end of the month, and find themselves surprised when hangel supplies multiplies tenfold in cost.

Birneybau

All that stuff gives the disaffected a sense of being part of a community.

Loads of them on Boards as well.

Foxhound38

miezekatze wrote: »

My cousin is like this too, but he was already a little bit into this stuff before Covid and it just got (a lot) worse. We had to throw him out of the family WhatsApp group as he was constantly spamming it with this nonsense and was asked several times to cool it and didn't listen. He also lived with his parents at the start, but was encouraged to move out as he wasn't following the guidelines and his other brothers didn't want to visit with their children anymore because of that. We all eventually unfollowed him on social media too. It's sad because he's a nice guy in person, but there is just no getting through to him and it's all he talks about. Maybe it would be good for your brother to move out so that his actions will no longer impact your parents.

Seems to be a common theme - once someone goes far enough down the conspiracy rabbit hole it becomes all they can talk or think about. It's actually very stressful to witness someone essentially losing their minds like that, and unfortuantely I have yet to witness anyone come back from it in any real way.

Beasty

OP, not a topic for here. Perhaps try Personal Issues. I'm not going to move this thread as it's been running under Current Affairs rules and PI have very different posting guidelines/rules