I admin my home's town's Facebook Group. Or I used to!
There were quite a few people on there going down the anti-vax route and we kept getting complaints about their posts so me and the fellow admins stated that the only Covid info allowed on there were from official sources (such as NHS etc).
Since then I got nothing but abusive direct messages saying I should be ashamed and how do I feel having the deaths of people on my hands. Those exact same people though go down every conspiracy route though. You can add Secs Education in Schools, WEF, moon landings etc to this list. One guy, who I knew from school, even told me he never follows the rules and got really angry when I pointed out he'd agreed to the group's rules before being allowed to post.
Different breed they are. Different breed.
Oh, to add, I've just blocked them now. I'd never blocked someone before then but these were really nasty messages they were sending. Luckily I have a thick skin but I know full well some others don't.
comment by Diafol Coch 77 🏴 (U2462)
posted 2 minutes ago
Oh, to add, I've just blocked them now. I'd never blocked someone before then but these were really nasty messages they were sending. Luckily I have a thick skin but I know full well some others don't.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
To be fair Diafol, you do deserve nasty messages every time you suggest Antony could play at #10.
I genuinely feel there’s no way back for a lot of these people. When you believe that anything could be a conspiracy/lie than nothing will ever seem true to them ever again. For them there’s a very real possibility that 1+1 could actually be 3 and the swamp have been lying to you for centuries that it’s actually 2.
I did see one documentary about these people and they did find one question kinda scratched beneath the surface. It was ‘is there anything that could convince you you’re wrong?’
People within reach will answer with something that could drag them back from the precipice. Those who don’t will forever be part of the idiocracy.
I've an uncle in law who is a complete covid denier and anti-vaxxer. Other than that he's a pretty normal family man well liked by everyone.
My own opinion is that covid was exaggerated and that much of the restrictions were unneccessary.
This is indeed dispiriting. I try to tell myself that these people don't actually exist in real life, and are merely bots and trolls only to be found on social media.
I've stopped using both X/Twitter and Facebook mainly because I find these idiots so tiresome and frustrating.
I don't have any advice, sorry. Just avoid them as best you can.
comment by BerbaKing11 (U6256)
posted 4 minutes ago
comment by Diafol Coch 77 🏴 (U2462)
posted 2 minutes ago
Oh, to add, I've just blocked them now. I'd never blocked someone before then but these were really nasty messages they were sending. Luckily I have a thick skin but I know full well some others don't.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
To be fair Diafol, you do deserve nasty messages every time you suggest Antony could play at #10.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Hahahahah
Conspiracy theorists are there to be laughed at
comment by The Process (U20671)
posted 10 minutes ago
I've an uncle in law who is a complete covid denier and anti-vaxxer. Other than that he's a pretty normal family man well liked by everyone.
My own opinion is that covid was exaggerated and that much of the restrictions were unneccessary.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Who exaggerated Covid? And why?
I see measles is back after pretty much being eradicated. Thanks to dumbshiittt antivaxxers.
Yeah I’ve lost a couple too. It’s just mental but what can you do? It’s the anger when you spit facts that is most unpleasant.
People called the vaccine Orwellian when he died of TB… which is preventable with a vaccine.
The thing I found strangest actually was people saying that they were being forced to get the vaccine.
No we weren’t.
OP
The thing is these friends of yours did not just become stupid overnight. It has always been there. It has to have been.
This is a major downside to the internet.
My Mrs son from her first marriage is a fully grown Joe Rogan nut job. He was not very happy with me over Christmas when I played him a clip of Rogan dissing Biden saying he wasn’t fit to be President due to something Biden had said. It was Trump who actually said it.
He also wasn’t chuffed when I said this is not the kind of idiot you should listen to if you want to learn anything factual.
comment by BerbaKing11 (U6256)
posted 14 minutes ago
comment by Diafol Coch 77 🏴 (U2462)
posted 2 minutes ago
Oh, to add, I've just blocked them now. I'd never blocked someone before then but these were really nasty messages they were sending. Luckily I have a thick skin but I know full well some others don't.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
To be fair Diafol, you do deserve nasty messages every time you suggest Antony could play at #10.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
This. When Diafol wrote that, I started to wonder whether there could be something in that QAnon stuff after all. Who knows what else Diafol is catastrophically wrong about, eh?
My own opinion is that covid was exaggerated
…..
Good grief. You have outdone yourself here.
comment by Red Russian (U4715)
posted 9 minutes ago
comment by BerbaKing11 (U6256)
posted 14 minutes ago
comment by Diafol Coch 77 🏴 (U2462)
posted 2 minutes ago
Oh, to add, I've just blocked them now. I'd never blocked someone before then but these were really nasty messages they were sending. Luckily I have a thick skin but I know full well some others don't.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
To be fair Diafol, you do deserve nasty messages every time you suggest Antony could play at #10.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
This. When Diafol wrote that, I started to wonder whether there could be something in that QAnon stuff after all. Who knows what else Diafol is catastrophically wrong about, eh?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Diafol is the top mischief maker on our board.
One of the most common things I see amongst conspiracy theorists is that "this guy was vaguely right about one thing, therefore I will now immediately believe literally everything he says without any critical thought."
See it a lot with Alex Jones. He was "right" about Hollywood being full of paedophiles - something everyone has known for the best part of a century. So that means with absolute certainty that the Sandy Hook massacre wasn't real and all of the parents are just crisis actors.
If we want to get the human race through the next half century without society degenerating into a vicious might-is-right pre-democratic state, it's pretty important we figure out what's driving this and what we can do to stop it. While the number of conspiracy zombies is relatively small, I'd link the phenomenon to a wider trend of flourishing misinformation and radicalisation. Look at the States, where there's a real possibility the electoral college will elect an obviously, profoundly dishonest man, and a vindictive fraudster, as President. Millions of his supporters believe, contrary to evidence, that Trump was an effective President on his own terms. Millions don't accept the reality of what happened on January 6th or the truth that the election was won by Biden. Many of them believe they are living under a tyranny and openly hope that Trump seizes power and rules as an autocrat to (...checks notes...) prevent tyranny.
We've had similar erosion of our democratic checks and balances and of our information systems in the UK. There's no reason to believe we are reliably insulated from going down the same path.
So we really need to understand the complex mass of factors that drive this: technological, political, cultural and psychological.
comment by BerbaKing11 (U6256)
posted 41 minutes ago
comment by Diafol Coch 77 🏴 (U2462)
posted 2 minutes ago
Oh, to add, I've just blocked them now. I'd never blocked someone before then but these were really nasty messages they were sending. Luckily I have a thick skin but I know full well some others don't.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
To be fair Diafol, you do deserve nasty messages every time you suggest Antony could play at #10.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I walked into that one didn't I?
I do think we should give it a go though...
My view on Covid was that it was very much a threat and that, for some, that threat was deadly.
The vaccines saved a number of lives but sadly, like with any drug, some experienced side-effects.
What I've found is that conspiracy theories will jump at any 'unexplained death' and state it's to do with the vaccine but they never seem to consider it could be due to Covid itself.
I'm not anti vax but I understand concerns about not taking the covid vaccine as it was so new and was developed in such a short amount of time
comment by Onana what's my name? (U14210)
posted 57 seconds ago
I'm not anti vax but I understand concerns about not taking the covid vaccine as it was so new and was developed in such a short amount of time
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I read at the time that the reasons vaccines usually take a long time to develop is the absence of money, will and manpower. We had all three for Covid as there was nothing pushing back against its development.
comment by The Process (U20671)
posted 48 minutes ago
I've an uncle in law who is a complete covid denier and anti-vaxxer. Other than that he's a pretty normal family man well liked by everyone.
My own opinion is that covid was exaggerated and that much of the restrictions were unneccessary.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I’m no conspiracy theorist but I think here in Ireland certainly the Government and Health Service actually used covid to their advantage to cover up their own failures in the healthcare system.
Hospitals were as empty as they have ever been in years during covid in this country. If there was really a deadly virus going around then surely this would not have been the case even with the lockdowns.
The majority of people I know young and old have had covid, none were hospitalised and I could count on one hand how many had any kind of lasting effect.
The covid death numbers were nonsense. It was people who would have sadly passed anyway testing positive before death in most cases.
Of course covid was real and I’m sure the vaccine helped but most countries were over cautious.
comment by Onana what's my name? (U14210)
posted 2 minutes ago
I'm not anti vax but I understand concerns about not taking the covid vaccine as it was so new and was developed in such a short amount of time
----------------------------------------------------------------------
It wasn't developed over a short period of time. Researchers had been working on generic mRNA responses to coronavirus for many years. Definitely since SARs which was roughly 20 years ago. Because they knew another outbreak would come, they just didn't know when and to what level of severity.
The vaccine needed to be tailored to C19 specifically, they didn't start from scratch.
On anti-vaxxers - think I'm lucky, I haven't lost anyone I consider to be a friend to conspiracy theories. My brother in law is an anti-vaxxer but I've known he was a cretin from within 20 seconds of meeting him.
comment by The Process (U20671)
posted 58 minutes ago
I've an uncle in law who is a complete covid denier and anti-vaxxer. Other than that he's a pretty normal family man well liked by everyone.
My own opinion is that covid was exaggerated and that much of the restrictions were unneccessary.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
that figures.
Sign in if you want to comment
OT: How to deal with full-on conspiracists?
Page 1 of 6
6
posted on 24/1/24
I admin my home's town's Facebook Group. Or I used to!
There were quite a few people on there going down the anti-vax route and we kept getting complaints about their posts so me and the fellow admins stated that the only Covid info allowed on there were from official sources (such as NHS etc).
Since then I got nothing but abusive direct messages saying I should be ashamed and how do I feel having the deaths of people on my hands. Those exact same people though go down every conspiracy route though. You can add Secs Education in Schools, WEF, moon landings etc to this list. One guy, who I knew from school, even told me he never follows the rules and got really angry when I pointed out he'd agreed to the group's rules before being allowed to post.
Different breed they are. Different breed.
posted on 24/1/24
Oh, to add, I've just blocked them now. I'd never blocked someone before then but these were really nasty messages they were sending. Luckily I have a thick skin but I know full well some others don't.
posted on 24/1/24
comment by Diafol Coch 77 🏴 (U2462)
posted 2 minutes ago
Oh, to add, I've just blocked them now. I'd never blocked someone before then but these were really nasty messages they were sending. Luckily I have a thick skin but I know full well some others don't.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
To be fair Diafol, you do deserve nasty messages every time you suggest Antony could play at #10.
posted on 24/1/24
I genuinely feel there’s no way back for a lot of these people. When you believe that anything could be a conspiracy/lie than nothing will ever seem true to them ever again. For them there’s a very real possibility that 1+1 could actually be 3 and the swamp have been lying to you for centuries that it’s actually 2.
I did see one documentary about these people and they did find one question kinda scratched beneath the surface. It was ‘is there anything that could convince you you’re wrong?’
People within reach will answer with something that could drag them back from the precipice. Those who don’t will forever be part of the idiocracy.
posted on 24/1/24
I've an uncle in law who is a complete covid denier and anti-vaxxer. Other than that he's a pretty normal family man well liked by everyone.
My own opinion is that covid was exaggerated and that much of the restrictions were unneccessary.
posted on 24/1/24
This is indeed dispiriting. I try to tell myself that these people don't actually exist in real life, and are merely bots and trolls only to be found on social media.
I've stopped using both X/Twitter and Facebook mainly because I find these idiots so tiresome and frustrating.
I don't have any advice, sorry. Just avoid them as best you can.
posted on 24/1/24
comment by BerbaKing11 (U6256)
posted 4 minutes ago
comment by Diafol Coch 77 🏴 (U2462)
posted 2 minutes ago
Oh, to add, I've just blocked them now. I'd never blocked someone before then but these were really nasty messages they were sending. Luckily I have a thick skin but I know full well some others don't.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
To be fair Diafol, you do deserve nasty messages every time you suggest Antony could play at #10.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Hahahahah
posted on 24/1/24
Conspiracy theorists are there to be laughed at
posted on 24/1/24
comment by The Process (U20671)
posted 10 minutes ago
I've an uncle in law who is a complete covid denier and anti-vaxxer. Other than that he's a pretty normal family man well liked by everyone.
My own opinion is that covid was exaggerated and that much of the restrictions were unneccessary.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Who exaggerated Covid? And why?
posted on 24/1/24
I see measles is back after pretty much being eradicated. Thanks to dumbshiittt antivaxxers.
posted on 24/1/24
Yeah I’ve lost a couple too. It’s just mental but what can you do? It’s the anger when you spit facts that is most unpleasant.
People called the vaccine Orwellian when he died of TB… which is preventable with a vaccine.
posted on 24/1/24
The thing I found strangest actually was people saying that they were being forced to get the vaccine.
No we weren’t.
posted on 24/1/24
OP
The thing is these friends of yours did not just become stupid overnight. It has always been there. It has to have been.
This is a major downside to the internet.
My Mrs son from her first marriage is a fully grown Joe Rogan nut job. He was not very happy with me over Christmas when I played him a clip of Rogan dissing Biden saying he wasn’t fit to be President due to something Biden had said. It was Trump who actually said it.
He also wasn’t chuffed when I said this is not the kind of idiot you should listen to if you want to learn anything factual.
posted on 24/1/24
comment by BerbaKing11 (U6256)
posted 14 minutes ago
comment by Diafol Coch 77 🏴 (U2462)
posted 2 minutes ago
Oh, to add, I've just blocked them now. I'd never blocked someone before then but these were really nasty messages they were sending. Luckily I have a thick skin but I know full well some others don't.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
To be fair Diafol, you do deserve nasty messages every time you suggest Antony could play at #10.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
This. When Diafol wrote that, I started to wonder whether there could be something in that QAnon stuff after all. Who knows what else Diafol is catastrophically wrong about, eh?
posted on 24/1/24
My own opinion is that covid was exaggerated
…..
Good grief. You have outdone yourself here.
posted on 24/1/24
comment by Red Russian (U4715)
posted 9 minutes ago
comment by BerbaKing11 (U6256)
posted 14 minutes ago
comment by Diafol Coch 77 🏴 (U2462)
posted 2 minutes ago
Oh, to add, I've just blocked them now. I'd never blocked someone before then but these were really nasty messages they were sending. Luckily I have a thick skin but I know full well some others don't.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
To be fair Diafol, you do deserve nasty messages every time you suggest Antony could play at #10.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
This. When Diafol wrote that, I started to wonder whether there could be something in that QAnon stuff after all. Who knows what else Diafol is catastrophically wrong about, eh?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Diafol is the top mischief maker on our board.
posted on 24/1/24
One of the most common things I see amongst conspiracy theorists is that "this guy was vaguely right about one thing, therefore I will now immediately believe literally everything he says without any critical thought."
See it a lot with Alex Jones. He was "right" about Hollywood being full of paedophiles - something everyone has known for the best part of a century. So that means with absolute certainty that the Sandy Hook massacre wasn't real and all of the parents are just crisis actors.
posted on 24/1/24
If we want to get the human race through the next half century without society degenerating into a vicious might-is-right pre-democratic state, it's pretty important we figure out what's driving this and what we can do to stop it. While the number of conspiracy zombies is relatively small, I'd link the phenomenon to a wider trend of flourishing misinformation and radicalisation. Look at the States, where there's a real possibility the electoral college will elect an obviously, profoundly dishonest man, and a vindictive fraudster, as President. Millions of his supporters believe, contrary to evidence, that Trump was an effective President on his own terms. Millions don't accept the reality of what happened on January 6th or the truth that the election was won by Biden. Many of them believe they are living under a tyranny and openly hope that Trump seizes power and rules as an autocrat to (...checks notes...) prevent tyranny.
We've had similar erosion of our democratic checks and balances and of our information systems in the UK. There's no reason to believe we are reliably insulated from going down the same path.
So we really need to understand the complex mass of factors that drive this: technological, political, cultural and psychological.
posted on 24/1/24
comment by BerbaKing11 (U6256)
posted 41 minutes ago
comment by Diafol Coch 77 🏴 (U2462)
posted 2 minutes ago
Oh, to add, I've just blocked them now. I'd never blocked someone before then but these were really nasty messages they were sending. Luckily I have a thick skin but I know full well some others don't.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
To be fair Diafol, you do deserve nasty messages every time you suggest Antony could play at #10.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I walked into that one didn't I?
I do think we should give it a go though...
posted on 24/1/24
My view on Covid was that it was very much a threat and that, for some, that threat was deadly.
The vaccines saved a number of lives but sadly, like with any drug, some experienced side-effects.
What I've found is that conspiracy theories will jump at any 'unexplained death' and state it's to do with the vaccine but they never seem to consider it could be due to Covid itself.
posted on 24/1/24
I'm not anti vax but I understand concerns about not taking the covid vaccine as it was so new and was developed in such a short amount of time
posted on 24/1/24
comment by Onana what's my name? (U14210)
posted 57 seconds ago
I'm not anti vax but I understand concerns about not taking the covid vaccine as it was so new and was developed in such a short amount of time
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I read at the time that the reasons vaccines usually take a long time to develop is the absence of money, will and manpower. We had all three for Covid as there was nothing pushing back against its development.
posted on 24/1/24
comment by The Process (U20671)
posted 48 minutes ago
I've an uncle in law who is a complete covid denier and anti-vaxxer. Other than that he's a pretty normal family man well liked by everyone.
My own opinion is that covid was exaggerated and that much of the restrictions were unneccessary.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I’m no conspiracy theorist but I think here in Ireland certainly the Government and Health Service actually used covid to their advantage to cover up their own failures in the healthcare system.
Hospitals were as empty as they have ever been in years during covid in this country. If there was really a deadly virus going around then surely this would not have been the case even with the lockdowns.
The majority of people I know young and old have had covid, none were hospitalised and I could count on one hand how many had any kind of lasting effect.
The covid death numbers were nonsense. It was people who would have sadly passed anyway testing positive before death in most cases.
Of course covid was real and I’m sure the vaccine helped but most countries were over cautious.
posted on 24/1/24
comment by Onana what's my name? (U14210)
posted 2 minutes ago
I'm not anti vax but I understand concerns about not taking the covid vaccine as it was so new and was developed in such a short amount of time
----------------------------------------------------------------------
It wasn't developed over a short period of time. Researchers had been working on generic mRNA responses to coronavirus for many years. Definitely since SARs which was roughly 20 years ago. Because they knew another outbreak would come, they just didn't know when and to what level of severity.
The vaccine needed to be tailored to C19 specifically, they didn't start from scratch.
On anti-vaxxers - think I'm lucky, I haven't lost anyone I consider to be a friend to conspiracy theories. My brother in law is an anti-vaxxer but I've known he was a cretin from within 20 seconds of meeting him.
posted on 24/1/24
comment by The Process (U20671)
posted 58 minutes ago
I've an uncle in law who is a complete covid denier and anti-vaxxer. Other than that he's a pretty normal family man well liked by everyone.
My own opinion is that covid was exaggerated and that much of the restrictions were unneccessary.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
that figures.
Page 1 of 6
6