How to deal with people who have fallen down the rabbit hole?

[noname223]

I have an acquaintance who is a lot into conspiracies. He wrote me some months ago he wants to radicalize. And he did. I think I should not start in this thread a discussion about the content of certain cospiracies rather how to deal with people who are into them.

We got into an argument the last time we texted. He is friendly to me but I am kind of annoyed by some of his beliefs because I think he damages other people with it. Moreover I consider some of them very inhuman.

Here is an article about how to deal with people who are into conspiracies. https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-55350794


Here are the advices.

1. Keep calm. I did but it just accumulated. We live in completely different worlds. He insults some people a lot and I get angry by that.

2. Don't be dismissive. First I was good in that. But he developed into a 24/7 troll. So he is dismissive of other people. And this made me angry too. The thing is I listened to most of his beliefs for quite some time. But he just went further and further. I told him I cannot take some of his suggestions seriously. We never had a real argument till the last time.

3. Encourage critical thinking. I really tried. And I think I have succeeed. I could point out some contradictions he had. But even when I showed him his thinking fallacies he just conclude:. Anyway life is a joke. Logic is not important. I think anarchism should rule. And wtih this he perfectly contradicted most of his prior points and showed me he is probably a hopeless case.

4. Ask question. Honestly I think he is too far gone for that.

Not sure what to conclude. I like the contact with him because he can say me how it is like to live of welfare. And in this sense he is kind of a role model. On the other hand I could never copy his stances on money. I think I will have less contact with him. He had a similar horrible childhood. This is why I think I mght should not be too harsh on him. But now we live in completely different worlds. We have often diametrical views of the world and this rather leads to arguments when we exchange them.

Do you have experience with that?

 

[Julgran]

I have an acquaintance who is a lot into conspiracies. He wrote me some months ago he wants to radicalize. And he did. I think I should not start in this thread a discussion about the content of certain cospiracies rather how to deal with people who are into them.

We got into an argument the last time we texted. He is friendly to me but I am kind of annoyed by some of his beliefs because I think he damages other people with it. Moreover I consider some of them very inhuman.

Here is an article about how to deal with people who are into conspiracies. https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-55350794


Here are the advices.

1. Keep calm. I did but it just accumulated. We live in completely different worlds. He insults some people a lot and I get angry by that.

2. Don't be dismissive. First I was good in that. But he developed into a 24/7 troll. So he is dismissive of other people. And this made me angry too. The thing is I listened to most of his beliefs for quite some time. But he just went further and further. I told him I cannot take some of his suggestions seriously. We never had a real argument till the last time.

3. Encourage critical thinking. I really tried. And I think I have succeeed. I could point out some contradictions he had. But even when I showed him his thinking fallacies he just conclude:. Anyway life is a joke. Logic is not important. I think anarchism should rule. And wtih this he perfectly contradicted most of his prior points and showed me he is probably a hopeless case.

4. Ask question. Honestly I think he is too far gone for that.

Not sure what to conclude. I like the contact with him because he can say me how it is like to live of welfare. And in this sense he is kind of a role model. On the other hand I could never copy his stances on money. I think I will have less contact with him. He had a similar horrible childhood. This is why I think I mght should not be too harsh on him. But now we live in completely different worlds. We have often diametrical views of the world and this rather leads to arguments when we exchange them.

Do you have experience with that?

If you are unwilling to have an open mind towards new political ideas, just leave those people alone. You might need them one day, though, and then they may not care about you when it actually counts. If you want to try to convince this person that he's wrong about something, read up about the subject from both the mainsteam media angle and from the alternative media angle, and then try to find inconsistencies in his description of the events that you are talking about.

That's great that you are linking to a BBC article in this instance....

Let me just say "Saddam has weapons of mass destruction" and "we need to invade the whole of the Middle East because some Arabs attacked the World Trade Center".... I wish that you will grow out of this naive mindset eventually.

The world that we live in isn't made up of fantasy lands inhabited by the Gummi Bears - but is an utterly evil place full of bad intentions.

 

[noname223]

If you are unwilling to have an open mind towards new political ideas, just leave those people alone. You might need them one day, though, and then they may not care about you.

That's great that you are linking to a BBC article in this instance....

Let me just say "Saddam has weapons of mass destruction" and "we need to invade the whole of the Middle East because some Arabs attacked the World Trade Center".... I wish that you will grow out of this naive mindset eventually.

We had an open discussion quite some times. And I think now both of us are annoyed by each others beliefs. Because we have diametrical view points as I pointed out.

I have to say I think the article is indeed not perfect. Because the lable conspiracy theorists is sometimes used to delegitimize people ad hominem instead of listening to them. Though we had open discussions often. And I listened to his views. But exchanging them led to an argument which was not pleasant for both sides.

I don't know that much about the BBC. I heard good and very bad things. Though the advices seem to be reasonable.

 

[Nolan96]

@whatevs, you've been summoned. We're all waiting.

 

[Pluto]

Plot twist: this entire thread was covertly created by the Deep State to discredit QAnon and enable 5G Coronavirus propagation to continue unhindered.

 

[whatevs]

Plot twist: this entire thread was covertly created by the Deep State to discredit QAnon and enable 5G Coronavirus propagation to continue unhindered.

I see your plot twist and I add this: QAnon and 5G Coronovarius conspiracy theories were themselves crafted by the Powers That Be to poison the well and make it harder to simply see that they were violating basic human rights and the Constitutions of many countries with the pretense of preventing a pandemic whose threat was never actually felt, only announced by every institution and media broadcast company imaginable.

@noname223 I keep trying to find that meme I saw somewhere making fun of this but it's nowhere to be found. Basically it pretended to be a WikiHow slide where it asks how to deal with those that have fallen for conspiracy theories and in the last slide the friend puts his hand on the conspiracy realist shoulder and the slide displays a phrase recommending that you apologize for ever doubting them, because they've always been right.

;)

 

[Unhirable]

It's about entertainment at the end of the day. Your friend would rather live in a world that is full of suffering but interesting as opposed to one that is full of suffering but boring.

Conspiracies aren't even a big deal anyway. Millions of people are into conspiracies and spend tons of time in them without ever commit an act of violence, etc.

Journalists from the BBC and the like are just trying to get you to continue listening to their mind control propaganda.

Ask yourself this, have you ever been able to make the world a better place from the shit you've read on the BBC?
Maybe through a charity or potentially some protests (but protests don't count because they are government-approved, meaning they aren't actually real and by the people).

 

[again_noidea]

I have an acquaintance who is a lot into conspiracies. He wrote me some months ago he wants to radicalize. And he did. I think I should not start in this thread a discussion about the content of certain cospiracies rather how to deal with people who are into them.

There are for sure conspiracies going on, and there are theories about conspiracies. Lots of theories are dead ends, and some get it right. But the main stream media is for sure not interested in informing you about the world in an objective manner. just look at the actual reposting on the sabotage of nord stream gas pipeline. of course, the world is complicated and there are no easy answers, but to think that there are no conspiracies going on is very naive. As a reminder, here is the definition from Wikipedia, :

A conspiracy, also known as a plot, is a secret plan or agreement between persons for an unlawful or harmful purpose, such as murder or treason, especially with political motivation, while keeping their agreement secret from the public or from other people affected by it. In a political sense, conspiracy refers to a group of people united in the goal of usurping, altering or overthrowing an established political power. Depending on the circumstances, a conspiracy may also be a crime, or a civil wrong]​ The term generally implies wrongdoing or illegality on the part of the conspirators, as people would not need to conspire to engage in activities that were lawful and ethical, or to which no one would object.