Several weeks ago, I was interviewed for this Fatherly.com article about how conspiracy beliefs are tearing some families apart. What can you do if one of your relatives keeps insisting that COVID does not exist, the Earth is flat, and Bill Gates is trying to microchip you through vaccinations to imprint the mark of the Beast 666 on your DNA?
Actually, as I discuss in the article, the most useful approach to pulling your wacky uncle back out of the rabbit hole is not to dismiss his claims as absurdity or call him crazy or naïve. Confrontation will only cause the true believer to dig his heels in and cling to his beliefs even more tenaciously. All you will achieve by that tactic is to drive the conspiracists back to Alex Jones or State of the Nation or Before It’s News, or any of their ilk. Your conspiracy-believing relatives will take a deep dive back into their paranoid safe spaces on the Internet, questing ever more tenaciously to hear reaffirmations of their fringe belief systems…or just gather more “facts,” more ammunition to fight back next time when you try and tell them that Lee Harvey Oswald really did shoot JFK alone.
The best method to dealing with the conspiracy believer, instead, is to ask them to examine their belief systems. Ask them to take a close, critical look at the other theorists who have convinced them that time-traveling aliens were really behind 9/11 and see what testable, verifiable evidence these theorists can provide. Or is the evidence provided by these purveyors of colorful stories of grand global cabals just a long list of web links to other conspiracy theorists who make more claims with no verifiable evidence. Ask wacky Uncle Bob to think about whether or not it is suspicious that an Alex Jones or a State of the Nation claim that everything you read about in the news is a conspiracy? If a conspiracy blogger were to claim, for example, that maybe just the JFK assassination was a conspiracy or the 9/11 attacks were an inside job, a reasonably patient person could hear them out. But absolutely every single world event is part of a conspiracy? At that point, Uncle Bob should realize that he is being taken for a ride by an unconscionable liar and fraud, a flim-flam artist who is monetizing traffic to his blog by spinning one outlandish, absurd claim after the next.
In fact, this sort of examination of conspiracy web pages has been an ongoing part of my Conspiracy Films class throughout this semester. Among all of the conspiracy sites, perhaps none was a better teaching tool than State of the Nation. My students were able to use it as a prime example of how to spot the most audacious examples of disinformation and fake news.
But, ultimately, will this attempt at helping those poor alienated souls who are feel so disconnected from any kind of a consensus reality always work? And what can one do about the loved ones who cling to their theories the most tenaciously?
Well, legally there is nothing one can do. Just because a friend chooses to live in their own, self-constructed reality, there is no way we can force him to accept the fact the Earth is round or that over 300,000 Americans have already died from COVID-19 if they refuse to do so. They can't be forced into the psychiatric care they so desperately need. If these people annoy you enough, you can always just ignore them. Or how about a rule that we don’t talk politics or conspiracy theories around the dining room table this Christmas?
But it these people cross the line into dangerous behavior, such as refusing to wear a mask in a crowded place or congregating with the rest of their COVID-denying friends, to only responsible thing to do is to bar them from your life, your home, or from making contact with your family.
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Time travelling aliens was never a theory proposed to explain 9/11. Hollow towers was however!
ReplyDeleteThe Earth has never been proven to spin. That's a so-called "fact".
Not wearing as mask is not dangerous whereas wearing a mask IS because you cut down your oxygen intake and increase carbon dioxide for one thing.
Talking politics and conspiracy theories is actually fun when done in a polite and respectful manner. Too bad you haven't seen that happen.
And finally, covid does not exist. What microscopists see are called exosomes and they're quite natural and act as cell janitors. The entire world of viruses is complete wrong and the new biology is based on the health of the body-- or terrain theory.
You're article above will be used by me in MY blog and conversations as an example of how disinformation is spread around the blogosphere.... in an arrogant and condescending non-friendly manner so be sure not to eat anything that might upset your stomach before you read because you just might puke.
I found your link on SOTN here...http://stateofthenation.co/?p=42660 and my own blog is here... https://rickpotvin63.boardhost.com
Dear Rick,
ReplyDeleteThe world was, in fact, proven to be round by the ancient Greeks over two thousand years ago and proven to spin. That is a fact.
Covid, an airborne respiratory virus can be caught through inhalation, thus, as every major medical association in the world has unequivocally argued, wearing a mask over your face is the best way to reduce your chances of catching it. Plus, if wearing face masks was dangerous, why do surgeons wearing them for hours on end during highly complex surgeries not get sick and pass out?
Moreover, terrain theory is pseudo scientific nonsense that had been debunked in the 19th century.
As for polite and respectful discussion, I am completely in favor of it. However, when I hear information that is not only patently absurd but dangerous, I need to call it the offensive garbage that it is.