UKH

a partner (and friends) who's getting sucked in to the conspiracy theory rabbit hole.

They spend too much time watching dumb as* carp online and are starting to believe it, not to mention the daily mail/Farage followers she works with. 

Trouble is, I spend a lot of time away from home and have little time to counter the brainwashing.

Any suggestions? 

Take the radio and TV remotes with you when you leave home; also, the internet hub.  And any non-British food and alcohol, and all the take-away menus.

That may make resolution to this problem more urgent for one of you.

T.

I like your thinking, but it might backfire dramatically

I have come to the conclusion (over the years), that these people aren't as stupid as you suspect, they're actually more intelligent than you and I and do it simply to annoy us.

I suspect you are correct

Don’t worry, you’ll soon be corralled in your 15 minute city. You’ll see more of the partner then.

Frankly, I can’t wait unit they build a Ratho size climbing wall 15 minutes from my house. The 45min commute takes its toll. Anyway, I shalln’t hold my breath. Previously they were injecting those G5 chips there there was no tomorrow and now you need to be over 70 to get one. What’s the deal with that then? What has Bill Gates got against me?

Sounds fishy to me

Fitness-singles.com

It's serving some purpose in their life that other things aren't. You probably can't counter the conspiracy crap rationally and directly but you might be able to work out what's missing and address that more constructively.

jk

Maybe it's to fill in the time because you a re away so much. I realise there's probably nothing you can do about that.

depends what the conspiracy is, surely? If it's flat earth, then probably time to give up all hope; if it's that oil supply had more than a little to do with the US & UK invading Iraq, or that the CIA funded drug traffiking in south America, then there could be more to it

Get them to join the UKC echo chamber And get a subscription to the Guardian - then they will know what to think. 

help them get out and about with real people. Conspiracy theories flourish on the internet.

This article is interesting - https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/nov/29/how-to-deal-with-a-conspira...

The difficulty with conspiracy theorists is they "know" they are right. Their theories are presented as science but are really just belief without any reasoned arguements based on quality data.

Persuading them to check the source of any theory might help. As the article mentions some official sounding sources are just nothing more than something a conspiracy theorist has said.

Dave

oh the irony of using the Guardian to tell us what to think  

can you secretly get into their phone and 'unfollow' some of the worst ones and 'follow' some more mainstream accounts?

I don't know the best way to handle this but having had to deal with a conspiracy theorist neighbour who repeatedly attempted to lecture me on both my previous career and then my current one all I can say is don't argue, try and apply logic or discuss evidence base for XYZ or even engage with them in debate-especially a heated one. 

Assuming they're not just trying to wind you up, folk like this have a habit of always being the cleverest person in the room (in their head I mean) and it's not worth your energy. 

If you feel like having some fun you could go all Philomena Cunk in conversation and see how annoyed they get.

Edit to add: realised you were talking about your partner which makes the above not particularly helpful....

What's your career ? Chiropractor , financial advisor or telephone sanitiser   

This. My bet would be on anxiety at some level. The purpose served is that the conspiracy stuff “explains” the anxiety and is entertaining which all helps to reassure them. As jk says, don’t bother with the blx, instead try to figure out what the (possibly irrational) root cause of the anxiety is, and do lots of love and reassurance on your partner. At the very least you should get some brownie points!

I love conspiracies in fact the dafter they are, the more entertaining.

Either you're missing my point or that paragraph doesn't make as much sense as it did in my head ;p

All good ideas even the funny ones. 

Can't cut her off from the idiots, one of her brothers has turned into a full blown flat earther (not kidding, despite flying around the world with the RAF) , the other is in Oz and turned in to full on racist right winger. Work colleagues are daily fail readers, and believe every word. 

She's had 3 covid shots but now believes there's something in it and refuses another, and is sceptical of all vaccines now. 

It's truly amazing/depressing how pervasive all the b/s has become. 

What trusted news source do you recommend?

My SiL and BiL became full blown conspiracy theorists during the pandemic, they were always a little alternative but the craziness really dialled up during lockdown.  I've found that it's perfectly possible to just carry on as normal and smile and nod when the conversation becomes political, or try to steer clear of trigger topics.  

Tough when it's your partner, sorry to hear that.

There was a good couple of series on BBC sounds recently about why people fall for conspiracies, I just tried to find them but failed and ran out of time - it may be this person and I can see one helpful episode "People Like Us: Do you know someone who has fallen down the rabbit hole?" https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001n20x

MK Ultra - a bonkers conspiracy theory that turned out to be true.

Sometimes being cynical is a sign of brainwashing.

What conspiracy theory are you dealing with?

If it's water on the moon then I'm afraid you're out of luck. 

 "full blown flat earther", that is not a conspiracy theorist, that is someone who needs help.

Perhaps you could ask the lady -

What does she think is in the vaccine?

What does she think the something in it will do to people?

If there is something in the vaccines and as there have been millions of doses given in the UK, and billions of doses world wide, why do we not see thousands or millions of people affected by the 'something'?

Dave

That's one of his easy ones to deal with, he's bought in to some of the really obscure/dark stuff out there as well. And yes help is required

Re the vaccine I've tried all the above but while she's not quite gone full 5g/ Bill Gates etc she's now suspicious.

Funny??? that 15minute cities were mentioned above, she bought that up recently as well. The  prompt for my starting this thread on here was her mentioning a trump speach on ev's. There's definitely a pattern there. 

I don't think she's fully invested yet, but I suspect she's further down the rabbit hole than she let's on. 

Installing telephone masts

A friend of mine became a conspiracy theorist during the pandemic, I think it was frightening and deciding that covid was a hoax was reassuring for him. I spent an evening dissecting his arguments (I didn't manage to convince him of anything) but we had a good natured debate.

He was genuinely very concerned that my children had had vaccinations (covid + other) but seemed unaware that today most babies have courses of vaccinations from 8 weeks old. He believed that vaccines always operated as yes/no thing, i.e. that if you had a vaccination it should be impossible to catch the disease, and was sure that doctors and hospitals had been paid by Bill Gates to encourage vaccinations so that he could control us and our cryptocurrencies later on.

He now subscribes to a US-based news service as he doesn't trust any mainstream media so has a narrower view of the world. It really was interesting to hear this point of view and I came to the conclusion that having had better science education (he was unaware of the difference between viruses & bacteria, for example) would have helped him to navigate it.

Re the lady  - I can understand that is worrying about some one you care for. Any chance of asking for the source of the 'evidence' to support her views about the vaccines?

Dave 

I find this truly scary. These people vote.

This. Especially during covid, but certainly this decade online bilge has become many people's social groups, they are happy believers. Like the oldies going to church etc.. it is a feeling of belonging when they have little else to belong to. They need real world physical interaction, clubs, social groups etc... once brain washed though it's too late. Anything you present them with that goes against said conspiracy will be labelled as made up, actors paid to say it by wef, Computer generated, a global conspiracy involving hundreds of governments secretly conspiring against the masses etc.. 

Good luck (but I'd be packing).

There is a belief based hole in most peoples heads. We seem to have lost something in not having a hierarchical society and religion thrust into our lives. Filling that with something sensible, relevant and modern (and not for me religion) seems to be a hard job - the depressing state of politics and the environment cannot be helping, but really thinking about the meaning of life the universe and everything is mind-blowing.

Good luck and look after yourself.