How Do You Deal with Family Members who Subscribe to Conspiracy Theories?

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

For some deranged reason I feel obligated to talk with my Fox-news-lovin' family. Today's highlights include:

1. Global warming isn't real because it's getting colder in the week.

2. Covid isn't that dangerous. It's ok to have large parties. If you're vaccinated, then you're 100% covered.

3. China created Covid as a biological weapon to mess with us.

4. You can cure colon cancer by taking vitamins.

Do you have folks who live in realities different from yours? If so, then how to you deal with them when they tell you that your view of the world is 'wrong.' It's especially disconcerting when they rage at me about it.

[lightning]

This issue has come up before in the fora. First off, you need to internalize why some people subscribe to conspiracy theories, in the first place. Once you have that down, you'll resist the temptation to reason with them, and why it's not even worth it to try.

I just have fun with them and play along with their reality, but I go to the extreme and try to see how far I can get them to believe me until I see where their limits are. I'm talking National-Enquirer-style gay Martians disguised as Democrats who are using federal government funding to build landing strips for an alien invasion beginning with illegals who are really the descendants of the Aztecs who were the descendants of the alien race who is coming to invade and some of whom might already be here and married to your daughter. Stuff like that. Have fun!!!!

[mamselle]

This is one of the reasons I have very little of depth to say to my family members.

When my brother refers to getting vaccinated against the "Wuhan Flu" I just ignore it, figuring he's just trying to bait me.

Otherwise, I only email when I have something anodyne to say.

And I guess that means I don't really feel compelled to communicate much with them.

If it's not really going to be a two-way street, it's not going to be conversation, and I have 'way to much else to do....like this paper I should be working on, so this is (again) me off the forum until tomorrow (I keep saying that).

M.

(See? I like talking with (well, most of) you guys...) - M

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

I know I've brought this topic up before and I think I posted this thread out of exasperation. I know there isn't a one-size-fits-all answer. I just don't like the way I feel after interacting with these family members.

[dismalist]

For some deranged reason I feel obligated to talk with my Fox-news-lovin' family. Today's highlights include:

1. Global warming isn't real because it's getting colder in the week.

2. Covid isn't that dangerous. It's ok to have large parties. If you're vaccinated, then you're 100% covered.

3. China created Covid as a biological weapon to mess with us.

4. You can cure colon cancer by taking vitamins.

Do you have folks who live in realities different from yours? If so, then how to you deal with them when they tell you that your view of the world is 'wrong.' It's especially disconcerting when they rage at me about it.

You mean all this isn't true? :-)

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

For some deranged reason I feel obligated to talk with my Fox-news-lovin' family. Today's highlights include:

1. Global warming isn't real because it's getting colder in the week.

2. Covid isn't that dangerous. It's ok to have large parties. If you're vaccinated, then you're 100% covered.

3. China created Covid as a biological weapon to mess with us.

4. You can cure colon cancer by taking vitamins.

Do you have folks who live in realities different from yours? If so, then how to you deal with them when they tell you that your view of the world is 'wrong.' It's especially disconcerting when they rage at me about it.

You mean all this isn't true? :-)

HA!

[Wahoo Redux]

My Father-in-Law believes in crop circles.

My Brother-in-Law believes in Bigfoot.

My Mother-in-Law believes that Ouija Boards actually talk to Satan and has warned us not even to look at the Hasbro version lest we be possessed.

Each member of this very strange family has exactly one weird thing they believe, and each member makes fun of the other members for the stupid things the others believe. 

My wife and I listen when these subjects come up (fortunately all three are seldom in the same room at any one time), and then on the drive home we have a good time reviewing the show.

It is a little harder to keep quiet when the FIL explains that he voted Trump because "he said the right things," but those days are swiftly vanishing in the past now that The Great Cheetos is banned from social media.

My advice is to have fun with your relatives' weirdness.  Weird will never be changed by logic or discussion anyway.

[clean]

Hopefully you can limit the topics to things that are important to everyone.

How your health is progressing, the youngins, other plans...

[Ruralguy]

Luckily, my Trump loving brother has three kids and sees my parents more than I do. He's also very interested in modern science, even if some of his politics force him into short cuts. So, though we brush on politics, we don't dig too deep or there will be too much bad blood. I really hope Trump doesn't run again. He puts a lot of strain on families.

I say things like "though we will probably never be able to rule out a lab origin for COVID, seems like zoonotic natural origin is consistent with other viruses and other pandemics. " That is more or less the Fauci point of view.

When you can fry burgers on the sidewalk in January, you'll be able to convince conservative relatives that global warming is real and might kill them.

In other words, don't try to convert them, and don't get sucked into them trying to convert you.

[dismalist]

Luckily, my Trump loving brother ... . He's also very interested in modern science... . I really hope Trump doesn't run again. He puts a lot of strain on families.

Your brother sounds like me.

[fishbrains]

This is one of the reasons I have very little of depth to say to my family members.

When my brother refers to getting vaccinated against the "Wuhan Flu" I just ignore it, figuring he's just trying to bait me.

Otherwise, I only email when I have something anodyne to say.

And I guess that means I don't really feel compelled to communicate much with them.

If it's not really going to be a two-way street, it's not going to be conversation, and I have 'way to much else to do....like this paper I should be working on, so this is (again) me off the forum until tomorrow (I keep saying that).

M.

(See? I like talking with (well, most of) you guys...) - M

This tends to be my approach. I don't talk to them electronically unless I absolutely have to, and then only in simple declarative sentences.  When meeting them in-person, after discussing everyone's various aches and pains, the weather, the food we are eating/have eaten, what we are doing for vacation, and our kids, it's time to watch television.

There is one a-hole on my wife's side who likes to bait people into arguments, so I've had to say, "Hey, let's talk about something else!" One time he didn't, so I just left. The doors tend be located in the same places where you entered the place.

[mahagonny]

For some deranged reason I feel obligated to talk with my Fox-news-lovin' family. Today's highlights include:

1. Global warming isn't real because it's getting colder in the week.

2. Covid isn't that dangerous. It's ok to have large parties. If you're vaccinated, then you're 100% covered.

3. China created Covid as a biological weapon to mess with us.

4. You can cure colon cancer by taking vitamins.

Do you have folks who live in realities different from yours? If so, then how to you deal with them when they tell you that your view of the world is 'wrong.' It's especially disconcerting when they rage at me about it.

I'll take your word for (1) what they or some of them believe and (2) their liking Fox news, but this doesn't sound like the kind of stuff I have heard on FOX news. Maybe on occasion. Not regularly.

Whereas, I have friends who believe that if you state that you think the first recorded case of COVID was in Wuhan or some part of China as a result of a weird practice called 'wet markets' you are hopelessly racist and you probably glare at Asian Americans when you pass them on the street. We don't have wet markets in the US. Does someone think we should? If the Asian Americans do, they're keeping quiet.
To some Americans, calling it the Chinese of Wuhan flu is about like saying the Philadelphia Phillies tend to play in Philadelphia. But far and wide, it's being called COVID-19. The politically correct language crowd has prevailed. Why complain so much?
I watch people like Harris Faulkner. She sounds to me like a well grounded, trustworthy unpretentious type.

The attributed claim that a vaccination makes you 100% immune is interesting.  Usually the beef with that academics have with moderates and right wingers is that they don't trust the vaccine. I would applaud the fact that they got one and put some trust in it at least. That's all I'm gonna say here about that, now.

Intelligent people can disagree on how many public gatherings it's reasonably safe to have and how they should be conducted. Some people think the need to demonstrate against the police is a reason to ignore the normal cautions.

[Anselm]

Those four items are not really conspiracy theories unless there is some alleged plot to foist lies upon the public.  You can ask for evidence and offer them opposing evidence.  Learn to accept that some minds will not be changed and there is no sense harming family bonds over these kinds of disagreements.

https://www.rd.com/list/conspiracy-theories-that-turned-out-to-be-true/
https://www.businessinsider.com/5-conspiracy-theories-that-turned-out-to-be-true-2015-6

[spork]

For some deranged reason I feel obligated to talk with my Fox-news-lovin' family.

[. . . ]

Don't engage on conspiracy-based topics. If a family member insists, end the conversation -- hang up the phone, leave the house, stop sending email replies.

[Parasaurolophus]

When I encounter such people IRL, if I want to engage then  I usually channel Socrates and ask about their premises until they're forced to concede they don't know, or look uncomfortable about just what their commitments are.

I don't know that it helps them, but it's a kinder way of showing them their ignorance.