My parents have always been left-wing hippies and entertained the odd conspiracy theory, but during the pandemic they got lost down YouTube rabbit holes and bought into Q-Anon and anti-vax ideas. They still don’t believe Covid is real (even though they blatantly had it…).
We’ve just kind of agreed not to talk about it anymore, but they’ve steadily become more and more batshit and I think they believe I have been brainwashed.
Anyone else’s familial relationships changed forever?
Is their pro-Putin stuff something like “If we push Putin it might start a nuclear war?” or more like “He’s so swashbuckling manly we ought to be glad he’s invading Ukraine”?
I tried to avoid going into details, but they started to say something among the lines of, “Well, things are not like your media wants you make believe…” (aka “The press is lying to you/us”).
They seem suspicious of mainstream media. How they find their Telegram channels to be more competent is beyond me.
It’s a bit extreme to claim the news is all lies and no effort to convey the truth, but it’s not crazy to think that the news is spinning things into propaganda, and sometimes even presenting falsehoods.
I don’t think it’s as prevalent as some people think but I don’t lose much respect for a person if they think it’s more widespread than I think it is.
Like I think it’s not gonna rain this afternoon, someone else thinks it will rain, that difference in perceptive conclusion doesn’t bother me.
I’ve got an uncle who’s super fucking cynical. To him all politicians are nothing but crooks. I see it more like there’s some good ones and some crooks. He and I get along no problem and I love hearing his theories.