BigMoaner
We will all go together
Fingers crossed.
Discussion: UK anti-vaxx 'freedom' morons, protests and QAnon idiots
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LDC
On est tous des pangolins
Fucks sake, fuming.
At work today and overheard 2 dental nurses (share an area with them) talking about how covid is all a fake etc etc. Knew it wasn't a good idea but couldn't help myself so interrupted with a jokey, 'Oh talking conspiracy theories?' Got a 'It's not conspiracy, I'm thinking for myself' as a retort from one of them.
Followed up with a heated exchange where they both went on about it being just flu/fake/vaccines killing people/and similar incoherent nonsense. Summary after answering their every point with a correction was 'Well I have my opinions and I'm a free thinker' and I a bit told them it was depressing they worked in healthcare and couldn't tell fact from made-up bollocks. This is fucking depressing, I share a workspace in a medical service with them, and they're giving advice to patients daily.
At work today and overheard 2 dental nurses (share an area with them) talking about how covid is all a fake etc etc. Knew it wasn't a good idea but couldn't help myself so interrupted with a jokey, 'Oh talking conspiracy theories?' Got a 'It's not conspiracy, I'm thinking for myself' as a retort from one of them.
Followed up with a heated exchange where they both went on about it being just flu/fake/vaccines killing people/and similar incoherent nonsense. Summary after answering their every point with a correction was 'Well I have my opinions and I'm a free thinker' and I a bit told them it was depressing they worked in healthcare and couldn't tell fact from made-up bollocks. This is fucking depressing, I share a workspace in a medical service with them, and they're giving advice to patients daily.
Orang Utan
Psychick Worrier Ov Geyoor
You could but what would be the point of it?
Pickman's model
Starry Wisdom
anyone with opinions like that is simply parroting shite they found on the internet and therefore by no means a free thinker.
not to mention how, with everything else governments fuck up, did they manage to cobble together a pandemic like this? if i thought governments could manage this sort of thing then there might be some use in having them as they could - presumably - get more positive things done well too.
BigMoaner
We will all go together
Can you imagine the size of the "our global pandemic plan to enslave our minions" WhatsApp group would be?
existentialist
Tired and unemotional
I think you just did.
Johnny Doe
Well-Known Member
Either thick as pigshit, or ill, sometimes both
mojo pixy
שיר חדש
I've had this kind of thing several times and I'm seriously considering whistleblowing / making a safeguarding issue out of it next time. I've had enough of hearing this shit at work and I'm beginning to think it needs coming down hard on, in a healthcare context.
LDC
On est tous des pangolins
Yeah, it did cross my mind to report it, but I just can't see a good outcome from that. I think work (and people) would just struggle to know how to deal with it. And I see them every week so it'd be horrible. Plus reporting at work would rarely feel justified. It still disturbs me how widespread this stuff is, and makes me feel a bit despairing for a much wider range of stuff than just this. I do wonder if they might have been surprised to be challenged, I heard them muttering. I guess if you live with someone into this or your social circle are tolerant/agreeable to it, and mostly get your news from FB etc. that you could easily have never heard anything else.
The only interesting bit in the discussion was the stuff they came out with about it partly being a money making scam (they were going on about the testing etc.) and how this is a result of a total lack of trust in the government/authority and a complete cynicism in their motives. It's easy to see how this has come about and isn't without some truth to it, it's just that any more coherent political position as to why that might be is completely absent and becomes replaces with easy to pick-up and repeat bollocks conspiracies.
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existentialist
Tired and unemotional
Perhaps something along the lines of "You know, I hope that you're not expressing those views to patients as professionals..." might be sufficient of a warning shot. And it doesn't require an answer, so you can just wave off the justifications.
LDC
On est tous des pangolins
Yeah, I said something like that, and left as they started to edge towards the 'secret cabals of controlling elites' phase. It was that or pick the computer up and throw it at their heads screaming incoherently.
emanymton
A cat politely sat on the flaming gardener.
I think that would have been the best reaction frankly.
High Voltage
In the top 97% of Urban's most interesting posters
Perfectly reasonable response, I'd've thought
Good 'Long Read' about conspiraloons in last Thursday's Guardian.
Some pretty good and interesting insights into how some people get caught up by this shit
Worth a read
Guardian subheadline said:
Some pretty good and interesting insights into how some people get caught up by this shit
Worth a read
And clearly it's conspiraloons week, because Jon Ronson has another article in yesterday's Observer .... I haven't got round to reading it yet, but probably this piece is worth a look as well.
lazythursday
Well-Known Member
One of our local loons-in-chief is standing in the local elections for 'Freedom Alliance - no lockdowns' (a second amusingly tried to run in another ward and attempted to drum up nominators via the local Facebook group and failed miserably).
Anyone come across this grouping? They seem to be focusing on the pseudo-science end of the conspiraloon spectrum and steering away from the more crazy Q-Anon-ish stuff but suspiciously free of any policies beyond freedom from covid rules. Interested in whether they have far right involvement.
Anyone come across this grouping? They seem to be focusing on the pseudo-science end of the conspiraloon spectrum and steering away from the more crazy Q-Anon-ish stuff but suspiciously free of any policies beyond freedom from covid rules. Interested in whether they have far right involvement.
BigMoaner
We will all go together
Its a quick and slippery slope. Many have observed how it can quickly escalate from "its just the flu" to three weeks later "Obama harvests children".
LDC
On est tous des pangolins
I need to develop better ways of dealing with it. I suspect not openly disagreeing so angrily, and then trying to get to the root of why they're unhappy, which I suspect with many of them is anger with the government, loss of work/income, or general cynicism with the 'establishment' or something that's more constructive and understandable than the 'it's just flu/fake/5G vaccine' stuff that's often just the surface level shit they come out with. I think if I'd had a longer time and more patience I think I could have tried that last night. Well, think they'll be no shortage of practice about...
existentialist
Tired and unemotional
One of the firmware bugs which seems to lure people into conspiraloonery is that they often equate any kind of engagement - most definitely including disagreement - with the validity of their theories: "well, there must be something in it if people are getting so angry about me saying it". I have a friend-of-a-friend (no, really), who's all over the conspiraloonery, and I'm trying an experiment with him where, when he starts going on about it, I'm sort of pointedly off-hand. Which has resulted in him starting to say things like "I know you think this is all bonkers nonsense, but..."
As an optimist, I am taking this as an encouraging sign
.
Sasaferrato
Super Refuser!
I must say that my attitude towards the idiots has hardened. It has gone from concern for them, because they have been persuaded that something that is good is something harmful, to 'Oh well, if you die or suffer long term adverse effect, it is your own fucking fault'. Not terribly charitable 
but 'idiot overload' has kicked in.
but 'idiot overload' has kicked in.
Sasaferrato
Super Refuser!
I would report the conversation to their employer. They are perfectly free to hold whatever view they wish. They are not free to express this view to their patients.
What part of three million deaths don't they understand?
cupid_stunt
Chief seagull hater & farmerbarleymow's nemesis.
I must say that my attitude towards the idiots has hardened. It has gone from concern for them, because they have been persuaded that something that is good is something harmful, to 'Oh well, if you die or suffer long term adverse effect, it is your own fucking fault'. Not terribly charitable
You're only about 6 months behind me.
LDC
On est tous des pangolins
I get the hardening attitudes but it's not so simple. There's a variety of reasons people hold this mess of beliefs/ideas, and some of them are much less bonkers than others, and I think separating them out into different categories and then treating them differently is more productive probably, also depending on the context of where and how you encounter them. Like Piers Corbyn and his ilk just need fucking shooting, whereas Bob Fucknuts who's lost his job and is angry and is ranting about lockdowns being wrong needs a more sympathetic approach.
Sasaferrato
Super Refuser!
I did persuade one neighbour to have the vaccine. The fact that I had had it, and also she knows my background, swung it. She has asthma and COPD.
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