My big fear about the anti vax stuff online

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blythburgh
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My big fear about the anti vax stuff online

Post by blythburgh » Wed Dec 29 2021 10:56am

My sister in law,, her husband and daughter have always been Labour supporters. Not activists but middle of the road Labour people. SinL's only complaint about her future son in law was that "he votes Conservative".

Daughter started getting into alternative medicine quite a few years ago. Got deeper into it and now rejects all "medical" drugs.

SinL seems to think her daughter is the fount of all knowledge and never questions her views. The husbands tend to think what they are told, or at least never disagree with them even if in their minds they might be wondering if the statements are correct or not.

Met up once and SinL goes on about how vaccines are deliberately used to poison us and she would never have the flu jab etc. I made my views plain, I now wear two hearing aids, I have known people extremely death or nearly blind without glasses because we were born when there was no vaccine against measles. No reply but a sniff and a look of "you poor brainwashed fool".

Then came covid. It is all made up, the figures are lies, they are just trying to control us, we will not wear masks which are useless.

Now SinL who has never said anything in the least racist tells me she is fed up with the Black Lives Matter movement and that should be dropped. And she is fed up with the way Gay rights are being constantly pushed at us.

Odd she knows this as she became so violently anti the BBC and how dare they force us to pay a TV licence they eventually stopped paying it and now only watch the "excellent and far better than the BBC, Netflix". Stopped listening to the radio, the news used to be about all sorts of different things now it is all "one thing" meaning the covid "lies". And she did not get her newspaper this week because they get the Eastern Daily Press on a Saturday and Christmas Day meant it was not on sale. A very good newspaper but it is about Norfolk and North Suffolk with very little national or international news in it.

The problem is this is one family out of many who are being fed only lies and distortions and far right wing ideology. I worry about democracy in this country more than I ever have

She also said she was shocked to find an archaeological dig prior to a new road on the edge of her village. So much for knowing even local news.

She is coming out with more and more far right wing statements like "I refuse to give to food banks as the anyone can go and get stuff they can easily afford to buy". When I tried to explain how food banks work she looked as me as if I was a moron who had no idea of the reality.

Can she afford to buy a TV licence and donate to a food bank? Yes, she gets a state pension and a John Lewis pension. Her husband has three works pension and has to pay income tax. Others are working full time, do not earn enough to pay income tax and at times have to rely on a food bank or other charity.

This decent left of centre politically has become a far right person who only gets her news via the daughter who only gets her news from the conspiracy theory websites and forums she goes to online.
Keep smiling because the light at the end of someone's tunnel may be you, Ron Cheneler

pakefield
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Re: My big fear about the anti vax stuff online

Post by pakefield » Wed Dec 29 2021 11:44am

When I speak to my sister I make it plain she knows my views and change the subject. But do worry how she and my niece have changed in more recent years

Chadwick
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Re: My big fear about the anti vax stuff online

Post by Chadwick » Wed Dec 29 2021 3:28pm

blythburgh wrote:
Wed Dec 29 2021 10:56am
"I refuse to give to food banks as the anyone can go and get stuff they can easily afford to buy".
This is one of the more bizarre non seciturs you come across in the murky areas of the Daily Mail (and other) comments sections.

"I want to help our homeless veterans"
- you could donate to a food bank.
"No, because I might be helping other people as well. I'd rather there was too much suffering than too much help"

Or more recently, the astounding responses to a RNLI fundraiser on the anniversary of the Penlee disaster. People were actually proudly posting that they would not contribute or would even stop their previously regular donations because the RNLI was saving the wrong kind of people. They would rather risk the lives of the 'right' people than see a single 'wrong' person rescued by mistake.


It's the same mentality that thinks we lose more money through benefit fraud/mistakes than we do through corporate tax avoidance schemes. They'd rather punch down than upwards.
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pakefield
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Re: My big fear about the anti vax stuff online

Post by pakefield » Thu Dec 30 2021 11:48am

My sister always voted Labour and was never the sort to say "I am not racist/homophobic but ..." now she is coming out with statements verging on racism and homophobia. So many hard right wing statements from someone who has always been mainstream Labour. Left of Blair and right of Corbyn but not any longer no matter what way she votes is she Labour. And all because of the rabbit hole my niece has disappeared down and got her husband and parents to agree with. Well her Mother certainly and the men agree for a quiet life even if they do have doubts about her utterances

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Re: My big fear about the anti vax stuff online

Post by Sarah » Thu Dec 30 2021 12:02pm

You could do worse than suggest they watch this years Royal Institution Christmas Lectures to educate themselves about viruses, but that would require 3 hours. Here tin foil hat & flat earth debunker SciManDan presents the truth about COVID vaccines in just 10 minutes:

https://youtu.be/_A-Mj1H80p4

There's unfortunately no easy way to get through to the brainwashed and the government have no real interest in breaking the far right spell that has captured so many millions of UK voters; it suits their agenda perfectly well.
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Re: My big fear about the anti vax stuff online

Post by macliam » Sun Jan 02 2022 12:10pm

The world has become a strange place where experts are partisan, information is political and ignorance is celebrated.

Along with other happenings, it makes me think of events preceding the fall of the Roman Empire, according to Gibbon.

The problem there is...... it seems to suggest the survivalists are right, but for all the wrong reasons!!
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Just because I'm paranoid, it doesn't mean they're not out to get me

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