So I felt like its time for this thread.
As a disclaimer . Im black , bisexual and schizophrenic
I got a bunch of friends and acquaintances. One of them…lets call him Jack.(he is white)… and me get along well enough. We only know each other online, dont even remember how we met tbh, but we go back like I think I’ve known him since 2016 or 2017 or something like that.
I know what he looks like and which state he lives in, but thats pretty much it.
Anyway, Jack and me talk almost daily, mostly about anime and gaming. He lives with his grandparents who he takes care of, has a cat he really seems to love. Also smokes a ton of weed, like daily I think. He’s older than me and I like him (platonically, as a buddy obviously).
Here’s the thing tho. He’s American. Yes, really XD
Not saying all Americans are bad or whatever, but I’m almost sure Jack’s got brainworms. Like, a lot.
Not saying hes a fascist or something. If I had to guess I’d say he’s some weird libertarian type? Like he’s said before he doesn’t like Trump and once talked about how fucked up stuff is for Black people in the US. But he’s also not into liberal politics (probably for bad reasons) and super sceptical of mainstream media… which ok, fair.
But like how the fuck do I even talk to someone like that in good faith? How do you try and push them into a healthier direction.
I’m not tryna turn him into a theory reading communist or whatever, but the lil bit of politics I have picked up from our convos seemed very conspiracy brained. It would probably be easier if he was just like, an MSNBC lib lmao.
Any input and tips welcome. I will say our daily chats help me generally speaking. It helps me with my schizophrenia to have someone to talk to on a basically daily basis. I have other friends (some which have much better politics) but they are usually pretty busy and not always available.
If possible I dont want to cut him out of my life.
One last thing. Jack does seem to think highly of me and probably values our relationship quite a bit
A lot of otherwise normal people who seem conspiracy brained are just looking for an explanation for why the world is so fucked up and have been lied to by everyone who they are supposed to trust to teach them. Just being a person that they know is actually going to be honest with them about what’s happening in the world may be all you need to be.
I’ve had some success appealing to people who are into conspiracies with the real stuff the feds have done. Anti-communist propaganda campaigns and stuff like Radio Free Asia can be good topics to ease them in.
Sometimes you can just get them talking about how they don’t trust the US govt and how anything the govt seems to want turns out bad. So maybe the things governments don’t want are actually good? Why is the US so opposed to communism? This line of thinking won’t always work, but a thoughtful person will consider these questions and if they already hate (or at least don’t trust) the US government in general…well, the most straightforward conclusion is that communism is a good thing.
This way, the person doesn’t have to understand communism at all to understand that the US opposes it for selfish reasons (everything they do is selfish)
I was basically coming here to say this. My best results with the casual-to-moderately conspiracy-brained have been with giving them real, healthier conspiracies to chew on.
Why is the US so opposed to communism?
"Do you trust the government about (insert whatever thing here)? Me neither, so why should I trust the biggest bunch of liars on earth about the thing they’re most scared of?’
Treat entryism. Hit him with Blowback eps like the one on JFK, Citations Needed eps like the ones on Bill Gates, and The Dollop eps like The Newport Sex Scandal, On a judge, The Soup Anarchist. Eventually hit him with Yellow Parenti.
Jack sounds fine.
What level of conspiracy brained are we talking here? Like “clouds aren’t real, they pipe those in at night” level or “a conspiracy killed JFK” level
Nothing on the level of flatearth but I forgot to say that Jack is some degree of antivaxx . Which yeah isnt great
I’m not gonna respond directly to the person who suggested that you sprinkle a bunch of statistics around and drop hints about how you’re going to get vaccinated because I don’t want to get into a fight with them and this thread is about how you navigate interactions with your friend.
I do want to inoculate (lol) you against following that advice though.
Your friends know you and can tell when you’re trying to convince them of something. Don’t torpedo a friendship that’s important to you.
I’m making a big assumption here, but I bet your buddy isn’t stupid and knows how to recognize hint dropping too. It’s likely he’s encountered people who use that as a way to try to influence him and sees the technique as passive aggression. Don’t get mind freaked into passive aggressively pushing your friend to get vaccinated by an Internet forum.
If it does come up, the flu vaccine is the old kind of vaccine that uses crushed up flu virus powder to show your immune systems nose how to party right, just like cowpox, not the covid kind that injects ai deep learning genetically engineered nanomachines into your blood to deepfake your body out of getting infected.
There are also single dose vials of the flu vaccine that don’t use thimeresol (sp?) so if he doesn’t wanna get injected with t-1000 loads that’s an option.
Just keep being yourself and if you talk to your buddy about vaccines then be open to what he’s saying and listen to him with the same respect you’d want to get. Don’t try to change his mind, just listen and try to understand, go research what he says and next time it comes up talk about what you learned in between chats. The worst case scenario is he recognizes you’re trying to live safely just like him.
It’s okay to have weird friends. As you age they’re all gonna wander off the main sequence.
The advice I’m giving you is coming from de-flat earthing some family members. I didnt have any success until I stopped trying to reject their premises outright and instead started testing them with experiments.
If you haven’t read the grapes of wrath, now’s probably a good time.
Don’t sweat antivax stuff. No one has a good experience with the medical system and we all watched our various government institutions lie to us top down about everything under the sun during COVID.
Anyone would come out of that a little cracked.
I’ll second this, but add that taking care of grandparents and being anti-vax is… not a great mix. Maybe next flu season, just mention that “Can’t call on ____day, I’m going in to get my shot,” and have a few
studiesstatistics on flu mortality among older people on hand for if he pushes back on it.edit: snappy, memorable statistics will get you further than just linking a research paper, although it doesn’t hurt to have if asked for it. Bonus points if you use data local to wherever you are, rather than the US or Europe. Really play up that lived experience, if you’re comfortable with it.
